Naming My Film - Film Title Conventions

Having completed most of my research into existing horror films I am now in a position to start planning elements of my own marketing campaign for a film from the genre. Over the next few posts I will consider the name or title for my film. To help me come up with a title appropriate for the horror genre I am going to look at a number of existing film titles from films within the genre to see whether any patterns emerge.

'Don't Breathe 2'

'Carrie'

'Christine'

'You're Next'

'Misery'

'We Need to Do Something'

'The Amityville Horror'

'Hush'

'Pet Sematary'

'Saw'

'The Thing'

'The Orphanage'

'Run'

'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'

'Frankenstein'

'I Spit on Your Grave'

'Night of the Living Dead'

'Get Out'

'Suicide Club'

'X'

'A Nightmare on Elm Street'

'It Follows'

'Happy Death Day 2U'

'The Toolbox Murders'

'Cannibal Holocaust'

'All the Boys Love Mandy Lane'

'Veronica'

'Knock at the Cabin'

'The Last House on the Left'

There is consistency, or a pattern, to horror film titles, with the frequent inclusion of one or more of the following:

• the title often includes the names of people ('Carrie', 'Christine', 'Frankenstein', 'All the Boys Love Mandy Lane', 'Veronica') 
• the title often includes the names of locations/settings ('A Nightmare on Elm Street', 'The Orphanage', 'Knock at the Cabin', 'Pet Sematary', 'The Amityville Horror', 'The Last House on the Left', 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre')
• the title includes commands to the audience, imperatives or direct address ('You're Next', 'Don’t Breathe 2, 'Get Out', 'Happy Death Day 2U', 'I Spit on Your Grave', 'We Need to Do Something', Hush, 'Run')
• short one word titles ('Misery', 'X', 'Saw', 'Run', 'Hush', 'Carrie', 'Christine', 'Misery', 'Frankenstein', 'Veronica') 
• the title often includes references to death or brutality ('Cannibal Holocaust', 'The Toolbox Murders, 'Suicide Club', 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre', 'I Spit on Your Grave', 'Happy Death Day 2U', 'Night of the Living Dead') 

I will consider using one or more of these ideas when choosing my title, to make it feel authentic for a film from the horror genre. First, however, I need to consider the storyline for my film idea as film titles almost always also make reference to the plot of the film.