A genre convention is something that is commonly seen in the genre of a film, its sort of like a stereotype that is usually obeyed by most directors in the genre. They are something that has become an iconic staple of that genre, like having a horror where everyone but the protagonist and the love interest is picked of one by one and meets a gruesome end at the hands of a killer.
These are very useful as they provide a structure to build a film around, but are also a bit annoying because people are getting hater to scare and with the over saturation of the markets with the same things it leads to a declining audience. This is why films like "paranormal activity" make so much money, they provides the audience with a scare because it something new and whole sub-genres can be created around it E.G. paranormal activity can be labeled the sub genre that is paranormal thriller.
Genre conventions can be easily picked out too, meaning that the audience can predict whats going to happen next, and the art of scaring people is usually backed by key factors like surprise and gore, when you loose the art of surprise it becomes mud harder to scare people.
For example the genre conventions for a slasher horror usually follow this set route;
A group of teenagers are all planning to have fun together or have a party, usually involves going to secluded locations where there isn't help nearby.
a good example of this is when the teenagers in the original Friday The 13th and the remake sneak into camp crystal lake, the site of a couple of brutal murders strange goings on.
Or when the teenagers from Scream 1 have a party at a house in the middle of nowhere.
One of them breaks off from the group and we are shown a shot of him being murdered and then the group usually finds his body (mutilated, hanging, ripped to bits, missing limbs, bite marks)
A good example of this is when one of the teenagers in Friday The 13th needs to go somewhere for a wee, choosing a bush as his prime location. He then sees a mysterious figure watching him, and mistakes him as his friend but is not aloud to guess again as the machete wielding maniac nails him to the tree with his weapon of choice.
The group then figures out that there is a killer on the loose and they try to call for help but are surprised when all the communications are not working or they can't get cellphone reception, they also sometimes make stupid mistakes like staying in the house that people got killed in (to be honest the first mistake was going into the house in the first place)
Friday the 13th - phone lines have been cut.
Scream 1 - surprise surprise, no cellphone reception
Sinister - decides its a good idea to stay in the house even after there have been numerous attacks on his family and him.
Grudge - coming back to the house where the murderous Japanese ghost killed your friends .... brilliant idea
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
staying in the empty house because leather face has locked the gates so that she can't get out, even though she as a van more than capable of destroying the stupid gate.
They tun figure out that they are in a fight for survival and all retreat to a safe place (empty cabin, upstairs bedroom, basement, hospital, police station, pub or shopping mall)
There is then an attack on their safe haven and they loose another member to the killer, they then usually split up into smaller groups which make them easier to kill.
The killer makes short work of the first group leaving there bodies strewn around or strung up to intimidate the others when they come looking for their friends.
The kids then go looking for the rest of their friends after splitting up and finding nothing, only for it to be revealed that their friends are dead and the group has once again been reduced in size.
leaving only two to a handful of main characters left, this means they have to survive.
The group then pluck up the courage to go after the killer but because he's usually smarter and has planned this or is far too strong for them one of the main characters sustains a minor injury or is captured by the killer.
The character then asks why the killer is doing this or other stupid questions like who are you? and why me? the killer then removes his mask or reveals some unimportant back story that allows the main character to stall time, while the hero of the movie desperately rushes to wherever this obvious waste of time is going on.
Just as the as we are about to watch the main character get brutally murdered and mutilated (which lets be honest is what we really came here for) the hero busts in and then kills the killer, usually in some unsurvivable way like with a gun, decapetation, explosion, car or pushing them into some massive murder machine.
There is then a period at the end of the film where the group is given five minutes to group and finish off any loose ends within the story plot, they then either get rid of the remains or are escorted away from the scene by police. this is a good way of making sure they leave so that the killer can be shown still moving or rising up and walking off to leave the story open for another copy and paste sequel.
Horror iconography
There is quite a lot of visual imagery that allows people to identify what genre the film they are watching belongs to. seen as we are picking a horror film the there are many common things that we could follow that would allow us to stick to the usual stereotypes of the horror genre.
For example we we could give the audience certain things to show them its a slasher flick E.G.
knifes
axe
hammer
nails
barbed wire
bloodmasks
machetes
haunted houses
gravestones
eyes
severed limbs
satanic instruments
abandoned areas
chainsaws
nooses
dismemberment
meet hookspower tools
medical equipment
syringes
drugs
bloody rags
bloody aprons and other clothing
Most of these things really aren't that scary on their own, but when paired with an antagonist either supernatural or just plain mental, they become frightening instruments of pain and torture. They are usually franchise defining like Jason's machete or Freddy's claw glove, they sometimes even have their own backstory E.G.
Freddy's claw glove was formed from malice, hatred and metal when he was thrown into a furnace by the towns folk because they all thought he was a pedophilic murderer.
Jason's machete was his first murder weapon when he killed the first campers at camp crystal lake, he then goes through the franchise murdering everything and everyone with it.
Leather face's chainsaw is his favourite instrument to capture, contain, kill and ravage the remains of all those unlucky enough to cross his path.
Michael Myers's kitchen knife while the kitchen knife does not actually belong to the man himself, he is well acquainted with it as he kills his sister with this oversized knife at the ripe old age of 6.
Evil dead's nail gun this power tool was used to devastating effect in the original and had even more gory and visceral use in the 2013 reboot.
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