Human-Trauma drama (a hybrid genre)

What is horror? A painful and intense fear, dread, or dismay. I can certainly agree that most horror directors instil this definition into the storytelling of their films. I just think it needs a bit more tweaking to define horror films in the context of the world we live in today. I heard someone define it like this: A horror film is a motion picture whose primary focus is to instil negative emotions in the audience at a more intense level than other genres. These emotions will mainly be fear, dread, anxiety, and terror. I would also include “trauma” in that definition simply because I find that if you as the audience watch someone on screen experience one of those emotions, especially if you are invested in the character, initially the feeling is strong but slowly it becomes diluted the more we see it happen. Trauma on the other hand forces the audience to act as a conduit to which the victim is experiencing said emotion. We know it could happen to us. We’ve heard it happen to people we know personally. We see it on the news everyday. We read about it. But we never experienced it ourselves. A victim of theft, hijacking, rape, assault, murder, etc. The trauma comes from the mystery (knowing the victim, hearing the horror stories) but never experiencing it oneself. There are two people in society; the victim and the witness. This is human-trauma. So if you are the victim watching, there is a repressed emotion there. If you are the witness watching the film, the fear response comes from the unknown and ‘uncanny’. Drama is story, and story is king!

Lets not kid ourselves the horror genre has become diluted and saturated with shitty sequels, reboots, and more uninspiring shit. Ironically this is why I decided to make a horror film, but not just a horror film with “disturbing imagery” just for the sake of familiarity. See familiarity is not a bad thing, but modern horrors are filled with nothing but things we recognise because of its unoriginality. Nothing is ever as good as the first time we see something, but we can never see the same thing twice. Being unoriginal is the cardinal sin in horror films in a genre where its purpose is to be unexpected. The truth is horror movies are just not scary anymore. 

So why a hybrid genre for my film 'The Pinch Code'? The script attempts to explain what true horror is, but I am not a psychologist and I highly doubt that I will be able to explain the defining reason. So that will not be my focus, however I think one thing should be addressed and that is the effect horror has on us. The script poses a few questions in the beginning: What is true horror? What do you fear? What scares you? I hoped to answer all questions by the end. 

I also hope there is progression, tone & theme in there. I designed the story structure to be a study of psychological horror. And I have used Sigmund Freud’s explanation of “Psychoanalysis” to further explore the question: why are people drawn to horror? “Horror comes from the uncanny emergence of images and thoughts of the primitive ID suppressed by the civilised ego”. The final conclusion of this unique hybrid genre would be to include the “trauma” I spoke about earlier. So my definition of a horror film looks like this: A horror film is a motion picture whose primary focus is to instil fear responses in the audience through means of the ‘uncanny’ using the characters as a surrogate for the audience. These emotions will mainly be fear, dread, anxiety, terror, suspense, and human-trauma. 

The suspense comes from: comedy + drama = suspense. And you can see just how effective the genre “human-trauma drama” can be. So in more plain terms; 
Style is: Psychoanalysis through means of the ‘uncanny’. 
Tone is: Societal fears. 
Genre is: Human-Trauma Drama . 
Mode is: Independent watching = High empathy + Positive outlook.  

Other Modes include: 
Gore watching = low empathy + high sensation. This mode relates to Identifying with the killer. Thrill watching = high empathy + high sensation seeking. This mode relates to Identifying with the victim. 
Independent watching = high empathy + positive outlook. 
Problem watching = high empathy + negative outlook. 

Introspection: In order to achieve a positive outlook for your character you audience needs to empathise with your character. Which means both the character and audience have to share the emotions. However, these emotions become diluted as it tries to fit into a fictional and visual medium. The films job is to convince the audience that the emotions the characters are experiencing is real. 

Which means they have to empathise with the characters and understand their torment. Its good if the character shows fear but the audience needs to understand why first. Therefore the audience is a subject in the film too. 

Pacing: A clue that you are watching a good film is in it’s pacing. Does it start off with something shocking right away, or are we given enough time to build up tension and develop the character. There’s that word again, Introspection. 

Tension: According to Alfred Hitchcock, “drama is life with the dull bits cut out”. Therefore drama is exposition mingled with uncertainty. In the world of David Fincher, drama happens when the character learns a new piece of information. And how it fits with everything they already know. How do they act to learning a little more about the truth? “They (the audience) know you can do anything. So the question is, what don’t you do, not what do you do.” If they are watching a horror the audience knows 100% that at some point they can expect a “Jump-scare”. And unfortunately this has become a trope that most horror directors rely on but don’t use it effectively, ultimately saturating the market with cheap, predictable, ineffective horror films. So how do you do horror without jump-scares? If you withhold the most frightening aspect of the scene or story, the audience remains apprehensive because they are still waiting for the big reveal. I think an audience in this state is more susceptible to being scared, they’re already halfway there. If Story is king, then Anxiety is its Queen!