This sketch parodies the cliche scene that is a part of the horror genre, where a character reacts to noises in their environment as a part of a build up in suspense. This is usually used to delay something such as a jump scare, however we’ve parodied it by delaying for longer than necessary through repetition of these sounds, the constant repetition eventually lending itself to comedy as this convention is stretched beyond its limit. It is also aided by the sounds getting louder and more ridiculous, and a final shot that follows the stylistic conventions of horror less tightly to emphasise the humour being put forward. The sketch plays with the genre of micro-horror online, an example of this being the work created under Guillermo del Toro’s horror competition that took place late last year, where YouTube creators were asked to create horror videos specifically for online viewing, which with it brought its own conventions to the genre such as filming in one location and focussing in on a single character’s actions.
We wanted to emulate these conventions in our sketch, especially the location aspect of it, which we achieved by filming inside the hallway of an abandoned house and following the main character’s movements. By doing this, we took conventions of the micro-horror genre and recontextualised them through parody, shifting the narrative from appearing as pure horror into a hybrid of horror and comedy.
