Horror Theory
We have researched many different horror theories from different theorists, many of the theories we discovered gave us ideas that we have incorporated into our final completed work.
The first theory was devised by Wheeler Winston Dixon in 1994. Wheeler Winston Dixon believes that men and women can be sites of activity within a horror movie. A site of activity is usually the character or characters we see in an opening sequence. The audience don’t get to know the character, they are not given names or personalities and the audience are not given enough time to get attached to them as they will usually become the first victim within the movie.
We also researched a theory by cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, Kaminski states that there should be no weapons that don’t suggest the killer’s personal pleasure in the killing like a gun for example. Guns should only ever be used as weapon of self-defence by the victim and in some way should not be effective or work. Kaminski believed that weapons should be a “personal extension” of the killer representing who they are and why they kill. A good example of a personal extension is a knife as the killer has to be close to the victim and he then has a physical action of actually killing his victim personally.
The final theorist we researched was Wes Craven, Craven has a very different approach in horror films; he thinks that the terrifying events happen in the safest places, such as your own home or a hospital. It adds to the fear of horror if the events happen in the places that you most expect to feel protected, which is ironic as it gives the impression that you are never safe. Even though these places are supposed to be stereotypical safe places, he thinks that they should be in secluded places as it would be too obvious is busy places.
The first theory was devised by Wheeler Winston Dixon in 1994. Wheeler Winston Dixon believes that men and women can be sites of activity within a horror movie. A site of activity is usually the character or characters we see in an opening sequence. The audience don’t get to know the character, they are not given names or personalities and the audience are not given enough time to get attached to them as they will usually become the first victim within the movie.
We also researched a theory by cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, Kaminski states that there should be no weapons that don’t suggest the killer’s personal pleasure in the killing like a gun for example. Guns should only ever be used as weapon of self-defence by the victim and in some way should not be effective or work. Kaminski believed that weapons should be a “personal extension” of the killer representing who they are and why they kill. A good example of a personal extension is a knife as the killer has to be close to the victim and he then has a physical action of actually killing his victim personally.
The final theorist we researched was Wes Craven, Craven has a very different approach in horror films; he thinks that the terrifying events happen in the safest places, such as your own home or a hospital. It adds to the fear of horror if the events happen in the places that you most expect to feel protected, which is ironic as it gives the impression that you are never safe. Even though these places are supposed to be stereotypical safe places, he thinks that they should be in secluded places as it would be too obvious is busy places.