The Horror Genre

Learning Intentions Know: Learn the codes and conventions of the Horror genre. Do: Watch a video and use pictures as a stimulus for creating a horror performance Be: Be prepared to take on various roles and perform to an audience

The Horror Genre What horror films do you know about or have heard of? Do they have common elements?

The Horror Genre - An attempt to make the audience experience fright, fear or disgust. - Narratives often involve an evil force, event or supernatural character. - Settings are usually in small town America, in quiet neighbourhoods and in woods. - Shadows and darkness play an important part. -The colour red is often symbolic.

Horror through the ages Horror is a long running genre. Why? It has produced a savvy audience who aren’t easily frightened. Directors need to come up with a new angle or use comedy. Can you think of any films that have done this successfully?

Evolution of Horror

History of Horror 1890s-George Melies’ ‘Monster Movies’ 1922-German Vampire Flick. 1930s-Gothic Horror from Universal Studio (Frankenstein, Dracula). 1950-Alien Invasions (Body Snatchers, Thing from another World). 1960s-Hammer Films

History of Horror-1960-1970s Late 1960s-Psychological Horror from Hitchcock (Psycho). Michael Powell’s ‘Peeping Tom’. Late 60’s-70s-Occult horror (Rosemary’s Baby, Exorcist)-Walking Dead (Romero’s 1968 ‘Night of the Living Dead’. 1970s-Gore fests such as Carpenter’s ‘Last House on the Left’, Tobe Hooper’s ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’

History of Horror-Late 70s/80s 1978-Carpenter’s tension filled Halloween. Romero’s Zombie’s continued to shuffle along in ‘Dawn of the Dead’ and the ‘Day of the Dead’

History of Horror-1990s Post-modern, self aware horror from Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson (Scream Trilogy) 1999-Blair Witch mockumentary. Japanese Horror floods the market with ‘Ringu’, ‘Ju-On’ (The Grudge)

History of Horror-2000+ American remakes of Japanese Horror (Ring, Grudge, Dark Waters) Revisiting of old villains in a new guise (Freddy V Jason, Halloween H2O, Alien V Predator).

What makes a good still image? Use of levels Use of space Stillness Tension Facial expressions Body language Stance

What makes a good horror story? What is tension? What is climax?

Responding to the pictures Who would be there? What would they be doing there? How long have they been there? What are they looking for? What is so frightening? What might happen to them when they get there?

Horror Performance Task In groups of 4, write ideas for a piece of drama based on each of the three pictures. Select the best idea, the one that has the most potential for an interesting piece of drama, one that has the most tension and opportunity for a big climax. Use that idea to create a series of still images (between 5 and 10 images) and tell your story. Once the students have created these add movement/mime between the images. Perform these to music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMTrVgpDwPk&index=18&list=PL79xRFBJEeEJbPvDpCQWXBPFCOf5jQcOC