Hotel Impaler Conventions

The animated film Hotel Transylvania, (2012), directed by Genndy Tartakovsky is based on the original Dracula novel published in 1897, written by Bram Stoker. This film is an animated comedy with the sub-genre of horror. The purpose of the horror in this film is to scare alongside entertain the audience. Therefore, comedy is the main genre in the film Hotel Transylvania, because the intended audience is children. Some horror conventions used in this film include setting, characters, plot and ideas.

The composer is trying to convey the message that in the film Hotel Transylvania, the setting is a convention of horror. In the opening scene, an image of a hotel was shown. It was set in a dark, deserted place with many isolated leafless trees.
In the film Hotel Transylvania, the characters all consist of supernatural/immortal monsters. Dracula in the film Hotel Transylvania is constructed from the main antagonist of Bram Stoker’s gothic novel, Count Dracula. Through the progressive film, an extreme close up that turns into a close-up shot of Dracula is shown. When the shot is viewed we also see the red colour highlighted along his face. The effect that the composer has incorporated in this shot is to scare the audience. Dracula wears a long black toned cape as his costume in the film. Long black capes associate with vampires, as is Dracula so the effect is that Dracula looks and appeals scarier. Progressing through the film a dialogue of Dracula stating "Yes, I can’t have it. Makes my throat swell up," suggests that he can’t have garlic bread. This shows that the ideas in the film are based on the original novel. The composer is trying to merge as many elements to Dracula to link him back to the original Dracula in Bram Stoker's novel which also shows how scary Dracula can be. Hence, the characters introduced in Hotel Transylvania add to the horror
In the film, the plot follows good versus evil however, it is ironic as the monsters are good and the humans are evil. This is the main idea incorporated throughout the film coming from the monster’s perspective. In the flashback scene, Dracula is explaining to Jonathan how his wife was attacked by the humans. This was followed by a close up shot of Dracula and his wife showing their relationship before she died. The scene was followed by a high angle shot of angry humans with torches and pitchforks to show us Dracula’s perspective of when they were about to attack his wife. A close-up shot of her hand when she fell to her death was shown with sounds heard in the background of the roars and cries of the angry humans. After the flashback ends a dialogue of Dracula stating that ’they are the real monsters,” shows the plot is ironic. It shows that is ironic because Dracula is the monster, but in this case, he is stating that the humans are. These examples all reinforce the good verse evil in this film. The effect that the composer has incorporated when using the type of plot all throughout Hotel Transylvania is to show that monsters are good and humans are evil and how it is all ironic. Therefore, the plot is shown to be a horror element.

To conclude, it is clear through the analysis of the film Hotel Transylvania that the horror conventions supplemented are proven to be effective. Genndy Tartakovsky has implemented