H.P - Moodboard of Gothic Horror

Key Iconography Of Gothic Horror

This sub-genre of horror is arguably the oldest and most established of them all, and still defines what many people see horror to be today. Some significant iconography of the genre are as follows:

• Gothic buildings, for example churches and graveyards. Large, stone buildings with plenty of dark corners and an unnerving sense of scale and grandeur.
• Classic monsters including vampires, werewolves and beasts. The sense of fear is generally created by preying on the fears of people at the time of the film's creation, for example the vampire in Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922) depicted the fears of the German government and disease. See the history of horror blog post for more on this subject.  
• Darkness, rain, fog and lightening. Grim, overbearing weather is a common image used in gothic horror, indeed the genre has made such weather a cliched element in film due to its famously iconic atmosphere in gothic horror.
• Damsels in distress. In most gothic horror films there will be a female character that is in need of rescuing or that serves as a victim for the antagonist to prey on.
• Black and white images. Due to the sub-genre being one of the oldest not just in horror, but in the whole history of film, the majority of gothic horror films are devoid of colour, making this an icon of the genre.