Horror Film Genre Essay Example

The two movies I viewed were Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist, which were both directed by Tobe Hopper. Both films displayed the general rules horror films generally follow through the use of horror film genre conventions. For instance, both movies follow the good verses evil story lines and in each the end does ultimately win. However, this is not entirely true in Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The friends represented the good and the chainsaw carrying monster and his family portrayed the evil. In the end on of the friends, Sally, ultimately does escape from being killed by the monster in the movie. However, her other four friends were taken down and gruesomely killed by the evil killer in the movie. So although in a bittersweet manner, the good ultimately prevails when Sally escapes in the back of a truck as the chainsaw yielding monster is left behind. In Poltergeist, the “good” family overcomes the “evil” ghosts of the house by rescuing their daughter from the other realm she was sucked into and by the whole family escaping the possessed house all together in the very end. The equilibrium outline in each film was questionable. In most, the daily motions of life are disrupted by some “evil” and in the end regularity is reestablished. The end where normality returns is what is in question in both movies. In Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the friends are enjoying a trip together and then they encounter the chainsaw killer and his cannibal family and their normal life is flipped inside out with each one getting brutally murdered except for Sally. In the end normal life is not restored, all Sally’s friends are gone and although she herself escapes and could live a normal life, what she was put through would not leave her the same as she was before. In Poltergeist, the Freeling family seems to portray the typical suburban family in the 1970’s going about their day as any other family would. That ends however when a host of ghosts possess their house and take their