world”—a hyperordinary place, usually a small
town threatened by invasion of the other. This set-
ting casts the protagonist as the protector of her
beloved home turf and violates our own notions of
personal safety. Other horror films set their action
in remote rural areas that offer potential victims
little hope for assistance. A related horror setting
places the central character in a foreign, often
exotic, environment that lacks the security of the
familiar. The alien customs, language, and land-
scape disorient the protagonist (and the audience)
and diminish any hope for potential support. And,
as you may have guessed, regardless of where hor-
ror stories are located, they almost invariably stage
their action at night.
Besides tapping into our instinctive fears, night
scenes lend themselves to the chiaroscuro lighting—
the use of deep gradations of light and shadow within
an image—that most horror-movie cinematography
depends upon. This lighting style emphasizes stark
contrasts, with large areas of deep shadow accented
with bright highlights. The light is often direct or
undiffused, which creates well-defined shadows
and silhouettes, and low-key, meaning the dense
shadows are not abated by additional “fill” lights.
Horror-genre lighting is sometimes cast from
below, an angle of illumination not typical of our
everyday experience. The result is the distorted
facial features and looming cast shadows known on
film sets as “Halloween lighting.” Viewer’s percep-
tions are often made still more disoriented with the
use of canted camera angles that tilt the on-screen
world off balance. Horror-film staging also exploits
the use of offscreen action and sound that suggests
the presence of peril but denies the audience the
relative reassurance of actually keeping an eye on
the antagonist.
Some notable horror films include Freaks(1932;
director: Tod Browning); Bride of Frankenstein
(1935; director: James Whale); Cat People(1942;
director: Jacques Tourneur); Black Sunday(1960;
director: Mario Bava); The Innocents(1961; director:
Jack Clayton); Carnival of Souls(1962; director: Herk
Harvey); The Birds(1963; director: Alfred Hitchcock);
Kaidan(1964; director: Masaki Kobayashi); Rose-
mary’s Baby(1968; director: Roman Polanski); Night
of the Living Dead(1968; director: George Romero);
The Exorcist(1973; director: William Friedkin); TheHorror-movie settingsMost horror stories unfold in
settings that isolate potential victims from potential help.
Dario Argento’s Suspiria(1977) goes one step further by
placing the young protagonist, Suzy (Jessica Harper), in an
unusually creepy ballet academy in rural Italy. As a
newcomer and the only American student, Suzy is not only
isolated from the relative security of a populated area, but
must face considerable danger alone, without allies, in
unfamiliar surroundings.SIX MAJOR AMERICAN GENRES 101