Psychological Horror
The psychological horror genre is a mix of the genres of horror
and psychological thriller. Psychological horrors, like all horrors,
concentrate on the antagonist(s) harming the protagonist(s), with a particular
focus on the characters’ fears and emotions, and how the antagonist creates
and/or manipulates these to create the horror element. A major aspect of
psychological horror is that the identity of the antagonist can be kept a
secret
As with horror, psychological horror will add canted/Dutch
angles, to give a sense of disorientation for the audience, reflecting the
characters’ emotions. Mirrors can be used to show the ‘two-faced/dark side’
aspects of characters (particularly if the audience are not fully aware of
which character the antagonist is).
Mise-en-scene is very important in psychological horrors.
Colour can be used to reflect the characters and their emotions, as well as
giving very contrasting views. For example, two colours that are associated
with psychological horrors are red and black. In a horror, black can mean death
or mystery (if a character is in a dark location, there can be an element of
mystery to their identity), and red can mean blood; however, in another genre,
e.g. romance, red can mean passion and love. So although colour can be used, it
has to be supported by other stylistics.
Fast editing will be used, in order to reflect heightened
emotions of the characters.
Found Footage
Found footage is a genre of film in which all, or the
majority, of the film is presented in either a ‘home video’ style, or a ‘lost
footage’ documentary, left behind by the deceased protagonists (the latter more
popular in horror/found footage hybrids, such as the popular films The Blair
Witch Project [1999, Directed by Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sánchez, US] and
Paranormal Activity [2007; Directed by Oren Pele, US]. In found footage films,
the filming is done by the actors themselves, and the camera is viewed as a
prop in the film. This means the audience can have a direct link to the
characters.
Cinematography is an incredibly important aspect of the
found footage genre. There is usually only one camera throughout the entire
film, which is used to document events. For example, in “Paranormal Activity”, the camera(s) are used to capture footage of
the poltergeists, in “The Blair Witch
Project” the single camera is used to document the students attempting to
find the truth about the titular Blair Witch phenomena. Found footage films will often use close-ups to show
the emotion of the characters.
Due to the minimal use of camera angles, one scene will be
entirely shot in one take. Editing techniques (such as shot reverse shot, match
on action) are completely ignored, and scene cuts are shown as a literal ‘cut’
of the camera.
No film soundtrack or score are usually used in found
footage films, as all aspects of found footage are portrayed as being a part of
the diegesis. This means that any emotion that the audience can draw from music
(the ‘stabbing’ music in the psychological horror film
Psycho) has to come from the cinematography and the performance of
the actors. However, some aspects of sound can be predominant in both
psychological horrors and found footage, such as the heartbeats of the
characters, to reflect the emotion of the scene
