Definition of the rules!

[Femme_Fatale]

What would you personally define as: 'The rules of a horror movie' anything out of the ordinary would be most welcome

[the night watchman]

Hey, thanks, Femme; this allows me to pull out an old topic of mine that no one responded to. And by the way, welcome to the board.

A horror movie should portray at least two of the following:
1) Emotional distress: A character should, for a protracted amount of time on screen, experience something akin to fear, dread, terror, pain, or madness. Audience reaction should be no requirement, since, as has been pointed out, a movie like James Whale's "Frankenstein" would probably not provoke fear in anyone today over the age of around eight or ten. Fear is, after all, subjective. One man's shriek is another man's guffaw.
2) Physical deformity or the grotesque: By physical deformity I include those with birth defects (like in "Freaks"), those with scars ("Phantom of the Opera", Freddy Krueger), the fearsomely ugly ("Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"), and mutations ("The Day the Earth Ended"). By the grotesque I mean "normalcy" shown in an unpleasant light (Isabella Rossalini's naked body in "Blue Velvet" or the naked corpses in "The Cell.")
3) Graphic violence, gore, or death: On-camera wounding, bodily damage, and the after effects of such.
4) The mysterious: The supernatural, the unexplained, and monsters. (Or perhaps monsters would occur as a combination of deformity - or an aspect thereof, anyway - and the mysterious.)

[unicorn207]

Well, for slasher films its to never go anywhere alone, get away from there as soon as possible and stay away, don't answer the phone or announce your presence, and also don't have your mind focused on your sex-drive or on illicit drugs. Even though we all know what Hollywood is about. Hope this helps.

[unicorn207]

Well, for slasher films its to never go anywhere alone, get away from there as soon as possible and stay away, don't answer the phone or announce your presence, and also don't have your mind focused on your sex-drive or on illicit drugs or alcohol. Even though we all know what Hollywood is about. Also, never act like a pompous jerk. Hope this helps.