Horror / thriller codes and conventions


Comparison between 2 movies both featuring the same codes and conventions.

As we will be creating a trailer featuring the horror / thriller elements, I thought that it would be best that we analyse two trailers and try to see how they have used the horror and thriller codes and conventions in their work.


Dracula (United States, 1931)
Scream (United States, 1996.)

Sub genre
Classic gothic – or Dracula/vampire film. Also contains elements of thriller and horror parts.
Psychopathic / serial killer or ‘slasher movie.’

Setting
England – 19th century.
Castles, large private houses. A foreign country – Transylvania.
Suburban contemporary America. A community, focussing on school and home.

Characters
Monster – Count Dracula
Monsters helpers wolves and vampires
Victim
Hero’s
Hero’s helpers
Heroine
Vampire hunter
Monster(s) – serial killers
Victims – transgressive teenagers
Hero (female)
Hero’s helpers – friends, police officer, and news reporter.
Plot
A manhunt – the killing of the monster Dracula.
A manhunt – the killing of the monsters – the killers.

Iconography in mise en scene (costumes, make up, props, etc. )
Night time and the moon, crucifixes, holy water, candles, bats, cobwebs. Dracula’s black cloak and pale face. Period costume and transport – 19th century.
Realistic domestic and suburban mise en scene. Knives and telephones, popular culture objects. The killers costume and white mask, contemporary fashion.

Music/sound effects
Sound effects of bats, wolves, silence for tension.
Contemporary music, original orchestral music soundtrack. Sound effects for slashing and action sequences. Silence for tension.

Theme
Good vs. evil
The power of love
Good vs. evil
A post-modern lesson in the grave.

Representation
Men:-
Heroes – are brave and resourceful sense of horror and decency.
Victims - become morally depraved.
Dracula - magnetic and hypnotic power, aristocratic.

Women:-
Weak and vulnerable
Heroine – romantic love interest, sexually unavailable.
Victims – disobedient, become morally depraved.

Men:-
Heroes – resourceful, modest
Victims – stupid, morally ambiguous

Women:-
Heroines – brave, independent, clever.
Victims – sexually promiscuous, ‘bitchy’/ stupid.

Adults:-
Largely ignorant of anything that is going on, arrogant or sceptical.

Actors:-
Bela Lugosi
From a variety of fields, but some may now be associated with horror.

Director
Todd Browning – horror specialist
Wes Craven – horror specialist

Intertextuality
The novel by Bram Stoker and the 1927 stage adaptation by Hamilton Deane in London.
Halloween and other horror films.

Hasnaa