For this lesson a man called Ryan Hollinger had came into our class with his presentation on Animated Horror 

He talked about horror beyond the scare

Our relationship with Fear and invoking Negative Stimuli:
– Disgust, anxiety, anger, distress, sadness, etc.
– Sometimes challenges Moral Sensibilities.
– Most animated horror focuses on the Psychological, the Grotesque and Dreams.
– Heavier emphasis on imagery, either symbolic or personified.
– Scares can be equally “gratifying” as they are “nihilistic”.
– Facing your fears in safe/entertaining way can be cathartic

The styes of animated horror

REALISM/“UNCANNY”
– Emphasis on verisimilitude.
– Typically “gritty and ugly”.
– Subtle presentation.
– Naturally off-putting feel.

EXPRESSIONISM
– Exaggerating real life.
– Stronger colours/shadow.
– Stylised character designs.
– Can be used comedically.

SURREALISM
– Distorts reality.
– Rejects accessibility.
– Typically cerebral.
– Sometimes mixes styles.

ALL STYLES WORK TOGEHER TO ELICIT REACTION

Horror is always fighting for two methods of thought:
THE VISCERAL & THE CEREBRAL
ALL STYLES WORK TOGEHER TO ELICIT REACTION
(Emotional/Feel) (Mental/Think)

He then showed us examples of movies we’ve or haven’t seen over the years like Fears of the Dark, Krampus with the animated flashback, Paprika, monster family and the game little nightmares.

Games included like silent hill that we analysed in class like the other short films had much horror in the early days. Even talking about fear to the young audiences like kids or teenagers or young adults. Like movies the black cauldron with the skeleton army rising, Coraline going to face the other mother and escaping, monster house eating the two cops and eating the cop car and finally the nightmare before Christmas opening scene/song which everyone enjoys playing for Halloween. 

It gives me some ideas on the assignment 2 but in the mean time I will wait for the next couple of weeks to plan and write out my essay for one of the topics.