The Realist Aesthetics Adopted By The Verite Horror Subgenre

The movie industry has been developing fast recent years. Due to the improvement of technology, movies are becoming much more widespread nowadays, and especially for the horror movies. Movie directors are able to pursue as many special effects as they can to create a horror atmosphere, which makes those movie plots more eye-catching for the audiences. Honestly, I am not a fan of horror movies. I am not scared of it, I just feel a little bored about it, and I am also confused why people still want to see those movies if they feel paranoid after watching it. However, after reading two articles in Monsters, I come to realize the meaning of creation of horror movies, which is not only for fun, but also a review of our real life. Those ideas indicated by Chuck Klosterman and Stephen King are kind of similar, yet differently inherent.

This open letter is directed at the directors of Horror films. This letter will discus the over used gimmicks and the lack of creativity on their part. It will be written in a conversational way with the use of pathos of how these movies are faulty with a touch of humor, and rhetorical questions to emphasize certain points of my discussion of this topic. I will also use ethos through my time as a film fanatic who is passionate on all that is film especially horror film which is my favorite film genre, and is the largest genre with so many subgenres within it that have the ability to use so much imagination. I have crafted this conversation to be directed towards the directors of horror films with the use of film lingo that is used for this genre, movie examples they should look at, and a deep analysis of what and how this problem cause movie of today to lack in appeal.

This gives the audience a full picture of exactly what's happening as well as giving the film variety so it doesn't become boring. Hand held video shots have also become increasingly popular after the movie ‘The Blair Witch Project’. Most common in the ‘Paranormal Activity’ series, the handheld camera gives the film better point of view shots similar to what you would see in real life if the same instance was to occur. This then also creates tension as you are only able to see what the camera is focusing on not what maybe be lurking out of shot that would normally be viewed in any other filming convention. Tension can also be created as fear is often shown due to frantic camera shaking during a climactic scene in which the protagonist fears his or her life, increasing the suspense for the audience. Cinematography plays a huge part within a film as gives certain messages within the shot type whether it quick editing, close ups, long shots, or handheld action all of these techniques give the film it’s alarming scare. Music and sound conventions offer the film a range of unsettling and creepy tones from creaking doors that imply a unseeable supernatural presence to whispering from right beside the

Vision and the act of looking is an important and recurring theme in many horror films. In early gothic literature, such as in Guy de Maupassant 's Le Horla, the author presents vision as definitive and universal proof and stresses the importance of seeing as well as the act of showing gore. As a society, we are routinely told ‘seeing is believing ' in the wake of any paranormal or supernatural phenomena, placing weight on the tangible. However, as science and technology have progressed the faithfulness of visual representation is increasingly throw into question, which in turn has led to societal anxiety. A few years earlier, video footage of an event rarely had its validity questions, whereas now it is easy

Since it’s infancy at the beginning of the eighteenth century, horror has followed certain conventions that results in an awakening of the senses, evoking intense emotions of fear and terror in the audience. Horror feeds off triggering the primal fears embedded within all of humankind, creating a sense of menace that is the very substance of this genre. Furthermore, the central menace of a piece tends to enlighten the human mind to the world of the paranormal and the enigmatic, dark side of the unknown. The movie “Psycho” directed by Alfred Hitchcock is a perfect example. Infamous for its shower scene, but immortal for its contribution to the horror genre, “Psycho” was filmed with great tact, grace and art in regards to horror conventions.

Many horror films provide their audiences with scares and screams.  Not many viewers follow what kind of model the films follow to appease their viewers.  However, after reading film theorist Carol Clover’s essay, watching one of the films she associates in the novel “Halloween”, and also watching the movie “Nightmare on Elm Street” I say almost every “slasher” or horror film follows a model similar to Clover’s.  The model that is a female is featured as a primary character and that the female tends to always overcome a situation at some point throughout the film to become victorious.

The arguments presented in this book are clear and organized in a logical manner. Among the different writers whose works are featured in the book, they offer different examples to explore the genre of horror films from different perspectives. The writers also attempt to explain the how modern day horror film are related to certain themes of blood and gore, and the relationships between pornography and horror film among other things.

Horror can be defined as a genre meant to psychologically trigger individual fear with the presence of certain supernatural or abstract characteristics. The genre is dependent on people’s fascination with unrealism and the sensation that comes from experiencing fear personified into tangible elements on a screen. Horror films have thrilled audiences for decades, revealing stories of the more sinister parts of life. The popular allure that stems from the genre comes from the tension moviegoers experience when aroused by specific stimuli uniquely present in these cinematic features (Walters). Over time, as the genre progressed, the standardized elements found in a typical horror movie began to shift in different directions primarily due to changing societal circumstances and increasing consumer demand for cinematic innovation. The expansive nature of the different codes and conventions within the horror genre, coupled with the evolution of society’s fascination with these characteristics, has led to the mutation of the genre itself in order to allow for unique approaches to a familiar style in response to both economic developments and taste shifts within the consumer industry.

The horror genre has held a prominent position in culture for most of history. Beginning in folklore, used as a device to scare children into good behaviors (e.g. The Grimm Brother’s Fairy Tales), horror has integrated its way into the 21st century through film, and in recent years even video games. Yearly, primarily during the fall when the leaves start to brown and the natural eerie sense of fear fills the air around Halloween, the film industry likes to fill in the holes between its major grossing seasons by filling the audience with fear. However, it was Christmas of 1973 that defined the new age of Horror, when William Friedkin released The Exorcist. According to Julia Heimerdinger of Academia’s online journal, Horror, as a whole, can

In this article, King provided clear, locally related analogies to why we crave horror movies and portrayed credibility. He used ethos to attract with the reader throughout the article. King compares talking to ourselves and squinching our faces to being “mentally ill.” He uses this analogy to get a connection from the audience because every human being has a fear and/or phobia. He compares being fear of something to being mentally ill to create critical thinking.

A stimulating long-form look at how horror films imitate the fears and anxieties society won't discuss, "The Monster Show" is likely to resonate most with this category fans. Author David J. Skal certainly takes some liberties

Popular Culture Pop culture plays an important role in today’s society; from the TV shows we follow to the sport teams we support, or from the books that we’ve been reading over and over again to the favorite celebrities that we follow every day. Though it doesn’t seem like these aspects of our life matter, but each can have an impact on the way we think and act. Pop culture has played both a role in shaping our country’s history and influencing the thoughts and actions of teenagers today. One of interesting aspects of popular culture is the focus in horror movies which is a very visceral genre that some people are so curious and find it very interesting. In Stephen King’s essay “Why We Cave Horror Movies”, he talked about the ideas

Vertigo (1958), directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is an American psychological thriller film that communicates ideas, themes and issues through the use of its visual style. The visual stylistic choices enable the exploration of madness, scopophilia and feminist film theory within the film. This paper will critically analyse how this is realised mainly through the use of “the Vertigo effect”, spirals as a motif, the male gaze and colour. The theme of madness is a centerpiece to the film.

Codependency over the World Wide Web is deeply engrossed to society as modern technology inclines and enraptures more into our daily life. Not to mention the horror cinematography aficionados’ community I form part of. Social media is an essential means of communication for different people to communicate and associate through similar interests. Portrayal of negative emotions, manifestation of the uncanny and fictitious illusion are all integrated into horror as the horror community express their insight and experiences through these media. The horror genre doesn’t only consist of scares and thrills, through this paper I will explain the genre beyond its explicit connotation, its goals within the community, the means use to interconnect, and

[Intro sentence] These film makers are called auteurs, the French word for ‘author’. This is exactly how the French film theorist first described these film makers during the French New Wave of the 1950’s. They saw, that much like a writer, an auteur controlled may aspects of the film and they gave it just as much character as its screenplay did. Well known auteurs include Tim Burton, for his re-use of Johnny Depp and ghoulish themes as well as Alfred Hitchcock, coined ‘the master of suspense’ for his array of plot twists within his films. This video essay will cover another great auteur, Wes Craven, whose work on films such as “The Hills have Eyes (1977)”, “Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)” and “The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)”, is a legacy in the horror genre today.