Horror Genre Research

Orphan (More film examples shown below)

The Trailer

Plot Summary

An American Psychological Horror Thriller Film.

John and Kate Coleman are trying to rebuild their troubled relationship. The couple decides to adopt a child. When they meet the 9-year old Russian girl, Esther, at the St. Marina Orphanage, they fall in love with the well-educated orphan. However the couples young son, Daniel is less welcoming towards her. But the couples deaf-mute daughter Max embraces her more than her brother. Eventually, Kate begins to feel that Esther may be psychologically disturbed. However John refuses to listen to his wife and therefore their relationship is then having problems again. Kate then calls Sister Abigail ( Head of the Orphanage ), and the nun informs her that Esther has a troubled and mysterious history. As Kate dives into Esther's past, she discovers she is not what she pretends to be.

Conventional Characters 

Esther - Possessed Child - A little girl who is psychologically disturbed and is violent which leads her to being a murderer, Esther is actually a 33-year old woman named Leena Klammer. She has hypopitutarism, a hormone disorder that stunted her physical growth and has spent almost her entire life posing as a little girl. Being extremely violent she has murdered at least seven people. Among her victims were a family that adopted her in Estonia, whom she killed because the father rejected her sexual advances. A child is often involved in a horror film whether he/she is possessed or an adult is often trapped in a child's body.

Kate - Mother who saves her family -  A lady who adopts Esther due to problems in her marriage life, hoping her relationship will go back to normal. However she then starts investigating about Esther's past and her disorder which is leading to people being killed. As she tries to solve this problem, she faces a lot of struggles, which could lead to her whole family being killed.

Sister Abigail - Family helper -  A nun who works at the Orphanage where Esther was currently staying before she was adopted. She helped Kate gather information about Esther's past and her hormone disorder. She looks in deeper into Esther's past and finds out reasons as to why Esther acts in a certain way. A person always helps in finding the truth along with a leading actor/actress.

Conventional Locations 

Isolated House - John and Kate Coleman's House, an isolatedl house which is often shown in horror films as within the house lots of unsettling scenes take place which can be very shocking and disturbing. Which is shown in the 'Orphan', Esther goes in the Coleman's house and then very disturbed things start to happen.

Isolated Forest - This was when Esther had murdered Sister Abigail as she knew the truth about her. This scene has taken place in a field when it was winter and no one was around. This is a conventional location because many scenes often happen in the winter as it looks more dangerous due to the trees and the day of times.

Abandoned Woods/ Forest - This is the family's tree house where Daniel and Max often go to. This scene was when Esther had set the tree house on fire in order to kill Daniel as he knew everything about her and didn't even want to accept her. This is a typical location because it seems very isolated and dull. Even though the tree house is on fire there's no one there besides Esther and Daniel.

Conventional Narrative Events 

• One typical event was when Esther had used a hammer to murder Sister Abigail, this is a typical event because in horror films they don't often use guns as a weapon but more sharp things such as knifes, scissors and hammers. This is probably because gun represents more of action whereas knifes and scissors represents more of horror and thriller. it also makes the character look disturbed as it makes the scenes more disgusting using those weapons.
• A new family member, Esther who is now an adopted child comes into the Coleman's family 
• Another event was when we saw Esther was trying to seduce John, which was very awkward as she is only 9 years old however the audience knows that she is actually a 33 year old woman. This is a typical event because odd things often happen in a horror movie such as this.
• Lastly another typical event was when Kate was breaking Esther's neck and threw her in the pond. This was a typical event because in horror films there is often extreme and explicit violence which takes place in the 'Orphan' quite a few times.

Sub-Genre within the Horror

The Orphan is a Psychological Horror film. The reason for this is because Esther is shown as a mentally disturbed character in the film and this is because a 33 year old woman is inside a child s body. As to which is relates to psychology too. The fact that she has a hormone disorder relates to the sub genre of the film. Also because of this disorder she acts really violent which leads her to becoming a murderer and that only occurs if the father of the family agrees to a sexual relationship with her. 

Films with Similar Conventions 

Paranormal Activity 4 - Supernatural Horror

Characters

• Innocent Family, Alex (Older sister), Wyatt (Younger brother) and Ben (Alex's boyfriend). A convention which is shown in almost  every horror film, the movie is based around families, couple or a child/children.
• Demon in a child's form, Robbie who has an imaginary friend Toby

Locations 

• House which within many shocking and disturbed things happen
• Isolated and abandoned house, Robbie's house, which looks quite mysterious as it is very dark and abandoned

Narrative Events 

• Robbie goes to Alex's room in the middle of the night and sleeps next to her similarly to Orphan when Esther tried to seduce John. 
•  A new member is being introduced to the family who is Robbie and his imaginary friend Toby which everyone finds a bit weird as he always talks to him

Silent Hill - Psychological Horror  

Characters  

• Innocent couple Rose and Christopher are worried about their adopted child Sharon who has been sleepwalking and been speaking about a town called 'Silent Hill'.
• Demons - When a humanoid creature shoots Cybil (Police officer)
• Cybil - Police officer who is helping Rose find her daughter similarly to Orphan when sister Abigail helps Kate

Locations

• Abandoned area/forest - Shown when Sharon goes missing, Rose looks for her in Silent Hill which is an unknown area only Sharon knows about
• A place filled with darkness - Shown when Rose entered it was completely dark and there was cobwebs everywhere, quite similar to Orphan as the house was set in a dark lighting

Narrative Events

• When Rose entered Silent Hill, mysterious child came out of nowhere, Rose swerves her car causing a crash similarly in Orphan when Esther comes up behind sister Abigail and hits her with a hammer
• New person being introduced, Sharon turns out to be Alessa, who is being abused by the town people.

Insidious - Supernatural Horror

 

Characters

• Innocent family - Renai and Josh with their two sons Dalton and Foster with their baby daughter Cali
• Possessed child - Dalton has the ability to astral project: the ability to leave your body and to travel to different places but in astral form but he has travelled too far and has become lost in a spirit called 'The Further' (A place for tortured souls of the dead)

Locations

• Dark Attic - Shown when Dalton is in the attic he hears mysterious creaking noises and the door is opening by itself
• Haunted house - In which many disturbed and mysterious things are happening, such as Dalton being attacked violently in his room

Narrative Events

• Innocent family moves into a haunted house - Often shown in horror films that disturbing and freaky things happen in a new/haunted house such as shown in insidious.
• New person/stranger is involved - Shown when Renai when Cali's and Dalton's room, there was a man standing in front of them and then when he stood in front of her, he attacked he and then the family moved to a second house.