Horror Conventions and Review Comments

The Ring

“The support cast were all good, with Brian Cox thrown into the mix. My only cause for concern was Dorfman – why was he allowed to change the character of the boy? In Ringu he was a normal kid, here he comes across like a poor man's Haley Joel Osmond in 6th Sense? His routine took away from the emotional involvement that should have come with the danger he was in – instead he just comes across as difficult. The performance is OK but 1, the change to the character is strange and unnecessary and 2, it just felt a little too like the 6th Sense.” – IMDb User Review.

I believe the way in which the character of the boy is portrayed is done to fulfil the conventions of horror as the film has a lot of twists and is a post-modern film. The ‘boy’ character played by David Dorfman was a ‘creepy’ sort of child who you feel has had childhood issues, which are a conventional theme. This film doesn’t have the conventional characters of a horror film, some it goes with the conventional theme to keep the horror stereotypes alive.

Scream

The scream film is referred to as a postmodern film as it understands the conventions on horror and uses them, but in a way in which it turns the outcome on its head and makes you not know what is going to happen. The area in which the victims are killed, they always are secluded, isolated areas out of the way of other people. Also there is always a girl, on her own, in a house which is conventional and it’s what you expect from a horror. The main characters are the usual characters, which is 2 girls, what promiscuous and one quite innocent and three males, two jocks and a guy that is a bit of a nerd. But the way in which the film is postmodern is that the main characters, within the 5 characters, the two jocks are the killers, you expect them to die first and the order of who dies changes from the conventional order and this makes the film different and gives the audience a false idea of how the film is going to play out, making it more interesting.

The Final Destination

The final destination film was clever with the conventions they used and the conventions they avoided and turned around on the audience. They had the stereotypical teenagers involved within the horror, but they added to this and made it different and a slight turn on what they norm is. The convention is usually 5 characters, 2 females and 3 males; one of the girls is usually promiscuous and provocative, whilst the other girl is quiet, innocent and usually dies last. The men, there is usually a jock, a nice guy, who is usually a jock as well and a weird male, who is different to the normal teenage boy, could be someone who is a ‘geek’ or a ‘druggy’ or someone who is a bit ‘crazy’.  But within the final destination film they have 7 characters, 4 males and 3 females. Within these people, they have the two jocks, which are expected, but they then have two more males and usually there is only one more. Also there are 3 females, instead of the usual 2, which is different to the horror conventions; there are 2 ‘final girl’ candidates and 1 promiscuous girl.

These conventions have been used and adapted for more than one possible reason, which can be done to make the film more individual, actually make a film or just show a new perspective on conventions. The film may have the seven characters because they need that amount of people to kill off through the film to make it long enough to make the film. But they may also use this amount of characters because they want to be different and postmodern on the way they look at the conventions, by adding the extra characters, they are not conforming to the usual amount, but still including the vital characters making it conventional, but still different. With the film they could be trying to show a new perspective on horror conventions including the extra characters to show what the director thinks future films should base their character round.

Also they play on the conventions by the settings and the way the characters die and how they escape a death which could happen in real life. This plays on the fears of the audience in a different way, usual horror films scare you with some sort of killer and the setting. The settings with a horror film are conventionally in small, secluded area with minimal people around. But within the final destination film the characters are all saved from a possible real life situation through someone having a vision. Then when they are killed off, they die in possible real life situations that could happen to anyone. This plays on the fears off people as they get scared of it happening to them in real life, which is why they change the conventions.