Thriller/Horror (Hybrid Genre)

Tahian Ahmed

Definition

A hybrid genre is when two or more genres come together in one film or opening scene, for example; a film may consist of a thriller and drama genre or an action and adventure genre

Thriller is a genre that uses suspension, tension and excitement as its main elements to create an atmosphere which plays with the audience’s emotions.

A horror genre would usually consist of scenes which significantly play with the audience’s emotions and would usually aim to frighten the audience.

Conventions of Thriller/Horror

There is a series of extreme close up shots of the character’s facial expression to show the audience how they’re feeling especially when there is fear

Sometimes during films, they may silence certain scenes to increase the tension or suggest to the audience that something unordinary is about to take place

Red is regularly used to show a sign of danger or evil

Weapons are always used in thriller/horror films as well which represents violence

Character wise, there will always be a protagonist and an antagonist (hero and a villain) where the villain is usually seen to be a psychopath, demon or a ghost

Limitation of a Thriller/Horror

The use of special effects to make the scenes realistic would be difficult if it is made on a low budget

Make up would also be difficult as you would need an extremely talented make up artist to make characters realistic especially zombies and other ghostly creatures

The right lighting may be hard to get if working on a murder sort of scene in a natural outdoor environment without the use of special equipment

Trying to get a location for a particular scene may be difficult especially if you tend to use an outdoor public place as there may be members of the public who may not want to be recorded but may want to stay in the place they’re at

My Ideas

I would like to produce a film consisting of a hybrid genre; thriller and horror

The story takes place in a forest where a group of students are recording a scene for their media project.. However they soon find out they aren’t the only ones lurking around in the woods

As time goes past, one of the students goes off on his own to urinate somewhere away from everyone else. 20 minutes goes by and the students start to realise he still hasn’t returned and go off looking for him when they soon discover his body.

The villains in this film is two psychopaths, both brothers, who start to kill each one of these students one by one

Each student is killed, however the last victim is left alive for him to tell the media his story and the history of the killers. The scene then fades out to previous years when the serial killers were students who had been bullied severely to their death in the same forest. They had died in those woods, and now they haunt those woods.

There is a background audio during these scenes of the surviving victim telling the story

The scene then fades off to the title screen

Characters

3 boys, 2 girls (Students)

2 psychopaths

Flashback – 4 Boys (2 boys are the psychopaths when they were normal), 2 Girls

Props that I would use

Masks

Knives

Media equipment

Handcuffs

Pistols

Rope

Fake Blood

Mobile Phones

Costume

When the students are recording in the forest (current time and flashback) they would be wearing casual clothing

The two psychopaths will be wearing masks to conceal their identity but they will only reveal their identity after they have severely injured the last victim where he would see their face in a blurry vision. One will be equipped with knives and a pistol

Thriller/Horror