Codes and Conventions of horror

Horror films are made to:

• Frighten & panic
• Cause dread &alarm
• Evoke our hidden worst fears
• Captivate & entertain us in a liberating experience
•  Often conclude in a terrifying shocking finale 

Setting

• Small communities or isolated places.
• Urban environments
• Dark streets
• Narrow alleyways
• Anything that connote isolation or being alone. Often, sometimes places with ‘dark’ history, like abandoned houses, hotels and insane asylums.
  
  

Locations for any good horror genre film could be:

• Abandoned houses
• Barnes and farms
• Cities
• Cabins
• Creepy hotels
• Graveyards
• Pirate ships
• Basements 
• Hunting places 

Characters 

• The main protagonist, often the ‘victim/hero’ of the movie.        
• The villain, often a monster, mutated freak, alien or serial killer – tend to have a trademark characteristic as to how they kill (e.g. weapons and who they kill)
• The stupid/immoral teenagers that always get killed
• Creepy children
• Police officers (either good or bad)
• Many others: Ghosts, zombies, demons, psychopath, stalker, weirdo, werewolf, cheerleader 

Themes 

• Good vs Evil
•  Depression
•  Religion
•  Childhood issues
•  Revenge
•  Supernatural
•  Beyond death
•  Science gone bad
•  Zombie Apocalypse 
•  Nightmares
•  Madness
•  Insanity
•  Lust
•  Envy
•  Suicide
•  'self-consciousness’ – making you question what is real and not.