Similar Media Works

Genre: Horror
Sub Genre: Psychological
horror
 Dictionary Definition

Horror: a film in which very frightening and especially

unnatural things happen, for example dead people coming
to life and people being murdered.
Psychological Horror: emphasises the plot and characters
equally. The Characters often have to resolve problems
within their own minds. The problems within their minds
often are an attempt to explain important events.

Laura Oakey
 Common Elements
When people think about horror films there are several things which come to mind that
are pretty standard elements. These tend to be:
• An Antagonist- The bad guy (normally a monster such as Frankenstein or Dracula,
sometimes a murderer. )
• A Protagonist- The innocent, normally the victim of the antagonist
• Diegetic and Extra Diegetic sounds- To build up tension and frighten the audience.
• Dark Colour schemes- To highlight the sinister feeling of the film.

Psychological horrors tend to have very similar elements however the actual storyline and
characters are much harder to make clear than just a horror. Psychological horrors
are based around trick of the mind and a battle in the mind. The common elements of
a psychological horror are very similar to that of a typical horror however there are
some more elements that are commonly included, these are:
• Psychological twists – These are used to play on the audiences minds to make them
think one thing but then change it suddenly so they have to think the complete
opposite.
• Mental Danger- The characters and audience is exposed to mental danger more than
the common physical danger which is common in generic horrors.
• First person narrative- The story tends to be narrated by one of the characters. This
enables the audience to know exactly what is going on and feels much more involved
in the film which is very common in psychological horrors.

Laura Oakey
 Ideology
Ideology is a very key point in horror films. This is because with horror films there comes
much stereotyping. However this is because of moral panics, Chomsky and in some
ways Hegemony. This has shaped peoples ideas upon horror and psychological
horrors and affected the way people view the genre of horror.
Moral panics – affect the ideology of horror films as there is a hyped over-reaction to the
media which causes people to believe that society‘ s values have collapsed. ‘28 days
later’ is a very good example of this as the people in it have lost all sense of society
and are focusing on surviving rather than working together as a society. It also
highlights issues which could potentially happen, perhaps not on such a large
widespread scale but there still is the possibility which could worry society as a whole.
Chomsky- Argued that the mass media can be used to divert people’s attention away
from real issues. This is highlighted in the horror films which were made in the 1930s,
they were made to takes peoples minds off the approaching world war. It was an
escape from the reality. This is why people commonly think that horror films are very
different to reality and feel that watching horror films is an escape from what is
happening in the current world.
Hegemony- Hegemony is the way people in power choose to maintain control. In the
1940s all horror films were banned from being shown, as those in power felt that it
was unwanted propaganda from Hitler because of the current political issues. In this
case the government wanted to ensure that no dominant ideologies were considered
as the war was such a sensitive issue. By those high up in power maintaining their
control through censoring films it does not let all of the opinions and ideas for new
horror films come through, for fear that it may mean that their control will be reduced.

Laura Oakey
 Directed by:
Richard Kelly
Starring: Jake
Gyllenhaal
Date of release:
Donnie Darko doesn't get along too 25 October 2002
Certificate: 15
well with his family, his teachers Country: USA
and his classmates; but he does
manage to find a sympathetic
friend in Gretchen, who agrees to
date him. He has a compassionate
psychiatrist, who discovers
hypnosis is the means to unlock
His other
hidden companion may not be a true ally. Donnie has a friend named
secrets.
Frank- a large bunny which only Donnie can see. When an engine falls off a
plane and destroys his bedroom, Donnie is not there. Both the event, and
Donnie’s escape seem to have been caused by supernatural events.
Donnie’s mental illness, if such it is, may never allow him to find out for sure.
Laura Oakey
Mise- en –scene for Donnie Darko 2001

This clip is the end piece of whole film. The

film has gone the whole way through and
this is the final bit which shows what
actually happens to the characters.

The extra diegetic sound of this clip really

highlights the emotion and shows the
feelings of all of the characters in the
scene. The diegetic sound reiterates to
the audience what is happening and how
things
The are
clip working
also makesout in the
good usestory.
of colour
schemes in both the clothing that the
characters are wearing and the sets to
reflect the personalities of the different
characters. Donnie (played by Jake
Gyllenhaal) is wearing however
to show his innocence mainly white and
this is contrasting with the dark set which highlights the evil and the bad
light colours
things that can come from Donnie.
The dark lighting really emphasises the dark feeling about the film and shows the bad things that could and
have happened especially in contrast to the light clothing that the rest of the characters are wearing.
There is a large range of shots used ranging from wide shots to extreme close ups. The extreme close up
shots emphasise the emotions felt by the characters and helps the audience to feel more involved in the
film. The wide shots make it clear to the audience what is happening so that they do not get confused and
are not unaware of what is going on.
The body language of the Characters shows to the audience that something bad has happened and has
made the uneasy feeling of the film very clear to the audience. The characters movements are stiff and not
natural which really picks up on the sad feeling of the clip.
The mise-en-scene helps the audience to get an ever better idea of what is happening in this part of the film.
They feel as though they have a more important role in the film and the tension is built up helping the
Laura Oakey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
audience to feel the emotions that the characters in the film are currently filming.
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