Characters

In horror films the characters can vary. From props to people, all can be used to set an immense amount of tension. In films like "Chucky" a puppet is used to scare the audience and create tension. It is the fact that a small doll that comes to life and kills people. It makes the audience come out of there comfort zone, and come into a world that makes. Chucky is the protagonist of the film and is portrayed as a lifeless doll at the beginning and as it progresses you see what he really is. Using a doll sets the mood of this film of this really well because of the life that is inserted into the doll, and the terror that he creates.


Another type of character that is usually used in horror films is a child. They use children because it takes the sweet and innocent generation and turns them into monsters, which is a traumatic experience for all people. For example, in the exorcist they use a little girl that has been possessed by some sort of spirit, and she shows an immense amount of pain and horror in her personality. In this film she is also a normal human being at one point, but when she turns into the demon child, it shows a massive contrast with her normal personality. This Girl could be taken as either an antagonist or a protagonist, because she is an innocent little child but in the film she is possessed by a horrible spirit. In the picture on the right, this is the girl as herself and on the picture on the left, it is her as the monster that she turn into. As you can see there is a massive contrast between both states that the girl gets into. 

Other characters in horror films are protagonists. These people are generally the victims in the genre of horror. Katie from paranormal activity is on of the protagonists in the film. Katie and her husband are being haunted by spirits in their own household. The fact that Katie and her husband are innocent people who live a simple life makes this film even more heart breaking and creates sympathy in the audiences view.

Jack was originally a protagonist in the beginning of this film, but then became possessed by an evil supernatural power that took advantage of his weakness in his past. This then immediately turned him into a antagonist in the film. In this film it shows how quickly Jacks personality can escalate and have traumatic effects on the other characters in the film. I think that the quick personality change that occurs in this film is really horrific, because he goes from this family man to and extreme killer. The psychological effects that are in this film create a mood that can play with the audiences feeling towards the character jack. And because he changes from an honest hard working man to this psycho that tries to kill can really create a horrific atmosphere.





There are many different types of character in horror films. These can be:

• The main protagonist - a victim or hero of the film
• The main antagonist - maybe a monster, mutated human or a serial killer
• Bunch of children or teenagers who get killed throughout the film or are put in horrific scenario's
• Children - these children are normally become possessed or evil
• And other creatures - werewolves, ghosts, zombies and demons etc.