Paranormal Activity- Construction and Conventions

Paranormal Activity Deconstruction with Supernatural

Horror Conventions 

The typography is kept the same throughout the film. It
is an official looking typewriter font which ties in with the documentary-like theme the film is going for.  The use of dates and place names is quite common in horror films as it increases the realism.  The more realist the film, the more it will generally scare the audience as they feel it could now happen to them.

A major convention of supernatural horror is the use of hand held cameras to show POV shots. This film conforms to this as the whole film is a "home movie".  This technique is used to increase the horror value of the film as the audience watch through a person's eyes which makes it scarier.  

The setting for many supernatural horrors are normal, everyday places that could be anywhere in the world.  This film is nothing different as the location is an average suburban house.  This again increases the realism which makes the film scarier as it could happen to anyone.

This is a clip which has examples of the off-screen diegetic sounds and objects which move by themselves.  In most supernatural horror films its what you don't see that scares you the most, so a lot of off-screen diegetic sounds are used to create an fear of the unknown. There is also lots of times where objects move, seemingly, by themselves.  This makes the audience presume it is something they cannot see which is causing the movement.  Paranormal activity features many examples of both of these qualities.

 Another main convention of supernatural horror is possession.  As demons feature a lot in this genre, possession is almost inevitable.  Many films use possession because it creates a vessel for the evil entity to take form in, instead of taking the risk of making an unrealistic looking demon creature.

   The use of shadows and unidentifiable shadows is a very effective way of scaring the audience without creating a gruesome looking creature with special effects.  Many horrors use vague depictions of evil instead of physical ones so the film keeps its credibility, especially if it takes a documentary form.  

Mostly in supernatural horror, violence is not as predominant for the majority of the film, particularly in comparison to slasher.  They prefer to scare the audience by using the fear of the unknown, although there is usually a violent or gruesome death scene.  In this case one of the main characters is killed by the other whilst possessed.  You do not witness the killing but a body is thrown at the camera and there a huge blood stain on the killers top which implies extreme 

violence.

At the beginning and end of the film, information is put on the screen which adds to the form of the documentary and tries to convince the audience that this film is in fact real.  Many horrors use this technique to scare the audience into thinking all this is real and could easily happen to them.