Conventions of the Psychological Horror Genre.

Common Conventions in the Psychological Horror Genre:

• Plot twists
• Reflective/response to reality 
• Emotive - you care about characters 
• Heavily focuses on main character's psychological state
• Sad unresolved ending
• 'Facing Demons'
• The danger is human
• Main Character is often detective, battling their own issues
• Incorporates elements of mystery 
• Seemingly supernatural threat - actually human
• Struggle between what is real and what is not
• Deceptive games
• Death
• Requires viewer to think

Obsessive Behaviour and Stalking Research

In our film opening, our protagonist is a killer who stalks her victims and shows obsessive traits in her personality. To ensure that the portrayal of this character is accurate and also effective, I researched obsessive and stalking behaviour. These are some points that I thought would be relevant to the antagonist's character:

• Obsession is defined as: 'Intrusive, repetitive thoughts, images or impulses that are unacceptable and/or unwanted'.
• Some psychologists believe that obsessions are caused by misinterpretations of the significance of a person's intrusive thoughts.
• Obsessions can be linked to anxiety disorders, e.g. obsessive compulsive disorder.
• Obsessive behaviour can be stimulated by aversive emotions like fear or disgust which leads to avoidance behaviour.
• Generally most people with obsessional traits are more socially conforming and less likely to take risks than the average person.
• Many people who behave obsessively often have a 'perfectionist' personality trait wherein they feel the need to get everything right.
• Stalkers can be classified into psychotic and non psychotic stalkers.
• Psychotic stalkers may have suffered from psychotic disorders previously such as delusional disorder or schizophrenia.
• Female stalkers often target other women while male stalkers are equally as like to stalk other men as as they are to stalk women.
• There are 5 types of stalkers:

1. Rejected stalkers
2. Resentful stalkers
3. Intimacy seekers
4. Incompetent suitors
5. Predatory stalkers

• Predatory stalkers do not want a relationship with their victims but seek to control them through assault (physically and/or sexually).
• Stalking is a behaviour that can be present in people with mental disorders, but is not an actual mental disorder itself.

All of this information is useful because it is relevant to the characteristics we have already decided our antagonist will have, which include:

• Being a predatory stalker
• Classified as a psychotic stalker
• Behaviour stimulated by averse emotions of disgust of her own appearance and fear of being ugly and old

Film Opening Titles Deconstruction.

Film Opening Titles: 'The Shining'.

In the opening for this film the opening credits were very basic, they all consisted of being a light blue colour and travelled from the bottom of the screen to the top when they appeared.

0:03
Production Company: Warner Bros Pictures












1:19
Director: Stanley Kubrick
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1:25
Actor: Jack Nicholson
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1:31
Actor/Actress: Shelley Duvall
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1:36
Film Title: 'THE SHINING'
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Bigger than the other texts.













1:41
Actor/Actress: 'Featuring Danny Lloyd'
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1:47
Actor/Actress: Scatman Crothers.
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1:51
Actor/Actress: Barry Nelson
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1:56
Actor/Actress: Philip Stone
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2:03
Actor/Actress: Joe Turkel
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2:07
Actor/Actress: Anne Jackson
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2:13
Actor/Actress: Tony Burton
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2:18
Executive Producer: Jan Harlan
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2:23
Extra Information: 'Based upon rhe novel by Stephen King'
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2:29
Producers: Robert Fryer, Martin Richards, Mary Lea Johnson.
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2:34
Screenplay: Stanley Kubrick, Diane Johnson.
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2:39
Produced and Directed: Stanley Kubrick.
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Genre Investigation: Psychological Horror

Orphan

'Orphan' (2009) is a psychological horror centred around a family of four and their newly adopted child, Esther.

Esther is different to the other children, which is, at first, endearing.

As the film progresses, the mother begins to suspect that Esther is more different than they had originally thought.

'Orphan' conforms to the typical conventions of psychological horror in a number of ways:

• The main character, a wife and a mother, is, herself, psychologically damaged.
• She is a recovering alcoholic.
• She is also recovering from the loss of her unborn child.
• A 'troubled' protagonist is very common in psychological horror films, as the film itself explores the mind.
• It is also typical for the protagonist/victim to be female.

• The film is largely set in a large house surrounded by woods.
• This is a typical convention of psychological horror movies, as it separates the characters from the rest of the world and separates them from people that could help/save them.
• The snowy scenery gives the setting a 'cold', bleak atmosphere, which reflects on the negative tone of the plot.

Typography

• In the opening credits, the title of the film 'flickers' between a plain font and one that is splattered in neon paint.  This is a reference to something that happens later in the movie.
• Furthermore, the font changes to another font which resembles 'scribbled' handwriting.
• Coupled with the black background, it is clear to the audience that these are the opening credits to a horror film, as the typography is overall 'creepy' and sinister.

Opening sequence

• The sequence begins in high key lighting, which brings a positive mood to the sequence.
• The out of focus wide shot at the beginning creates a dreamlike atmosphere.
• There are many close up shots of the female protagonist, and no one else's faces are shown till later in the sequence.  This tells the audience that she is going to be a key character in the film.
• The red of the blood in contrast with the white hospital floor is a clear indicator to the audience that something isn't right.

• The lighting then becomes low-key: the operating room is surrounded by darkness and dimly lit by top lighting.
• All images seen are surreal, to make it clear to the audience that this is a dream sequence.
• The sequence is made up of straight cut edits.
• Each shot is very short and the frequently changing shots create an atmosphere of confusion, which reflects on the feelings of the protagonist.
• This sequence also introduces the protagonist's psychological trauma to the audience.
• A psychologically damages protagonist is a common convention in psychological horror.

Antagonist

• Esther has the appearance of a normal girl, which makes her violent actions disturbing to the audience, as it is unnatural for a child to commit such crimes.
• Although she looks like a normal child, she dresses in old fashioned clothing (often remarked on by other characters) and this marks her out as different, within the modern setting. 

• Throughout the film, Esther, who is actually a grown woman, is in disguise as a young child.
• It is common in horror movies for the main character to be disguised, as the audience does not know everything about them and this creates the fear of the unknown.
• Esther is also psychologically disturbed, as demonstrated by the book she keeps with pictures of all of her victims: she is obsessive.

Music

• The sequence above is a good example of the sound used throughout the film.
• All diegetic sound is of children playing: this gives a happy atmosphere and contrasts with the contrapuntal non-diegetic sound:
• The non-diegetic soundtrack is metallic and tuneless and has a negative tone.  These sounds increase in volume to create suspense and fear within the audience.
• Some string instruments are used, playing in a minor key to contribute to the negative tone.
• Low key lighting is used throughout the sequence to create fear within the audience, as they cannot see everything as some things are hidden in shadow.

Film Title Animation

• At the beginning of the animation, I used the font that Charlie selected: x
• The other font I used was 'Brain Flower'.
• I chose this font as it appears to be handwritten.
• I further manipulated the text on photoshop, by placing each letter on a different level.
• This added to the handwritten result, inspired by titles in the psychological horror film Orphan.

• I wanted the animation to flicker between the two fonts and have a broken TV effect.

• To create this effect, I used uncopyrighted grainy, noise textures.
• The animation flickers quickly between the two fonts with these textures in between.
• I also 'scribbled' around the Brain Flower font, to add to the handwritten effect.

• The frames of the animation that contain the manipulated font and the VCR textures play for a much shorter amount of time than the font that Charlie created; the end result resembles the flashbacks that are included in our opening.
• Overall, I am happy with the result: the clean font at the beginning reflects upon the beauty that our killer strives for, whilst the manipulated font represents the horror underneath. Furthermore, I feel that the result fits within the psychological horror genre.

Deconstruction of Shutter Island Trailer vs Opening.

I looked at how different a trailer to a film and its opening are very different from each other and how they distinguish to the audience which is the trailer and which is the film's opening. To do this I looked a psychological horror film of Shutter Island to give me some ideas to how our group could make our film opening more obviously a film opening and not getting it mistaken for a film trailer instead.

Trailer.

The trailer of Shutter Island started off with the logo of the production company who backed the film which were Paramount and A Martin Scorsese Picture. It also includes at the end some names and other production companies to give the audience a sense of who made the film and there is also a scene where the leading actor's name appeared to give the trailer and film a name that the audience would know already.

The majority of the shots shown in the film trailer were mainly mid shots, one shots or establishing shots. This shows the audience the characters that would be involved throughout the film and also the location of the film and when it is set without giving much away to the audience about the rest of the film.

Opening.
The opening two minutes of the film Shutter Island consists of the two main characters travelling to somewhere which remains unknown to the audience on a boat. It is very different from the trailer as it is one long sequence of different shots, which also consists of mid shots and close up shots and a few establishing shots to she the audience who is in the film and where they may be without giving them too much information away. When the two characters talk to each other they also do not say much which is about to happen instead they talk about themselves as they are new to each other.

• Trailers tend to have short and fast transitions between different shots and frames.
• Whereas openings tend to be a longer shot and not as many frames, more of a story line.
• More characters are shown in the film trailer compared to the film opening.
• Most shots used in trailers are long, establishing, mid, two or one shots.

Killer and Victim Costumes.

Cabin in the Woods Costumes (Victims).

To see what other horror/psychological horror films' costumes of their victims looked like I looked at the film cabin in the woods as they seemed to have the same idea as we did.










Their costumes consisted of modern looking clothes to indicate that this could have been anyone and so that the audience could relate to the people in the film as well and make a connection with them instead of having actors dressed in older looking clothes that the target audience may find boring or irrelevant.


Orphan and American Psycho (Killer).



 For looking at the killer's costume in horror/psychological horror films I looked at both the Orphan and American Psycho to see what kind of costumes are used.

For both of the two films the costumes that are worn by the killers/villains are quite dark in colour and also of normal clothing but to an extended point.

For the Orphan the girl wears normal looking clothes a girl may wear but they also seem to be quite out of the ordinary by how neat and perfect they look.

In American Psycho his costume is very neat and business like but still borders alongside the normal and out of the normal look that can be seen in the costumes of the villains in psychological horror films.

Deconstruction of Victim

Victim in American Psycho.

I looked at the girl in American Psycho who is involved in the chain saw scene to see what victims are portrayed as in psychological horror films.

This victim was dressed in white and was blonde haired which seems to typical of victims in any kind of horror or slasher film. This victim also is shown to be quite close to the killer and so may be trusts him until this scene. The use of the minimal clothing on the victim shows that because of her being a prostitute that she is quite vulnerable but also gives the audience little saddness for the victim once she is killed by the villian in this sequence.

There are also quite a lot of low angle shots framing the victim, this shows her to the audience as vulnerable and defenseless against the killer hunting her down as she has put herself in a vulnerable position of being trapped in the villian appartement with no one else to help her. She also wears very revealing and thin clothing alongside the colour of them being white it shows her oppositely as maybe a little more promiscuous so maybe she may have been waiting for the killer to kill her in a way that horror films are usually laid out as.

On a whole the victims in this psychological horror is shown as innocent and vulnerable. Her costume and make up are very minimal and casual to show that she is just another person and doesn't have much identity herself and is just known as the victim who is killed.

Location.

Stalking Scenes Locations.

For our film opening we need a few locations e.g. on a street for our killer to stalk their next victim.
The locations that we will be definitely using for our filming are a bridge, a small walk way with a bridge over a small river and a normal street.

Location: Bridge
Time for filimg approx: 3:30-400pm

We will be using this location as one scenes for our stalking scene as it allows us to be creative with camera angles and also shows the victim as isolated as it is over a motorway.

The time for this is as chosen as then we shall get enough sunlight for filming in before it starts to get dark as we would not be able to see the images clearly.

We chose this location as it gave us a good set up for the rest of our opening and because our target audience is between the ages of 15 and 22 they can relate to the location as bridges like these are often seen in many places.

Location: Walkway
TIme for filming approx: 4:00pm

We chose this location after wondering around as it gives a mysterious atmosphere to the scene and we decided that this will be used towards the end of the stalking sequence due to the effect it has. It also allows our target audience to get a sense of the location and the stalking scene in order to make them wonder what will happen next.

We would film this scene slightly later than the other one as the street lamp is effective lighting for us to use for filming underneath it.

Production Company Overview

Paramount.

After our group doing research on different production companies our conclusion was to select Paramount as it seemed the best to use alongside our genre of film, psychological horror.

This would be because it released many more psychological horror films than any other major film company such as The Ruins and Shutter Island.

It seemed best to use this production company for this reason and so it will be the one we use as our group's major production comapny but may make some changes to it such as colour and brightness of it to make fit more with our psychological film opening.

Production Companies Research

For my research I looked at notable film production companies that had released recent horror films.




Lionsgate Films is a production studio owned by Lionsgate Entertainment Corporation, a North American entertainment company that was founded in 1997. Lionsgate is the largest independent studio in North America as well as being the most commercially successful. Some of the most recent horror films Lionsgate distributed are:

• The Cabin in the Woods (psychological)
• The Last Exorcism (supernatural)
• Texas Chainsaw 3D (slasher)
• You're Next (slasher)
• My Bloody Valentine (slasher)
• The Saw series (slasher)

Paramount Pictures is another North American studio that produces films and television series. It is notable for distributing successful film series of many genres ranging from family films such as 'Shrek' to horrors such as the Friday the 13th franchise. Some recent horror films that Paramount have produced include:

• Shutter's Island (psychological)
• Paranormal Activity (supernatural)
• Friday the 13th (slasher)
• The Ruins (psychological)

Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc. is an American film studio that produces films, television series and music. It is a major production studio and has several subsidiary companies, a notable one being New Line Cinema. Some horrors it recently produced are:

• The Conjuring (supernatural)
• The Apparition (supernatural)
• Orphan (psychological)
• Chernobyl Diaries ('creature feature')
• A Nightmare on Elm Street (slasher)

New Line Cinema is an American film company that as of 2008 is merged with Warner Brothers and is also a subsidiary of Turner Broadcasting and Time Warner. New Line co produced The Conjuring and A Nightmare on Elm Street with Warner Brothers and also distributed Friday the 13th alongside Paramount Pictures. The studio's last solo distribution of a horror film was Final Destination.

Summit Entertainment LLC is an American film studio with international offices in London. This studio is a subsidiary of Lionsgate and is known for distributing successful franchises such as American Pie and Twilight. Recent horror films produced by Summit are:

• Wrong Turn franchise (slasher)
• Sinister (supernatural)
• Sorority Row (slasher)