Psychological and Slasher Horror

Psychological

Psychological horror films are often much more realistic than genres such as possession or supernatural as they focus on normal human experiences with real people, and often claim to be based on real events. Common conventions include female victims and using children as killers, which unsettles the audience as usually children are associated with innocence and vulnerability. Psychological horrors also tend to focus more on the villain and understanding their thought processes and intentions. They aim to play on the mind of the viewer, scaring them on a psychological level rather than just using shock factors such as jump scares.

Some examples of big psychological horror films include
- Orphan
- The Shining
- The Silence of the Lambs
- The Blair Witch Project (is also classed as a supernatural, but contains realism and focuses on the psyches of the characters involved as well as less realistic elements)

The trailer for the new Blair Witch film can be seen here:

 

Pros of making a psychological horror:

- Don't need access to any special effects/don't need to include graphic gore

- Easy to film as don't need to convey any supernatural elements

- Don't need many actors, can just focus on villain and victim

 

Cons of making a psychological horror:

- May be difficult to convey what is happening

- May not be able to make it appear scary enough in a short teaser trailer

- Need sufficient knowledge of psychology to be able to understand peoples state of mind

Slasher

Slasher horror films are a subgenre of horror that focus on a single serial killer and their many victims. There are some very typical tropes, such as the killer usually being male, and all the characters are usually young or in high school. There are quite specific character archetypes; usually the first to die will be a couple, suggesting that the idea of sex is impure and usually gets them killed first. The last standing is often the morally pure girl of the group, who then succeeds in killing the killer herself.

Some examples of big slasher horror films include
- Scream
- Friday the 13th
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
- Halloween
- Psycho
- Final Destination (although this contains supernatural elements, it also shows many of the common conventions seen in slasher horror such as the victim archetypes)

The trailer for Final Destination can be seen here:

Pros of making a slasher horror:
- Easy to think of ideas - many different sources of inspiration
- Easy to make sufficiently scary in a short trailer
- Can use a lot of jump scares which are easy to co-ordinate

Cons of making a slasher horror:
- Need to use special effects and make any gore look realistic
- Need to make any weapons used look realistic and not fake, or the trailer will lose effect
- A large cast will be required - a killer and several victims needed