Original Blog Post

How to achieve the best Camera Angles for your Horror Film

Knowing Your Scene

In order to have a chance for the best angles on your horror film, knowing how to speak to your targeted audience is a good way of understanding how to film your shot. By doing this you can achieve the scene you are trying to create in the best way possible. Once this is figured out, looking at the shadows and lighting you want to create is another way to enhance your visuals.

Casting A Shot

Creating a shadow is one of the most powerful tools to reveal or conceal a mystery and by doing so it can hint at any lurking dangers. Using lighting on shadows can instantly change a scene from ordinary to frightening. It could even spread a bigger meaning as trying to express the theme of something. This is a great way to heighten the terror for the viewer just with controlling the deaths of the lighting to apply effect towards shadowing. Once you reach the desired goal you’re looking for, figuring out what angles you want to use to shoot your scene is next based on the position you’re in. if you’re trying to create a sense of claustrophobia and intensify fear, then either doing close-ups of facial features like zooming into something specific like perhaps the eyes then tight framing is the best choice. A good example of this is Texas Chainsaw Massacre, because it does a lot of facial closeups in the way they create this by capturing the terror of the character being shown. The movie Lights Out (2016) is a prime example of using shadows and lighting to create a suspenseful take because it premises around that. The fear is based on the anticipation that is developed by the lingering moments of silence. When using a creature or object in a scene a low-angle shot will give a powerful perspective towards that thing while when switching scenes a high-angle shot will diminish that character making it seem smaller and weaker. If you want to create a balance for a scene, you can move from a cowboy shot to a medium shot and continue to pan down towards the character to allow the viewer to absorb what has been happening. When creating a dual scene, it’s best to do an over the shoulder shot instead of a two shot, so that way the focus because easier to be controlled.

Honorable Mentions

Great Movies that share this concept could include a classic film like The Shining (1980) because the use of wide-angle shots is able to construct the uneasy feeling that something is going to happen, but you don’t know what. The attention to detail that every frame has, is what allows the impact that it creates on the audience achieving the suspense it’s trying to create. Jeepers Creepers (2001) offers an immense use of lighting and shadows with the silhouettes. It creates with the supernatural creatures that are encountered. not only that, but it also gives the discussed feeling of watching the actions that are being captured. Without this, it wouldn’t have the same effect if it was in a brightly lit shot. Especially since the monster remained a mystery till the end of the movie and you only see small clips and hints beforehand. so, when it is revealed, the horror makes more of an effect on the audience.

Source: Scucci, Rob. “13 Perfect Camera Shots in Horror Movies.” MovieWeb, 23 Apr. 2023, movieweb.com/perfect-camera-shots-in-horror-movies/.

Johnson, Eric. “The Secrets of Horror Movie Cinematography.” The Film Fund Blog, 15 Sept. 2023, www.blog.thefilmfund.co/unlocking-the-secrets-of-horror-movie-cinematography-techniques-factors-and-tricks-to-heighten-suspense/.