RS: Conventions of Horror and Thriller

Batman (Burton 1989)

Thriller

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (Liebesman 2006)

Horror

Both thriller and horror film openings have a dark, gloomy theme to them.
They both have a slow cutting rate creating tension. The mysterious mood grabs the attention of the audience.
The two present the binary oposition of good vs evil.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (Liebesman 2006) clip has a much darker evil mood, the non digetic sound that is used is dismembered and creates a psychopathic atmosphere.
The Batman (burton 1989) clip has orchestrial music which creates a heroic, determined feel to the clip which reinforces the hero theme of the film.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (Liebesman 2006) clip includes many dirty, horrible looking instruments, rooms and body parts which represent the inhumane, disturbed lifestyle of the evil character in the film.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (Liebesman 2006) clip also includes many dead animals implying the theme of death will be present throughout the film.
Common subgenres are psychological thrillers, crime thrillers and mystery thrillers. Where as horror involves the Monster scare, psychological thrillers and slasher.

Horror and thriller films share the common conventions of the following:

Uses and Gratifications (active audiences) theory can apply.

Slow pace of Editing, builds tension. Long takes

Predictable narrative content (follows format)

Clear binary oppositions e.g. good v evil

Use of low key lighting

Dominant, hegemomic representation of gender: The Female Victim

Extensive use of close up

Incidental non-diegetic sound

Distorted diegetic sound

Extensive use of narrative off-screen space

Young/teenage characters

Use of hand-held camera: audience identification/realism

Both are villain driven plots

Stimulate the viewer's moods giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and/or terror.

Point of view shots

Low angle shots

Group 5 - Foundation Production