Movie Conventions Research: Hereditary

Hey guys, I’m back at it! I chose the movie Hereditary to research. I chose this movie because it embodies many aspects of the horror genre, which is what my group and I are basing our movie on. Some elements that the movie Hereditary shows is dark lighting and a suspicious setting throughout most of the intense parts of the film. This film also included weapons, bloody makeup, and special effects to enhance the horror aspect. There were also many angles such as close ups on the actors face to show a scary blank stare and high angles to show a lack of power upon a character. On top of this there were also many frightening sound effects such as screeching, screaming, intensifying spine chilling music, etc. All of these elements found in this film worked to produce an extremely scary horror film. Elements found in this movie that I admired was, the use of sound effects to help amplify the story being told. For example, they used sound effects to show that the boy was being possessed which helped clarify what was happening and make it seem more scary. I also liked the many close up angles shot throughout this film. Showing the fearful expressions of the actors really provided the horror aspect to the film. Without the use of these angles, the film wouldn’t have encompassed the horror feel as we would not know how the characters were feeling and reacting. Elements of the film I did not particularly enjoy was the lack of jump scares. Although the film was quite scary it did not have many jump scares to increase the intensity. I love a good jump scare in horror movies over the gory violence so, the lack of them was a bit disappointing and affected the overall scare factor. I also felt that some scenes were pretty similar to scenes of other horror movies. The story told was great but, there were a few generic, unnecessary scenes the movie could have done well without. Hereditary was a good movie to research although the plot is completely different, it gave my group and I many ideas for conventions and codes to use in our project. Researching this movie has shown my group elements of horror films we need to focus on and incorporate when we film. It has also shown us elements we should stay away from when filming so we can still stay within the horror genre. Anyways see you next time guys peace out!