In ancient times, people had to protect themselves from bad weather, animals and their relatives. Limited resources and habitable land forced us to be always on the alert and to fight with other tribes. Evolution has created in us a mechanism that signals the fear necessary for survival, the nature of which we never tire of discovering today.
The thought of danger mobilizes some people, forcing the brain to predict events, while others, on the contrary, are confused. Today, the struggle between species continues, but its facade has become more elegant. We no longer need to run away from a terrible monster, we even play games and watch horror movies with pleasure.
We are willing to do anything to find those powerful emotions that make our skin crawl. But why do some horror movies evoke fear and disgust, while others cause laughter, numbness, and even aesthetic pleasure?
To avoid getting lost in the corners, we have compiled a guide to the horror genre in cinema.
Breaker
A masked killer maniac pursues the victim with a knife in his hand – this is how you can briefly describe the essence of this horror movie category. The name itself comes from the word slash, which means “chopping” or “shoulder blow”. How do you know if you are watching a slasher movie? A significant difference from other genres is that the murders themselves are an element of attraction and do not carry a deeper meaning. So, the “Halloween” or “Scream” series of films are slashers, but Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”, where Jack Nicholson’s hero goes crazy and then goes after his wife and son with an ax in his hand, belongs to the next subgenre – psychological horror.
Psychological fear
There are also killers who pierce and cut objects, but the plot itself is not intended to scare, but to reveal the deep motives of the criminal and his victim. For example, in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, the main character Norman Bates commits a series of brutal crimes, but as the plot develops, we realize that the maniac suffers from a personality disorder and that he himself may have been a victim of abuse by his mother as a child. It is no coincidence that he commits murders disguised as a woman. Despite the fact that one of the most memorable scenes is the killing of a girl with a knife in the shower, the camera focuses on the victim’s frightened face and drops of blood, and not on the action itself, which is deliberately enjoyed in slasher films.
Income
Alfred Hitchcock is generally called the master of suspense. Like no one else, he knew how to create fear without resorting to scary scenes. On the contrary, in most of his films, the characters look like ordinary, even nice people, and houses and streets are deliberately shot brightly and colorfully. However, while watching, you can’t help but feel uncomfortable because of unusual details. For example, in “The Birds” the birds look into the souls of the heroes, seem to disturb them, and only then we see how they gather in crowds and attack. It is the strangeness of the situation that creates the tense atmosphere. David Lynch shoots in the same way. The Twin Peaks series or the Blue Velvet film show comfortable houses, but when the camera is turned off, the viewer sees worms crawling under the green grass, which makes us understand that terrible secrets are hidden behind the facade of the American dream. In other words, suspense is a film that keeps the viewer in anxious anticipation. Moreover, there may not be any bloody scenes.
splash
But in splatter films, realistic displays of violence and mutilation are just as important a component as in slasher films. The name itself means “splatter,” and refers specifically to blood. For example, in George Romero’s Dawn of the Living Dead, 80% of the screen time is taken up with severed limbs and gore. The subgenre emerged in the 2000s and has since evolved into the category of torture porn, or “torture porn,” which involves films in which a maniac kidnaps and tortures victims. A striking example of the genre is the musical splatter “Ripo! The Genetic Opera,” as well as “Saw,” “The Hills Have Eyes,” and “Hellraiser.”
Zombie apocalypse
The film series “Resident Evil”, “28 Days Later”, “Night of the Living Dead” are considered classics of the genre. As a rule, the dead come back to life as a result of an unsuccessful scientific experiment. A characteristic feature is the attack of the crowd of the dead.
Biopunk
An example of biopunk is Vincenzo Natali’s Chimera, in which a pair of bioengineering scientists experiment with combining the DNA of different animals and birds. One day, the protagonists decide to create a genetic hybrid with human genes that could help cure many diseases, but the experiment ends up creating a mutant. Biopunk elements are also found in other genres, such as the dystopian “Gattaca”, where the main character lives in a society where eugenics has triumphed.
Body Horror
Body horror partly originated in genres such as cyberpunk and biopunk: in the first, the conflict is tied to the relationship between man and technology, in the second, to the ethics of laboratory experiments aimed at creating a superman through genetic engineering. In both cases, we are talking about body modifications, which are primarily associated with a person’s desire to improve his appearance by changing DNA or inserting prosthetic implants. But the experiments are not always successful – this is exactly what body horror, in which the hero accidentally or deliberately changes the shape of his body, demonstrates. The peculiarity of this genre is to enjoy shots with unpleasant moments: rotting limbs, leaking mucus, loss of hair, nails or teeth. David Cronenberg, the Canadian director of “The Fly” and “Existenza,” was especially successful in the art of “mutilation” in front of the camera. Elements of this genre can be found in Titan by Julia Ducournau, where the main character, after having sex with a car, learns that she is pregnant, and her body begins to transform, up to nuts and leaking engine oil.
Found movie
Found footage films, as the name suggests, use documentary filming techniques to create the illusion of reality. This can be a home video (“Paranormal Activity”) or a randomly found footage film (“The Blair Witch Project: Lessons from the Other World”, “G/L/O”). Interview or first-person shooting is also often used, as in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit and The Report (2007). The image quality in such films is intentionally blurry, with noise and glitches. Many scenes are shot with a handheld camera to create a sense of involvement. Thanks to realism, any random shadow in the frame can scare more than the most effective slasher film.
Screen life horror
The action in Screenlife horror takes place on the screen of a smartphone or computer. For example, in the film “Astral. Online” (2020), a group of friends in quarantine hold a seance via Zoom and enter our paranormal world during it. Murder Online (2021) also takes place during the coronavirus pandemic, when the characters organize a Zoom party that ends in death.
Black humor
Black comedy parodies all the famous techniques of horror films. For example, in The Addams Family the theme of death is exploited: the main characters, children Wednesday and Pugsley, amuse themselves by shooting each other with bows or frying in the electric chair. “Scary Movie” completely mocked all the clichés of slasher films.
People’s fear
Folk horror narratives typically deal with the conflict between civilization and traditional cultures. Typically, the urban hero arrives in a forested area, as in the films “The Witch” and “The Apostle”, where he encounters mythical creatures or a strange cult. It is worth mentioning that Ari Aster’s “Midsommar” revived interest in the genre thanks to unusual techniques; for example, the action takes place during the day, the film is full of vivid details, and the main character consciously decides to stay in a pagan cult rather than return to the city.
Survival and hidden horror
Initially, the survival horror genre was developed in games where the main goal of the character is to survive. Most often, it is accompanied by the suffix “stealth”, which in translation from English means “stealth” and “invisibility”. In such stories, the player’s goal is simply to survive. An example of this is the film adaptation of the cult game series Silent Hill.
Giallo
What happens when you combine a thriller, a slasher and an erotic film? We answer: Italian giallo. Films of this genre amaze with their aesthetics. They seem to compete with each other in the brilliance and beauty of the murder scenes. They are not so much scary as fascinating. For example, such films include Dario Argento’s “Suspiria” and “The Bird with the Crystal Plumage”, “The Eyes of Laura Mars” with Faye Dunaway. Giallos usually begin as a detective story in which the killer is not known. Characteristic features include first-person shooting, voyeurism, the villain’s face almost hidden behind a mask, and a gloved hand visible in the frame.
Gothic
It has absorbed elements of genres such as Gothic, noir, fantasy, and German expressionism. Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak, Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula, and Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow share common characteristics. The plot usually involves romance, or rather the love of the predator (the cursed prince) and the victim. The main villain is usually shrouded in mystery, and while the main character is trying to lift the curse, the heroine cannot decide her feelings for them.
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Source: People Talk
Errol Villanueva is an author and lifestyle journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a passion for exploring the latest trends in fashion, food, travel, and wellness, Errol’s articles are a must-read for anyone interested in living a stylish and fulfilling life.
