Conventions of a Horror film

When watching a horror film, there are many conventions one would notice.
These conventions include:

• Narrative
•  Mise-En-Scene
• Sound
• Camera
• Editing

Narrative -

• Young people are partying and having fun in a private house/ house of some kind
• Group of young people are made up of the typical stereotypes for a teen movie
•  Partying will envolve around illegal things such as drugs, sex, etc...
• An expectation of one girl is to just hang around and do nothing else
• In the middle or at the end of the party, it is likely that the psycho/horrific character will appear and start to kill them usually in a chronological order of who's been more bad
• The face of the character is never seen, it is always covered with some sort of prop or their face is disfigured
• The teenagers will plan on escaping, however they will all lose eachother and the killer will begin to capture one by one
• The girl/boy who did nothing will survive until the end, this is after being put through a lot of suffering. She is likely the main character and will or won't kill the psycho

Mise En Scene -

• Low Key lighting
• Suburban Location
• Young/Teenage sense of fashion
•  Axe/Knife as weaponry. Notice how it is very rare to have a gun

Editing -

• Continuity 

Examples - 

Friday 13th - This is one of the narrative conventions showing one of the teens captured and is about to be brutally murdered.

Friday 13th - The killer is in Low key lighting/ suburban location, his identification is hidden, and he uses an axe for a horror tool.

Scream 4