Real media texts

Investigation
What are real media texts
And what are the conventions
of the horror genre?
Real media texts are the typical codes and conventions that are found in media products of
the same genre. The codes and conventions commonly found in films of the horror genre are
isolated setting, tense and eerie, jumpy sound stings, fast cut editing towards the end of the
trailer to increase tension, tons of short takes, supernatural monster or criminal. There is
normally a build up of sound (crescendo) as it starts off slow paced and ends fast. A daemon
or villain that disrupts the equilibrium, using the female normally as the victim as well as
captions that make reference to the film.
Insidious 2
This film has the typical conventions of a
horror as the film includes violence, blood an
iconic villain that wants to ruin everyone's
lives. The location is a typical for horror as its
an isolated, spooky house which creates a
more frightening atmosphere. In this film
they also use the colour red a lot which is a
connotation for blood and death. Also there is
lots of sound stings in the trailer which are
the typical conventions of a horror.
Noel Carrols theory could be applied to this
film, Firstly there is the onset phase where a
disorder is created such as a monster etc.
Secondly there is the discovery phase where
the characters of the story discover that the
disorder has occurred
Lastly there is the third phase which he calls
the disruption phase where the characters
destroy the source of disorder and restore to
normality
This is slightly familiar to Todorovs theory
where he agued that the basic narrative
structure consists of an initial situation,
situation one whereby a problem disrupts this
situation; a resolution of the problem which
allows the reinstatement of the initial
situation, perhaps with slight changes
(situation 2)

Dead silence
This film is typical of the horror conventions
as it contains blood and guts as well as
dramatic sounds tense music, a scary villain
out to kill as well as spooky old setting
being the theatre, this makes It even more
scary as this is a place some people
sometimes go so it makes it more realistic.
The film is also very dark which is popular
convention under mise en scene in horror
as it scares the audience into thinking what
could be lurking in the shadows. As well as
that this also creeps the audience out into
making the villain a toy that some people
may have., leading the audience to believe
that what happens in the film could happen
in real life.
A theory that can be applied to the film and
trailer is Freud's theory of the uncanny, the
dolls have very human like features and are
familiar and safe to the audience, whereas
because they have a constant unchanging
facial expression and doll like features their
faces are unusual at the same time which
creates a feeling of fear.
Women
In Black

This film isn't as typical to the horror genre
as there is less blood and violence , but
there is the conventions of loud sounds and
creepy music as well as a scary villain that
wants to kill everyone. The setting is also
typical of the horror genre as its an old
isolated house away from the town and in a
marsh that sometimes you cant get through,
making the audience realise that if
something bad did happen the characters
would not be able to escape. This film also
uses children as well which becomes creepy
as it takes away their innocence. Most of the
film is typically dark creating an eerie
atmosphere this also is created through the
weather which is never sunny its always
miserable and cold. There is fast pace action
towards the end showing another typical
convention, also the use of the nursery
rhyme to make it more eerie because most
nursery's rhymes are about death such as
ring a ring a roses is about the plague.
What theories link to the
trailers?
They all link to the theorist Tzvetan Todorovs narrative theory as he developed the
equilibrium, disequilibrium and equilibrium stage. The trailer begins peacefully
(equilibrium) a disruption happens as they introduce the villain (disequilibrium).
However it does not show how the equilibrium is restored.