The genre I selected for my research activity was horror. I believe this genre has a lot of possibility for exploration of its themes, while also being accessible to shoot and consume.
Horror is a term generally used to denote the genre productions that focus on scary, intense, upsetting, and/or thrilling experiences for the audience. Characters without much individual character development, and with a high level of recognizability, are often used in this genre, since many productions use death, murder, or injury as a way to provoke fear in the audience. Thus, the characters in this genre must be easily recognizable so that their death adds to the plot, effect, or meaning, such as the "Final Girl" trope, the "stupid teenager" trope, and the "creepy old woman" trope. However, this convention only holds true for side characters; other horror films tend to focus on developing a single protagonist and/or antagonist, making the story both easier to follow and more impactful, as the actions done to or by this protagonist and/or antagonist build up throughout the film, such as in A Quiet Place II (2020). Also in this vein, horror films often have sequels which focus on the same characters. Notably, however, television anthologies such as American Horror Story retain their stylistic characteristics and apply them to multiple narratives.
Many of the content conventions within modern horror productions for television and film also stem from a rich history of horror in literary fiction, featuring monsters, settings, and concepts that would be familiar to any fan of Mary Shelley or H. P. Lovecraft- like zombies, small towns, and eldritch beings. The plots of horror movies are often also formulaic. Horror productions often feature music or auditory stimuli that provoke instinctual responses, such as loud breathing noises, rustling, and other environmental noises meant to create a high level of alertness, and they tend to use extreme lighting to represent unfamiliar, alien environments- such as the darkness in the house in the 2016 film The Boy. Dialogue is often passed over or sparse, as horror tends to focus more on events that happen outside of human control, as well as using aural elements to build tension and create shock within the audience.
Typically, horror is targeted towards people 13+ or 18+, as many productions rely on gore or mature themes to scare or unsettle audiences. However, the nature of the genre is to access fears and responses within the human psyche that terrify a large number of people. So, it is not only the gore or mature themes that typically designate this genre as a teen-to-adult genre, but also the purpose of media that fits within the genre. Horror is also typically marketed with dark, dramatic colors and themes, such as black and red, and unsettling visuals.
Stranger Things (2016) is a story about small-town teenagers whose fictional worlds begin to appear in their real world after the disappearance of their friend. This television show is a realist take on fantastical imagination, and while it has gained a cult following for its relationships, the show is centrally horror. It attempts to provoke fear in the audience through jumpscares, terrifying visuals, eerie music, and dark lighting, suggesting that the protagonists will not triumph against the malevolence and power of whatever monsters they're fighting, and inciting fear in the audience at the possibility of the "good guys" being overtaken by the unseen danger that lives in their town. This show also takes place in the 1980s, and many of its horror elements are nostalgic, such as 1980s-era Dungeons & Dragons monsters like the Demogorgon; yet the time period it is set in also forces the characters to engage in their fight with evil with low technology and little adult influence.