Conventions of Psychological Horrors...

What are Psychological Horrors?

Psychological horror is a sub-genre of horror where the tension build up is reliant on the emotional instability, fears of the present characters within it and hidden truths about the characters, based on past events or regrets they have: the viewers can relate to the concepts of ordinary people within ordinary settings, yet the elements from the paranormal genre for example the tape in "The Ring" are the aspects for which the audience cannot relate to the plot completely.

Categories of Psychological Horror 

• Phobia and Isolation

Phobia and Isolation primarily focuses on fears of the human mind that will be present in various members of the audience, providing a relation to the audience through shared nightmares, or intense phobias. This is a trailer from the film "Descent", despite aspects from the monster horror genre being present here this film relies greatly on the fear of the audience being in a confined, isolated setting that focuses primarily on claustrophobia.

• Madness and Paranoia

Madness and Paranoia recognises and illustrates the human capability of being driven mad, the lack of sanity of the previously "normal character" is a breakdown over time the audience witness; it generally uses a killer who will be the former "trusted" character, thus on their murder rampages they execute aspects of the slasher genre are executed. Here is an iconic scene from Kubrick's "The Shining" where we witness the father, become driven to insanity by a paranormal presence, his development into madness penultimately leads to his attempted murder of wife and child. 

• Home Invasion

Home Invasion focuses on the natural supposedly "safe" settings of our homes, yet interrupts the trust we have with our homes since the killers or paranormal beings invade these areas proving that nowhere is safe especially these. To present this I used "You're Next" which is where a family spend the weekend away as a vacation which is distorted and switched into a massacre by a group of individuals dressed in animal masks, who hunt the family down within the large house they have stayed in: death again like the madness category is generally physical weapons executed by normal people, in this case traps being set within rooms or weapons such as cross bows being present.

Conventions of Psychological Horror 

• Focuses on reality or everyday life.
• "Based on true events" or  "Based on actual events" can be used by directors to spur fear into the audience, providing the concept that it could happen to them also, this is recognised at the beginning of the iconic film Wolf Creek where the plot was partly based on the events of the backpacker murders committed by Ivan Milat in the 1990s.
• Rely on characters beliefs, fears or hidden truths that will be revealed gradually to the viewers.
• Ordinary people exert horror on other characters, instead of a monster or actual paranormal being for example in American Psycho he is a renowned unassuming businessman.
• "Killer" appears normal, but face is rarely seen to provoke mystery and suspense.
• Weapons are rarely physical, but focus on killer(s)'s twisted mind for example Hannibal Lecter being a cannibal.
• Settings- sense of realism, since we live in such surroundings for example: big houses as illustrated in "The Strangers"; woodland locations; warehouses; schools or hospitals as established in Session 9.
• Flashbacks informing audience of why killer has reached such a state,  to provide understanding to the viewers.
• Sound/ Music: Contrapuntal sound where it does not match action on screen, contradiction of whats happening to the viewers, providing confusion to the audience also.
• Antagonist comes for revenge on the victims.
• Victims will differ but females are targeted most (due to apparent vulnerability).
• Child killers are often too, for this example Esther in "Orphan" who has a hidden secret.