Mise en Scene within Horror Films

Hello!

Overview
Recently I have been doing my own research into what makes the setting of a place scary and horror-like. With this research, I aim to apply my findings into my horror trailer to make it as horrific as possible and one that fits the horror genre.

Here is a short clip I found on YouTube consisting of three classic horror locations. I believe this was beneficial for me to see because it made me realise what locations would be the most effective within horror trailers or films in general and what would scare the audience the most.

As a group, we decided on three main horror locations in which this is:

• A church
• A house
• Outside (streets)

Other minor locations will include:

• A subway
• A bathroom

A traditional horror house would look something like this:

However, if we were to ever get a house like this then it would not fit in with our narrative as although it would have some scary aspects for examples trees and bushes it needs to look normal as the main characters has not become possessed yet. A normal house would symbolise that there are normal citizens living inside and would convince the audience that nothing will bad will happen in which we want the audience to feel like this.

Parks are not ususally used within horror trailers, the main location would usually be a forest. Since a forest around the area we live in is unlikely we decided to get a park instead and film the scenes at night.

A park like this would be amazing to film in at night because it would have a "horror feel" to it, as if the person wondering through the park would not be able to escape. The runway would make it as if the character is running to nowhere and would give the illusion that the character is in a forest. Additionally, it would be a great space to film zombie like scenes so it's as if the character has turned away from society and has now had to go into hiding. I believe as a group we would aim in getting a location like this one, hopefully around the surrey borough.

A typical horror bathroom (not including a bath) would look something like this:



However, since the bathroom is within a church we would need the bathroom to look more authentic, old and less scary. Even though this is a brilliant example of what a bathroom should look like I believe it's too over the top as we would not want to connote that deaths have been taken place in the bathroom but only that it is a scary place for someone to be by themselves at night.

Summary

• Horror locations