The horror film is a film genre that deliberately triggers fear, terror, disgust and a feeling of threatening uncertainty in the viewer. Most often, ordinary people are suddenly confronted with a supernatural, inexplicable or darkly human threat. Unlike crime drama, it rarely revolves around solving — it almost always revolves around bare survival. Suspense is built through long buildups of danger, short shock moments and a steady escalation of the threat.
Characters:
- victims (often young, unsuspecting, curious),
- monster / ghost / psychopath / demon — the threat,
- "final girl" — the survivor who has to face the threat at the end,
- the warner (old man, priest, local — "Don't go in there!"),
- the sceptic who doesn't believe in the threat until it's too late,
- the clueless authority (police, parents, teachers) who doesn't believe the victims,
- the eerie child who can see the danger, or is themselves a medium,
- pet that senses the danger first (and often dies first).
The central characters are usually completely ordinary people (e.g. Janet and Brad in Rocky Horror Picture Show), whose ordinariness contrasts with the horror.
Features:
- isolation (remote location, no mobile reception, the car won't start),
- darkness, shadows, flickering light,
- strange sounds out of nowhere,
- escalating threat — first small signs, then open attack,
- boundary-crossing — a forbidden place is entered, a curse spoken, a ritual begun,
- the victim believes for a long time that they alone perceive it,
- shock moments (jumpscares) alternating with long, quiet passages.
Victims and the pursued are often panicked, stumble, drop their keys, run upstairs instead of out.
The threat moves calmly, unstoppably, and works in an uncannily high-status way.
The viewer often knows more than the figure (suspense) or discovers the danger together with them (mystery). This gap between figure and viewer knowledge is a core engine of the genre.
Motives of the threat:
The evil in horror usually has one of the following backgrounds:
- revenge for a past injustice (an old curse, an unavenged death),
- hunger / drive (vampires, werewolves, zombies),
- madness, psychic disintegration,
- possession or demonic mission,
- territory — intruders are punished,
- pact or ritual that has gone out of control.
In improv, the monster should also want something. A motivation that grows from a relationship between the playing figures (a betrayed child, a deceived lover, an outcast family member) carries dramatically further than pure random scare.
Typical stylistic devices:
- creaking floorboards, squeaking doors, dripping tap,
- flickering light, candle going out at the wrong moment,
- thunderstorm, storm, rain, fog,
- music box that starts to play on its own,
- mirrors and reflections — something stands in the mirror that isn't in the room,
- POV shots from the monster's perspective,
- the long scream,
- blood in unexpected places (wall, tap, toy),
- unnatural movements (twisted bodies, jerky, against gravity),
- children's voices, whispering, giggling out of nowhere,
- the music goes quiet — then BANG,
- silence as the most effective sound,
- emotion curve: unease → tightness → panic → terror,
- the "last quiet scene" before the attack,
- someone does something everyday (showering, going to bed) while in the background, unseen, the threat waits,
- chase: running, stumbling, hiding — the threat just walks,
- the ending that isn't an ending (the hand from the grave, the door that opens again).
Typical locations:
- lonely country house, old manor,
- cellar, attic, long dark corridor,
- forest at night, cabin in the woods,
- abandoned psychiatric hospital, empty hospital,
- graveyard, crypt, mortuary,
- hotel with silent staff,
- church, confessional, crypt,
- school or boarding school after dark,
- remote petrol station, rest stop at night,
- car breakdown on a deserted country road,
- hall of mirrors, fairground after closing,
- children's room with old dolls.
Typical figures / characters / authors:
- Frankenstein's monster (Mary Shelley) — the man playing God,
- Dracula (Bram Stoker) — the seductive undead,
- Norman Bates (Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock) — the bourgeois facade, the motel, the shower,
- Regan and Father Merrin (The Exorcist) — possession and a test of faith,
- Jack Torrance (The Shining, Stephen King) — the father who becomes a monster,
- Carrie (Stephen King) — bullied teenager with uncanny powers,
- Michael Myers (Halloween) — the silent, unstoppable mask,
- Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street) — the nightmare from the dream world,
- Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th) — the avenger at the lake,
- Leatherface (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) — the family as horror,
- Ghostface (Scream) — horror that knows its own rules,
- Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs) — the cultivated cannibal,
- Samara (Ring), Annabelle (The Conjuring) — modern ghost and doll motifs,
- H. P. Lovecraft — cosmic horror, Cthulhu mythos,
- Edgar Allan Poe — gothic horror, unreliable narrators,
- shaping directors: Alfred Hitchcock, Wes Craven, John Carpenter, James Wan, Guillermo del Toro, Jordan Peele, Ari Aster.
Subgenres:
- slasher (masked killer hunts teenagers),
- ghost film, haunted house,
- possession horror (exorcism),
- folk horror (rural cults, old customs),
- zombie film,
- found footage (pseudo-documentary),
- body horror (transformation and disintegration of the body),
- psychological horror (the fear plays out in the figure's mind).
Tips for improv theatre:
- Build slowly — a good horror moment begins with a detail that doesn't fit.
- Reaction before action. Fear lives in the figure's face, not in the monster.
- The threat doesn't have to be shown — what the viewer imagines is stronger than anything that can be shown on stage.
- Use status consciously: the threat is calm and high-status, the victims slip ever lower in status as it goes on.
- Work with silence — sudden quiet after noise creates more tension than constant noise.
- Announce rule-breaks and take them seriously: whoever opens the forbidden door has to live with the consequences.
- Don't escape into slapstick when it gets uncomfortable. Real feelings carry the genre.
- Build a clear closing image: redemption, shared survival or the open door into the sequel.