Typical Characters

Typical Characters of the Horror genre

In most Horror films the main character is a young naïve girl who is normally alone in an isolated house. When there is a couple on horror films, it is usually the girl who has paranormal experiences and her boyfriend will not believe her until he also has a paranormal experience. The boyfriend usually dies near the end of the film whilst trying to prove the paranormal is not real.

An example of this would be the film 'When a stranger calls' - A girl is alone in an isolated house babysitting when she starts getting mysterious phone calls. It turns out the calls are coming from within the house and she must get the girl and escape before the man gets her.

'When a Stranger Calls' Trailer

In most recent horror films, they are based around a family who move into a new home without realising it is haunted. After a few days the kids usually start experiencing strange happenings, it usually then proceeds to happen to the mum and finally the dad will experience something paranormal. An example of this would be the film 'The Conjuring' - The family move into a home and a poltergeist keeps appearing to the kids, it then approaches the mum and proceeds to reveal itself to the dad.

'The Conjuring' Trailer

Another common character to have in a horror film is a character who pretends to be a friend who is trying to help, but is actually behind the murders, kidnaps etc. For example in the film 'House of Wax' the man who is 'trying to help' is actually the psycho's brother and is helping him to kidnap the teens.