Personal horror film criteria

During a discussion with Brian Robinson, he asked me how I judge horror films, what I look for in horror films and what do I expect from horror films?
I listed a few things and we wrote them down together. Next, Brian said that if I wanted to be able to critique my own work as well as others, I need criteria. The primary aim of horror is to inspire fear and not everyone can be scared in the same way, therefore, I shall be highlighting the elements I think are essential towards inspiring fear and thus, projecting horror successfully. My criteria consists of several components including violence and realism, plot, scare & shock, audio, and finally lighting.

Violence and realism:

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I have always seen violence as a part of the horror genre, to visually horrify the audience, to inspire fear. There is a fine line between realistic visual gratuity and outright exaggerated and unrealistic visual gratuity. The difference being, something that could happen in real life and something that is completely far-fetched and fictional, for example, in Friday the 13th VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989), we see a character named Julius fist fighting our central character, Jason Voorhees to the point in which Jason literally punches Julius's head off his shoulders - truly exaggerative, unrealistic and fictional.  

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Halloween (2007) uses a more realistic approach to display violence; Michael Myers ties up his mother's abusive boyfriend Ronnie using duct tape and slits his throat. Ronnie bleeds out in seconds, no ridiculous blood spurting, no super-human ability to survive a fatal knife wound - realistic, plain and simple. For me, personally, this subject has a significant role and influence into whether or not I can enjoy a horror film. Recognising the difference between these two versions of graphic violence will determine whether or not I'm going to be scared and have certain parts of the film linger on my mind after it is finished or, laugh myself to sleep and fail to give what I have just seen a second thought. The closer the violence is to home, the more fearful I become.

Plot:
The storyline of a horror film, I feel, is essential to promoting horror because without a clear and structured storyline, it is hard for me to feel involved in what I am watching.

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Freddy vs Jason (2003) uses a very blunt and rather uninspiring storyline, I cannot recall a moment in this film where feelings of fear were evoked, instead it delivers a fantasy based brawl to determine which of the two horror icons is superior, two men enter, one man leaves, simply delivering what it promises, however, it does not accomplish the central aim of horror - fear.

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On the other hand, Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (1998) is driven by the plot. Michael Myers, a young boy whom murdered his older sister on Halloween 1963, then broke out of a mental institution and went on a killing spree on Halloween 1978. Twenty years have passed and after faking her own death, Laurie Strode, younger sister of Michael Myers and survivor of the events that took place on the night of Halloween 1978, has been trying to live a life of peace away from her murderous brother. Nobody has seen Michael Myers for twenty years, until now...

I saw this film when I was bout ten years old, and it still to this day sends a shiver down my spine. There are other elements that contribute to said lingering feelings of fear, however, these elements were reinforced by the structure of the story. I feel that to truly be inspired by the plot of a horror film, like any other film in any other genre, that you should feel involved in the film you are watching. In horror films, I have always felt that the more involved or drawn in you become, the more you begin to feel the fear.

Scare & shock:

I have always noticed two key ingredients that are used to inspire fear in horror films which are scares and shocks, the difference between the two are simple.

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Scares, I feel, are more psychological, images of what you have just watched lingering in your mind, forcing you to look over your shoulder whilst you walk home on a dark night or a reason to pull the covers over your head because you have some odd feeling that there might be someone or something in your room. Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003), the sequel to a story in which we see 'The Creeper', a creature that appears every twenty-three years to feast and terrorise the living. The Creeper stalks and smells his victims to find a unique part of him/her to eat.

 

Trapped on a bus, with little or nothing to protect themselves, a group of high school kids are relentlessly stalked and hunted by The Creeper. At 04:51, the creeper is seen, skulking at the side of the bus, smelling the kids for something he wishes to feast upon. This image is truly horrifying and scary, inspiring massed feelings of fear the first time I watched this film. The image of The Creeper lingered in my mind for weeks, resulting in continuous series of nightmares as well as evoking paranoid thoughts and feelings of anxiety and uncertainty.

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Paranormal Activity 2 (2010) is a perfect example of the successful portrayal of shocks in a horror film. Stalked by a demonic paranormal presence, later referred to as 'Toby' in the third film of the paranormal series, there was several moments in this film which caused me to leap out of my seat in sheer terror because the shocks were unpredictable and effective.

Everything appears to be normal in this scene. Just the mother of the household having a beverage and reading a magazine. The character occasionally looks around as she is certain she hears something and then at 0:47, WHAM, all the cupboards burst open with a mighty thunderous roar, successfully catching me by surprise and thus, shocking me successfully. These two ingredients have been portrayed using a number of techniques over the years and both elements themselves are different in many ways, however, they both inspire the same feelings of fear, be them constant or sudden.

Audio:
Sound plays a very valuable part in the projection of a successful horror atmosphere. It can be used to draw the focus of an audience towards a certain object, direction or character, create ambience, drive suspense or in some cases it can even shock & scare.

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The Thing (1982) uses audio effectively to scare, thus evoking feelings of fear. A research team in the Antarctic discovers the charred remains of an alien life-form which can duplicate its victims, granting it the ability to hide in plain sight with the sole objective to escape and infect the rest of the world. 

One of the research team discovers another member being duplicated by the creature. After fleeing to fetch help, the creature tries to escape, however, the alarm is raised and the creature is surrounded by the remaining members of the research team. Visually, it is clear that the alien has not had enough time to complete the duplication process and in its final moments, lets out a bone chilling roar, making it abundantly clear that it is truly a creature to be feared. The roar is not like any sound I have heard before, which makes it unique. A sound which I have never heard before, such a change in volume and tone, evoking fear almost instantly the moment I heard it.

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By far the most terrifying and fear inspiring sound that still haunts me to this day is the sound of The Creeper's horn on his incredibly old but surprisingly fast and agile truck in the film Jeepers Creepers (2001)

A brother and sister are travelling home to see their mother when suddenly a truck comes out of nowhere letting out a bone-chilling horn, over and over as it harasses and intimidates the two siblings. Fear is evoked by the sheer volume of the horn as it is sounds again and again, with no signs of stopping until the sibling's car is rammed off the road, allowing the monstrous vehicle to pass.

Lighting:

When used correctly, lighting can inspire feelings of fear. Lighting can be used as a weapon or as a means to set a scene, which can evoke feelings of fear alone or aid other elements in evoking fear.

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In [REC] (2007) the story follows a reporter and her cameraman, following a local fire-crew around to capture their regular activities. Responding to an emergency call in an apartment building, the reporter, her cameraman and everyone else whom is inside the building, are quarantined and trapped inside due to the release of a deadly virus. 

With only a video camera's night vision function to see where they are going, the reporter and her cameraman are trapped in the attic being stalked by an unknown creature. What evokes fear in this scene, I feel, is fear of the unknown, lack of of visibility, revealing only the basic form of this mysterious creature at first using heavy shadow/silhouette projections. Discovering that the creature's vision is based primarily on sound, the protagonists attempt to evade the creature but instead, alert its attention. Trying to help the reporter escape, the cameraman turns round, and suddenly, out of the darkness, the creature appears, screeching and battering him with a hammer, thus assisting in a more successful projection of shock and to also aid in the gratuitous display of the cameraman being pummelled to death by the creature.

What is the purpose of this criteria?
This is relevant to my area of study because I cannot rely solely on the opinions of others and must use my own criteria, as well as others in order to critically analyse and break down horror and thus, understand and identify the characteristics of Japanese horror films and how they differ to American and European directed horror films.