Horror films

Horror films are designed to scare and shock us. They pray on people’s deepest, darkest fears and bring them to life on screen. They use suspense and keep us waiting for something, anything to happen. And when that something finally does happen, the anticipation and dread we felt turns into fear and it makes us jump. Many modern horror films tell the story of something happening in the past, which takes the audience back with them and they see the rickety old houses with blank faced dolls and old children’s toys. These expressionless toys have been the basis of many horror stories through the years, people would say that they had been possessed by spirits or demons and forced their children to do evil things. In ‘The Woman in Black’ (2012) the toys are used to indicate that the spirit is in the room. A symbol playing monkey will start to jump and crash on its own, or the stuffed toys will fall off of shelves and the mobile about the cot will start to turn. Whilst watching the film, you see these things happening and automatically begin to feel the anxiety of waiting for the figure of a woman dressed in black to appear.

Horror films can also pray on the fear many people have of what effects mental illness and traumatic events can have upon a person. In the film ‘House at the End of the Street’ (2012) the loss of his sister causes a young man’s mind to become warped. He prays on girls who have a similar aesthetic to his late sister - the same hair and eye colour, the same build - and after making them trust him, he would drug and kidnap them so that he could replace the sister that he lost and try to fill the void in his life. Films like this feel more real to the audience than those dealing with ghosts or spirits as there is some sense of reality to it which makes it all the more frightening as it makes us suddenly aware that not only could it happen to us, there is a small chance it could be happening in the world already.

Films that deal with ‘spirits’ and ‘demons’ can be equally as frightening as these more realistic films. The film ‘Paranormal Activity’ (2007) shows a demon that has attached itself to a woman for the majority of her life. The movie was filmed as if it were a home video, one of the characters has a camera and we see only what the single camera picks up. We do not see a lot of what happens, but we hear it. Hearing the sounds of what is going on builds up the suspense to finding out what is actually happening. The sudden noises and crashes coming from other places in their house makes the audience jump and because we cannot see what is going on, we are frightened for these characters, it makes the film seem real.

The idea of any of these supernatural or paranormal occurrences actually happening is a thought that terrifies many people, which is why the filming style of ‘Paranormal activity’ is so effective. But what is even more fear inducing than that is a single sentence at the start of a film that no one ever wants to see: ‘Based on a true story’. ‘An American Haunting’ (2005) is the film adaption of one of the most well-known ghost stories you will hear, The Bell haunting. As soon as we see that these events actually happened, we already feel nervous as this shows us that these events have happened in the past and could therefore still happen now. Another film that includes those dreaded words is ‘The Conjuring’ (2013). As with most films that I consider to be better horror films, this film contains a lot of jump scares and less blood and gore. One scene in particular in ‘The Conjuring’ managed to frighten me more than most. In the girls’ bedroom, something appears suddenly on the top of their wardrobe and jumps down to attack them. I think this scene is so successfully scary because before this happens, we are lulled into a false sense of security. We think that nothing else will happen in the scene as there is nothing to tell us otherwise, then all of a sudden something appears and we see a close up shot of something jumping down onto one of the girls along with a scream. The sudden moves of this scene make it scarier and made it successful in scaring me.