Silent Hill is one of the most influential survival horror games to ever be created. The developers creative use of the concept of the everyman, atmospherics, clever use of mechanics, and psychological thriller aspect come together to bring us a truly terrifying experience. This franchise raised the bar for its competitors as well as defining the genre's standards for more than a decade! Not only did they create a titan in the gaming industry, but they also challenged the traditional idea of horror in movies. The application of the games psychological thriller aspect to film created a much different feel for the horror industry.
Surviving Survival Horror: Silent Hill
If you talk to just about anyone on the street today and mention the survival horror genre most everyone will mention one of two well-known titles. One being Resident Evil, which holds the title of the first survival horror game, and Silent Hill. Koonami's smash hit Silent Hill, which was released in 1999 for the Playstation, raised the bar set by its predecessor Resident Evil. Resident Evil combined horror movie style elements with the action-packed shooter craze to create a
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The idea of a main character that was just as ordinary as the rest of us being forced into extraordinary circumstances was one of the main catalysts for Silent Hill's massive success. The protagonist, Harry Mason, confronts creatures throughout the game with both melee weapons and firearms but being an "ordinary" person, you are not all that durable and being inexperienced with guns the player's aim is rather unstable. Along with your character's inability to adequately wield weapons the addition of "stamina" added a much-needed element to demonstrating the Everyman concept. This combination of factors adds to the ambiance and atmosphere of a really horrific
To begin with, some people would say they enjoy a horror movie that gets them scared out of their wits. They go see these movies once a month on average, for fun, each time choosing a newer sequel like “Final Destination” or “The evil Dead”. King says “When we pay our four or five bucks and seat ourselves at tenth-row center in a theater showing a horror movie we are daring the nightmare” (405). As a writer of best-sel...
Horror genre conventions are evident in both films and the way they are directed has given me obvious indications on the effect the horror conventions can have on a film when used well, and the adverse effect when not used well. Both Japanese and American society are evident in these films, and the style of the films are similar to the nationality of the two directors. Horror conventions are used in both films, but the way they are used are quite different, and these contrasting styles are key in how effective the two films are to their audience.
From here we moved on to the witchcraft and the undead such Peeping Tom (1960) and The Night of Dead (????) . New films brought with them new conventions. Zombie films trapped the audience, claustrophobic attack scenes when the zombies came closer towards the camera. Horror finally became horror with the slasher movie era. They became realistic but also they became more stylised. Based on a real life tragic such as, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Halloween (1978) and Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) screens where awash with blood. This is where we see male psycho, the unwilling hero and teenage trouble. There are also soul survivors that carry the seque...
Rob Zombie is a storyteller of horror with an extreme vision of evil that awakens the dead with deep emotion. Robert Cummings was a child that knew he loved horror movies at an early age. Through dreams, passion and lots of handwork he has become an iconic horror symbol. Rob Zombie has become an authorial archetype of the twenty-first century American horror. He is an auteur. Auteur meaning, “a filmmaker whose personal influence and artistic control over a movie are so great that the filmmaker is regarded as the author of the movie.” As a screenwriter he has found his own unique audience. Some compare him to other horror artists such as Wes Craven. He doesn’t care about that. With various mixed reviews and set backs Rob knew that eventually
The genre of horror films is one that is vast and continually growing. So many different elements have been known to appear in horror films that it is often times difficult to define what is explicitly a horror film and what is not. Due to this ambiguous definition of horror the genre is often times divided into subgenres. Each subgenre of horror has a more readily identifiable list of classifications that make it easier to cast a film to a subgenre, rather than the entire horror genre. One such subgenre that is particularly interesting is that of the stalker film. The stalker film can be categorized as a member of the horror genre in two ways. First, the stalker film can be identified within the horror genre due to its connection with the easily recognizable subgenre of horror, the slasher film. Though many elements of the stalker film differ from those of the slasher film, the use of non-mechanical weapons and obvious sexual plot points can be used to categorize the stalker film as a subgenre of the slasher film. Secondly, the stalker film can be considered a member of the horror genre using Robin Wood’s discussion regarding horror as that which society represses. The films Fatal Attraction, The Fan, and The Crush will be discussed in support of this argument. (Need some connector sentence here to finish out the intro)
Rothman, Solomon. "Cult Classic Rob Zombie Horror Movies: House of 1000 Corpses & The Devils Rejects." Yahoo Contributor Network. Yahoo! Voices, 18 Sept. 2005. Web. 05 Feb. 2014.
Enhancing the sustained fright of this film are an excellent cast, from which the director coaxes extraordinary performances, and Bernard Herrmann's chilling score. Especially effective is the composer's so-called "murder music," high-pitched screeching sounds that flash across the viewer's consciousness as quickly as the killer's deadly knife. Bernard Herrmann achieved this effect by having a group of violinists frantically saw the same notes over and over again.
Film scholars around the world agree that all genres of film are part of the “genre cycle”. This cycle contains four different stages that a specific genre goes through. These stages are: primitive, classic, revisionist, and parody. Each stage that the genre goes through brings something different to that genre’s meaning and what the audience expects. I believe that looking at the horror genre will be the most beneficial since it has clearly gone through each stage.
Horror movies are one of the most fascinating genres of film that exists. They are unrealistic but at the same time, they are also realistic. This realism that they contain is what draws people’s interest towards them because viewers are able to associate aspects of their own lives with the film. Every horror movie, no matter how farfetched the theme or plot may be, contains an element that people can relate to. This element may not be observable to a conscious mind, but to an unconscious mind, it brings back memories of something that has been repressed earlier in our lives (Wood, 197). This recollection of suppressed memories is how horror films create a sense of fear and it is literally what Robin Wood means when he talks about “the return
Modern day horror films are very different from the first horror films which date back to the late nineteenth century, but the goal of shocking the audience is still the same. Over the course of its existence, the horror industry has had to innovate new ways to keep its viewers on the edge of their seats. Horror films are frightening films created solely to ignite anxiety and panic within the viewers. Dread and alarm summon deep fears by captivating the audience with a shocking, terrifying, and unpredictable finale that leaves the viewer stunned. (Horror Films)
Victor Salva, one of the greatest movie producers in history, has dipped his pen in many different inks. He has engaged in many different genres of work but the most outstanding to me is the work he does with his suspenseful, horror films. Many films of Salva’s have been made and remade because the demand for more work because with time comes better quality of pro-duction, light, and technology to bring an even better piece of work to the audience.
With the discovery of techniques such as continuous editing, multiple camera angles, montage editing, and more, silent filmmaking developed from simple minute-long films to some of the most beautiful, awe-inspiring films that have ever been created—in only a few decades. In Visions of Light, someone alluded that if the invention of sound had come along a mere ten years later, visual storytelling would be years ahead of what it is today. This statement rings true. When looking at the immense amount of progress that was made during the silent era of films, one must consider where the art of film has been, where it is, and where it is
Horror films are designed to frighten the audience and engage them in their worst fears, while captivating and entertaining at the same time. Horror films often center on the darker side of life, on what is forbidden and strange. These films play with society’s fears, its nightmare’s and vulnerability, the terror of the unknown, the fear of death, the loss of identity, and the fear of sexuality. Horror films are generally set in spooky old mansions, fog-ridden areas, or dark locales with unknown human, supernatural or grotesque creatures lurking about. These creatures can range from vampires, madmen, devils, unfriendly ghosts, monsters, mad scientists, demons, zombies, evil spirits, satanic villains, the possessed, werewolves and freaks to the unseen and even the mere presence of evil.
Would you rather be horrified beyond repair or thrilled to the point of no return? In horror, the main purpose is to invoke fear and dread into the audience in the most unrealistic way. Horror movies involve supernatural entities such as ghosts, vampires, teleportation, and being completely immortal. As thriller films are grounded in realism and involve more suspense, mystery, and a sense of panic. Though both genres will frighten the audience, it will happen in two different ways. Whether the horror thrills or the thriller horrifies, a scare is always incorporated.
George A. Romero, the director of Night of the Living Dead accidently created the zombie genre that we are familiar with today. Night of the Living Dead reshaped the entire genre with its bitter realism. Romero established verisimilitude unintentionally by focusing on how people react to crisis. The first zombie movies relied on semi-terrifying dress codes (of their time) and the conventional diegetic scream of a female. Whereas Romero’s film is an interpretation of humankind’s collapse. Romero drew inspiration from the infamous Vietnam War spiralling at the time and the American civil war. The verisimilitude lies within the human condition in dire times, like war. Therefore, in the Night of the Living Dead the zombie/ghoul stands as a symbol for the enemy contriving those dire times. This consequently makes the genre actually terrifying because representations have altered. Zombies are no longer an otherworldly or scientific monster e.g. White Zombie but a