The Horror Genre - Editing

Editing plays an important part in creating the pacing of a film and, in the horror genre in particular, is essential in creating tension and suspense for the audience. Alongside the pace of the editing, which is frequently slow in the build up to any action in order to create anticipation for the audience before becoming quicker once the monster attacks, there are a number of other editing techniques which are common in the genre. These include montage sequences, techniques which break the rules of continuity editing such as jump cuts, crosscutting and transitions such as fades to black. 

The infamous shower sequence in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' is a good example of the powerful use of montage, with a significant change of pace (slow to begin with, to create suspense, quick when the attack occurs to shock the audience and to reflect the victim's panic, before slowing again to signify the victim's death and to allow the spectator to draw breath) and the use of jump cuts to shock and startle the audience.

   

Crosscutting, or parallel editing, where a director cuts between two or more lines of narrative action, is one of the ways that tension and suspense is created in horror films. This technique suggests a connection between scenes and/or characters, leading the audience to believe that they will meet, whilst also making the audience wait for the climax of each scene. Often, in the horror genre, filmmakers will cut back and forth between the monster character and their victim, with the first trying to track down or catch the victim, whilst the second tries to remain hidden.

               

Jump cuts, when shots cut abruptly towards or away from the subject (without cutting away to another subject), are common in the horror genre, startling the audience and often reflecting the panic or shock a character is experiencing. Jump cuts break the rules of continuity and are an effective way of unsettling the viewer; a key intended effect of films from the genre. The scene below, from Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds', contains jump cuts which both shock the spectator but also reflect the female protagonist's horror at discovering the mutilated body of the man.

 

Fades to black (and occasionally white) are commonly used in horror films to imply a character's death, a typical, and frequent, event within the genre.