Sub-genres of a horror film

By Kiran Patel

Sub-genre

• A sub-genre is a more detailed version of the genre since it splits up the genre groups into smaller groups

• A list of sub-genres found in horror films are:• Psychological• Slasher• Gothic• Paranormal/Supernatural/Mystery• Sci-Fi• Body horror (take overs/invasion)• Action• Comedy

Sub-genre: Slasher

• Probably the largest sub-genre in the horror genre

• A slasher movie usually involves a string of murders committed by a psychopath whom kills their victim in a graphic manner with a sharp object as their weapon of choice

• Some slasher movies include: Scream, Halloween, Friday the 13th, etc.

Posters of a slasher genre

• Main image is surrounded in darkness

• The murderer is holding the weapon

• The cover line on the poster is a pun of sorts or can be seen as a brief of the movie

• ‘Halloween’ has a very bold font compared to ‘American Psycho’ since AP is trying to make the font match the character (A slick business man)

Subgenre: Sci-Fi

• The smallest sub-genre of a horror film

• A sci-fi/horror movie usually have aspects of a virus/machine/alien destroying earth or murdering humans but in a brutal, violent and gory way to create fear in the audience

• Some examples of Sci-Fi Horror include: Alien, Frankenstein, War of The Worlds, Dark Skies, etc.

• A body horror movie (usually includes zombies or parasites of a sort) are classified as sci-fi

Sci-Fi/Horror posters

• Destruction in the background of the image

• Murky colours • No sign of what the

villain is • A lone figure in the

foreground • Both are full pictures

with nothing faded and shows a cloudy sky

• ‘Cloverfield’ has a font which matches the Sci-Fi genre unlike ‘The Mist’ which kept the horror theme

Sub-Genre: Paranormal/Supernatural

• A paranormal/supernatural film is a film which defines everyday life e.g. ghosts, hauntings or possessions

• Examples of supernatural horror include: Final Destination, The Amityville Horror, Child’s Play etc.

Posters of a supernatural/paranormal sub-genre

• The obvious convention between the two is the red text for the titles

• Another convention is the black background for both posters

• They also both have cover-lines which makes the audience excited

• Both font styles for the movies match the theme of the movie; since ‘Paranormal Activity’ is home-filmed the ‘glitchy’ text tells the audience to expect the film to be home filmed