Key Elements of the Horror Genre Analysis

After analyzing both Friday the 13th and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre I have started to recognise patterns emerging. These being mainly of Antagonist vs. Protagonist. In both of the films there is an almost constant formulaic chase of the protagonist by the main antagonist, this journey is littered with death of the protagonist friends and stock characters, Capturing and escaping. In both films the antagonist had a lair, the decor in these were scary and semiotically frightening. There were also several similar stock situations that occurred for example the antagonist ariving out of nowhere. The difference were minor and only due to the fact that there quite disperate films, i could have found much more similar plot-lines. The overall point that I have gained from this exercise is the fact that there is a formula used by production companies and writers to create a horror film, this makes the audience more accustomed to the horror genre