Amber A2 Media Studies: Choosing a sub-genre

The first step into my research and planning was to choose a sub-genre of Horror. After looking at the main genre's of horror including slasher, physcological, and gothic. I have opted to make a trailer for the supernatural genre with elements of gothic.

The supernatural genre revolves around the concept of victims being terrorised by a supernatural force. It is a common feature for innocent victims in many cases children to be possessed by a evil spirit. This became a popularized convention of supernatural horrors with the release of The Excorcist in 1973, the story line features a innocent young girl who becomes possessed by a demonic spirit. Furthermore religous imagery is often used within the supernatural genre as often excorcisms by priests are seen as the remedy to evil/demonic happenings, the Devil is also a common symbol used within the supernatural genre. Most recently the documentary style film the 'Devil inside' released in 2012 was filmed within the Catholic vatican in rome and showed a young woman investigating whether or not the murders committed by her mother were due to her being possessed. Moreover the use of documentary style filming/found footage has become a common style of filming used within the supernatural genre to create a more realistic setting for the audience. Audiences are often plagued with special effects within films that they soon become desenstized to it and can distinguish between what is real and what is false. However when audience are given raw footage it is much harder to distinguish whether it is genuine or not. The Paranormal Activity film's are most famous for this as they show found footage of families which document the supernatural experiences they have.

(A still taken from 'The excorcist' the main character a possessed young girl)

(A still taken from 'The Devil inside' showing demonic nuns around the vatican in rome)

(A still taken from 'Paranormal activity 4' raw footage of a girl being recorded by her webcam being lifted into the air by the force of a possessed child)

I also want to include elements of the Gothic horror as my storyline will feature a legend of a vampire. The gothic genre is a mix of Goth literature and the horror genre. One of the earliest and most iconic films of the horror genre was 'Dracula' a cultural icon of the vampire genre. Dracula was famous for being handsome although his apperance was decieving he wished to lure his victims into a false sense of security before he attacked. Within film and television currently the vampiric genre is gaining popularity through vampire fiction including The Twilight Saga and The Vampire Diaries. The most recent Gothic horrors released was 'The Woman in black' which follows the haunting of a woman who kills the children in the village in revenge for her own sons life. The gothic genre interelates with the supernatural genre as it features hauntings, curses, legends, supernatural beings and evil.