Conventions of horror would be a young blonde lady on her own in an isolated, secluded place where no contact is made also where no-one can get to her. This tells us that the director is impelling some hints to us; the message to the audience tells them that this will lead to death or murder. Another convention for this genre would be lighting that signifies horror and fear thereupon shadows.
The director also establishes horror by using non-diegetic sounds e.g. the creaking doors and wind howling. A code in horror would be textual colours that are used in the opening of the movie. This is used so that the audience can recognise the type of genre straight-away e.g. blood re-writing for the font.
‘Dracula’ is a 1950’s British horror film, which has traditional codes and convention. For example the attractive blood red gothic font at the opening scene raises the pulse of the audience informing them and establishing the horror genre. It also tells the audience that murder and blood will take place in throughout the film.
The score also seems to be in an orchestral style to grip the audience in an instant and put them at very edge of their seat throughout the whole film. The up-beat intro is highly dramatic and loud to help establish its genre. We as audience are shown a Gryphon – a horror prop at the very edge on top of the castle to resist and keep away form spirits. We also see a Gargoyle in the opening scene which signifies evil and devil (bad form of spirits).
In ‘Dracula’ the camera then moves on to the coffin, where dripping blood is exaggerated falling on Dracula’s coffin. From the beginning of the 1950’s film ‘Dracula’ we easily recognise from its codes and conventions that this film is definitely from the horror genre as it addresses the audience with more physiological fears which owes everyday setting to be done in the mise-en-scene. This is done to express the horror genre and tell us that this horror film is definitely from the horror genre. A lot of the scenes rely on the settings of the film e.g. the setting of the castle sets the horror scene to visualize horrific conventions.
The castle is set in an isolated place and in a secluded place where no contact is made. The director also seems to use some dramatic techniques to establish the it’s intentional genre for example when our Jonathan Harker steps in the castle there seems to be an absence of nature which represents there is no life which also gives audience an idea on the outcome of the genre. When Jonathan Harker enters the castle there is change in weather as the cold settles in J.Harker’s bones without anyone there. This signifies death as there is no existence, no life and no one to greet him. When Jonathan Harker makes his way into the dining room, the view of the camera changes into a tracking shot that tell us that our victim is being watched. Director also cleverly increases the volume of non-diegetic sounds; one of the most widely used examples in the movie is when our victim that is Jonathan Harker enters suspicious room and the door creeks. This intentionally conveys tension and puts the viewers on the edge of their seat as they have to visualise the scare and have there eyes on the spooky theme thereupon the shadows that stand out in the movie.
The castle appears to be Gothic with stylistic arches, high sealing with no natural light just as mentioned with shadows. Conventions for the ‘Dracula’ film are the narratives that plot their victim’s journey to be broken and the victim then has to walk. This classical convention clearly signifies audience (dramatic irony) the victim’s root to its own death. Another convention would be the score which is played when Jonathan Harker enters the suspicious castle, there is a dramatic scene that signifies something bad is approaching towards the victim. Jonathan Harker meets the vampress who seems to introduce her from no-where. Audience watch the vampress revealing her character as she divulges her fangs which expresses horror in vivid detail. By this point will be definite about the genre they are watching. The vampress tries to attract Jonathan Harker straight away; her second move was to stimulate disturbance. Lastly her final step was to stimulate the shambolic murder.
The Audience know that Jonathan Harker is passing through these difficult stages however Harker doesn’t have a clue – this is known as dramatic irony. When the vampress leaves her victim that is J. Harker, the eyes of the camera seem to rotate on the superior significant character at a low angle shot to represent Dracula as a supreme and a villainous character. Audience watch Dracula guiding J.Harker to the room. After a while Dracula seems to lock Jonathan Harker. Director here enlightens the audience about one of the disturbing stages that will be certain to lead to Harker’s death. ‘Dracula’ leads audience to a conclusion that is indeed a horror film. An example of this is the opening, signifiers, mise’n’scene and dramatic techniques used cleverly by the director.
The opening of ‘AWIL’ has a very different style to that of ‘Dracula’ as it introduces with an anti-conventional theme to confuse the audience. It opens with a romantic background song that is entitled as ‘Blue-Moon.’ Director here gives audience a little tap to wake the genre as the story relates with the concept of ‘Blue-Moon’, to me this is a very clever theme which gets audience chewing their gum of what they are watching thereupon making them think hard. ‘AWIL’ is a classic horror but one whose opening defies the traditional codes and conventions of the particular genre. It achieves this by firstly letting us watch and notify the sheep, here audience also stare at the boys in a truck. There is a relation of horror convention as this tells us that the sheep are heading towards their slaughter which means this might as well stimulate an impulse - letting the audience to think about their victims whether they are going to live or shall they die? The boys are sternly told “to keep off the moor and stick to the road”. Sadly the victims end with broken journey that guarantees to cost their lives. Victims take more advice but don’t tend to use it and often realise it too late. This leads to their death – a basic horror convention. When the boys walk on the dark lane, we hear the strong howling wind then the thunders come along to signify the evil in the atmosphere around that is coming after the victims. The signifiers and conventions in the scene reveal that the victims are given good piece of advice and an instruction however the outcome is not to be followed. This is what leads to their death and makes it a classical horror. The boys in the pub ‘Slaughtered Lamb’ see a cross that prevents from evil spirits, now this is a very classical prop from the horror genre. The director of the film cleverly plays with the audience expectations – instead of the usual dramatic music, the horror scenes give us the scare and provides us the qualities of what we expect from the horror conventions. Basically, the movie gives us of what we expect, above all pleases the horror genre notably with the significant signifiers. Director’s clever ideas confuse the audience. The anti-conventional theory allows cleverly drawing attention to the horror genre. With the great use of signifiers this film has really hooked its audience; an example of this is when the camera has its eyes on the moon at time that signifies transformation.
Genre identification is important because it is a way of categorising a particular media text according to its content and style. Genre does not rely simply on what's in a media text but on the way it is put together (important when distinguishing e.g. between a horror movie and a thriller, which often deal with the same subject matter but belong to clearly separate genres). A media text is said to belong to a genre, in that it adopts the codes and conventions of other texts in that genre, and behaves in roughly the same way. Text from different mediums may belong to the same genre (e.g. some TV programmes & graphic novels can all be classified as science fiction). There are many different styles of films, which have many different styles of genre. Being able to recognise the genre helps to establish the category and lets the audience expose their expectations. Individual texts can challenge conventions, and defy certain parts of the genre categorisation — for instance Scream brought a lot of parody and humour into horror films of the late 1990s. Genre texts would get very boring and predictable if they all followed exactly the same conventions. Using genre theory allows us to give a pattern for construction, a template. Genre pieces have an established audience, certain personnel can develop their skills working within a particular genre and stars can associate themselves with a particular genre. Fans of a genre know the codes, so you don't have to reinvent the wheel all the time. In my opinion both films establish their genre in different ways but have many similarities. For example, both films introduce their characters with broken journeys. These wrecked expeditions increase their chances of not surviving in a particular habitat. This once again is a very classical convention that is used in both movies to signify the similar layout to the outcome. Also, characters in both films are clearly untreated and are not greeted to where the go – this signifies that something ‘fishy’ is going in the area that is not so pleasant. Once again both films are set in dark places under the mise’n’scene. This is a clear signification to the horror genre that the place they are in is ‘spooky and tongue-tied’. Finally, victims in both films face severe distortion which without a doubt tells us that the victims will not survive for long. Whilst ‘Dracula’ is a very different film from ‘AWIL’ both films have generic model. For example victims who turn out to die, a lady who is the centre of attention asking for help from the victim or getting in a sexual relationship a ‘baddie’ who causes a lot of havoc and destruction. These all are the significant characters that play major roles in films. I believe that the audience easily recognise the genres of both ‘Dracula’ and ‘AWIL’ by codes and sets of conventions in the way that they are constructed from the basic horror genre.
