Genre Conventions: Storylines

The sub-genre of our film is Psychological Horror this is because it is based upon more paranormal aspects such as spirits and possession.

Stereotypical Storylines for Psychological Horror

Psychological Horror is one of many sub-genres of horror. In many cases, this genre overlaps with the psychological thriller sub-genre purely because it is more realistic and focused on everyday life. Most Psychological Horror films focus on mental conflict. Whilst typical horror films focus more on fantastical situations such as attacks by monsters and deformed creatures; psychological horror focuses more on artistic realism and tends to keep the monsters hidden.
This genre differentiates from the other sub-genres of horror as it is more likely to occur in real life. In typical horror films the source of fear is usually derived from something physical such as monsters as well as slasher films which scares it's audience from the use or graphic violence and gore. Whereas psychological horror builds tension through the use of atmosphere, sinister music and sounds and taking advantage of the audiences' psychological fears. Our film is based around the terror and fear of the supernatural happenings and the beliefs of ghosts and demonic spirits.  Our film would be classes as a Psychological Horror as we are going to use various conventions to portray the belief that something is there, when in fact it is not, meaning we will rely much more on the build of tension.

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Three students travel to Burkittsville, Maryland to produce a documentary about the fabled 'Blair Witch'. They interview an inhabitant of the town who claims to have seen the Blair Witch and describes it as a half-human half-animal beast; although she s deemed as insane. Over the course of the next few days they explore the woods. On the third day, they fail to find their car before dark, meaning they are stranded in the woods. They return to their camp to find that all of their possessions' had been trashed, they try to escape the woods by heading south but then realise they have walked in circles. One of the students, Josh, suffers a mental breakdown, and on the 6th day Mike and Heather discover he has disappeared. The next day, they hear Josh's screams and decide to go find him. They enter a derelict house, in which they hear Josh's screams coming from the basement. Mike enters the basement when suddenly something attacks him and he drops the camera. Heather enters after, where something attacks her also, causing her to drop her camera as well.

The Ring (2002)

Two high school students Katie and Becca, who are having a sleepover, discuss the urban legend of a video tape which kills anyone 7 days after viewing it. Katie confesses to Becca that she has watched it although Becca does not believe her. That night Katie dies. Rachel Keller, Katie's aunt, decides to investigate the bizarre circumstances around the death of her niece. She discovers that Katie and the rest of her friends who had died had stayed at Cabin 12 in Shelter Mountain, where she stays too find out what happened. Whilst there she discovers a videotape and watches it. Rachel find out that a woman named Anna is responsible for the death of Samara, the girl in the tape, and buries her in an attempt to put her spirit to rest. After believing she has broke the curse she returns home to discover that her ex-boyfriend Noah had died after watching the tape. Rachel discovers that the only reason she was spared was because she made a copy of the tape and told Noah to watch it, passing the curse over to him. In an attempt to save her son, she tells him to make a copy and pass it onto someone else. The film then ends with static.

These two films that I used as example storylines for Psychological Horror show some stereotypical storyline for this sub-genre. These are similar due to the fact that they strive towards creating anxiety through the use of inexplicable themes such as the speculation of ghosts or demons. Both 'The Blair Witch Project' and 'The Ring' rely on using supernatural entity's as the main 'antagonists' in order to create fear amongst the viewers and the characters themselves; relying on the fear of the unknown.