The 9 Most Important Ingredients For A Horror Movie – moviepilot.com

What makes a great horror movie? The formula is very simple but seldom executed properly. After consuming untold numbers of horror films, Ive come to realize what the most effective key components are:

Like in every medium, horror films are best when the timing of scares is well maintained. It takes time to build up suspense and still have a good payoff. If the timing is off, the scares fall flat.

You cant overload a narrative with senseless jump scares. A barrage of these waters them down and renders the audience unable to properly react. A few, well-thought-out jump scares are always more memorable than 20 in one film.

Often, truly shallow tropes and stereotypes have replaced realized characters. This is lazy and destroys and sympathy the audience has for the main characters. If you care about one or more of the main characters, then the horror theyre going through becomes more real. A good #horror movie is not about the villain its really about the hero.

These days, scored music is largely unmemorable. Music in any film is just as important as characters. Good music is a character unto itself and a memorable main theme evokes all the narrative emotion that literature can accomplish. Michael Myerss theme from Halloween, the Jaws theme, "Second Sight Seance" from Hellbound: Hellraiser 2, all fill in the emotional gaps left by the visual medium.

Horror is a reflection of our collective anxieties. These stories always work best as an outlet for what were all going through while stepping outside ourselves to look at it. The greatest horror stories always reflect current social themes, no matter what period in which the narrative is set. Always be honest with your story and remember that no one creates art in a vacuum were all affected by the world around us.

The most memorable horror movies all had little to no gore. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Psycho, The Omen all of those had minimal gore; it was the subject matter that did the trick. Scenes of murder and death were shocking because the audience filled the gaps. Most times, what the audience perceives is more brutal and terrifying that anything we can shoot.

If your characters dont ring true, then your story wont be either. Say all dialogue out loud before committing to it and trust your own ear to tell you whether it sounds wooden or awkward.

While connected by timelines, each chapter in a series should have its own feel and, yes, its own story. Originality is not just a new gimmick for your slasher, it is, instead, looking at your slasher from a completely different angle while staying true to the character. If you cant expand on any characters, then dont do a sequel.

More realistic deaths are far more disturbing that gored-out, Final Destination deaths. These deaths can seem overdone and played more for laughs than actual emotion. Depicting death as realistic does not mean gorier; in fact, its generally the opposite. Its always more disturbing to focus on the characters' faces as they bleed out from a blade wound. Edmund Kemper put it chillingly when he described his first stabbing death as the leak to death. Make deaths messy. Characters should die violently because that is exactly what death looks like. Human beings thrash and convulse instead of simply closing their eyes and falling asleep. The more realistic it is, the more effective it will be.

These nine things and many others make for a great horror film. Never be afraid to go there. The fans will reward you in untold dividends.

What do you think are the most important elements of a horror movie?

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The 9 Most Important Ingredients For A Horror Movie - moviepilot.com