horror movie codes and conventions

i watched the film scary movie.

 Location - horror movies enjoy placing their characters in a place where there is no one around to help them. Characters in horror movies often forget about the threat or danger that might happen. In almost every horror, the power is cut off when the film gets to the scariest moment possible. In older horrors, the phone line would be cut, but now as technology has advanced, many mobile batteries will die or the character will lose reception. This is an over used movie convention, when a character hears a strange noise, instead of running away, they go to investigate and most of the time, end up dead. Also in scream, the victim often runs upstairs or somewhere else in the house as they think its safer in there then outside. In scream and almost every horror, the victim will inexplicably fall over when trying to get away from the murderer. Another convention that is used a lot, is when a victim attempts to escape in their vehicle, the engine won't start. 'The fake scare' is the oldest and most used convention in history. At a scary point in a film or when the tension is high, a phone might ring and scare the victim or a friend could jump out at them. In scream, the character often goes places that they are told not to go, or will do something they've been told not to do. In many 'slashers', like scream, someone is always killed in the first five minutes. this is used to set the mood for the rest of the film and can be very effective. Another over used convention is the stormy weather that is used, it is meant to set a gloomy/scary ,mood depending on how bad the storm is.