Mise-en-scene of horror films

Setting: A stereotypical setting for a horror film vary between a cabin,forest or a haunted house. These location is used in order to create a tense and eerie tone. Furthermore, locations like this are used as they usually make the action escape civilisation and means that the characters are seemingly far away from help. The lighting in these areas is usually very dark as it means that the actions visibility is reduced and everything becomes more scary. 

Props: Props are a key reason why horror films are so scary. We associate certain objects with certain actions (this is called iconography). This means that we begin to panic when we see objects such as knives and guns because we are already making associations between objects and action. As well as this, we also associate objects with certain characters such as a machete with Jason Voorhees, from 'Friday the 13th' 

Lighting and colour: Horror films use lighting and colour in order to create certain tones within the film. We would associate horror films with colours like black and purple as these are dark tones which connote death and mystery. However if a horror film use bright colours -such as blue- we would not necessarily think that it was a horror film if we didn't know. The colour red is also very much associated with horror films as it is the main colour used for titles during a film as it conveys to the audience that there is going to blood and gore.  

Costumes and make-up: Costumes are important in horror films as we can determine whether they are good or evil based on their style and colour of clothing. Like props we associate certain outfits with certain character. For example, if we see a little girl in a film we would be expecting them to be wearing some sort of light coloured dress which is usually covered in either blood or dirt. Make-up is also important as it means that the protagonist can appear tired or sweaty which portrays to the audience that they are scared about what is happening.

Visual effects: Horror is one of the only genres which has not been majorly effected by the progression of special effects. This is due to the horror genre utilising practical effects in order to make the film seem more realistic. However, if anything is needed in post production, such as a burnt body part, after effects will be used in order to bring the action to a more realistic state.