Conventions of Psychological Horror

Common conventions seen in a Psychological horror are:

• Main character has a mental conflict or has some form of memory loss. This is seen in The Shining, where Jack often has mental images and in Identity, where Mallick has ten different personalities..
• The movie plays on common human fears. E.g. Creepy crawlies and darkness. In the film Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy tends to attack in dark areas, he also cuts himself open sometimes to reveal worms and insects.
• Children are often injured or attacked as this has a big affect on parents. This is seen in Nightmare on Elm Street, as the teenagers are murdered.They are also used as the antagonist in films as this has a more psychological affect on the audience, this was seen in Wicked Little Things, The Children and in many zombie films as some zombies are children.
• There is often a lot of tension and anticipation to build a horror element. This is shown in many horror movies, the scene tends to build up by use of music, location and body language. When a character runs away from the antagonist, the music will build up, he will start breathing heavily, looking behind him and will run into a narrow corridor or will be running around corners, where the audience believe the antagonist is waiting.
• The personality of characters is often not given in detail, the audience must work out which one is the antagonist, in a way similar to that in Scream or Se7en.