Where is an effective place to set a horror?

First I began by researching the typical horror settings and seeing what films chose which settings.

Mental Institutions

How do you know if you are sane?

Mental institutions are filled with the unknown, as most of us have never visited one, and most of us have no idea what they involve. When combining the human presence with this setting, it combines the audiences known with the unknown, making it good ground to set a horror film on.

Session 9 (2001)

A cleaning crew work to clean a building that used to be an asylum for the mentally insane. They struggle to get the job completed, as they begin to experience odd sounds and disturbing images.

This creates a realistic situation in a setting that the audience are not familiar with.

In The Home

Are you ever really safe?

Instead of putting the audience in an unfamiliar setting, some horrors place the unknown into where the audience would normally feel most comfortable. This makes the film stay with the audience, as it seems more realistic.  

House at the End of the Street (2012)

A girl moves to a new home, following her parents’ divorce. She begins to fall for the mystery man living nearby, until she begins to wonder what he may be hiding in his basement..

Using the relatable storyline of divorced parents causing the protagonist to move away, as well as the setting of a home, there is the potential to create a really scary plot for the audience.

The Woods

If you scream and theres nobody around to hear you, did you make a sound?

The woods is a good horror setting for reasons other then the fact that it may be familiar or unfamiliar to the audience. It's a space full of objects and presence, yet it is easy to feel isolated. There is often no phone signal, leaving the idea the anything could happen and you are left helpless. It's easy to hide in if you are running from a killer, but it's also easy for the killer to hide from you. It creates an atmosphere of seclusion that leaves the audience in fear of what could happen.

The last house on the Left (2009)

After causing grievous bodily harm to two young girls, the group find shelter in a secluded house in the woods, that happens to be the holiday home of the girls family they had just assulted. The parents unite in the attmept to capture and kill the group that harmed their daughters.

The fact that the gang are able to attack the girls so easily is due to the isolated setting of the girls holiday home. It creates the idea that the secluded country side is to feared.

Our research interviews have told us that people feel safest when surrounded by people. We want to combine the idea's of feeling safe with feeling completely vunerable.

By Emili Hone