Horror

Horror is another massive genre that has had a huge variety of entries, some good, some bad and some bordering on criminal. The horror genre is very vast and has many sub genres like horror-comedies, fantasy-horror, zombie films and many more. One of the genre defining directors was Alfred Hitchcock, who directed Psycho.
Many of the generic conventions of the genre can be taken from this film alone, such as his use of the iconic music that is associated with Psycho. Sound is very important and useful within horror, its excellent for building suspense within a scene and has been used in many films such as 'the exorcist' and 'Jaws' to great effect with the jaws soundtrack and tubular bells from 'The exorcist' becoming widely recognised soundtracks.
The music from psycho is excellent at building suspense, using high pitched, sharp, repetitive sounds.

• Another generic convention within horror films is having a deformed/disturbing character that is usually the antagonist, this is prominent in films such as the grudge, a paranormal horror/thriller.
• There is often a 'typically blonde' character that usually dies
• The mise-en scene is usually very dark and gloomy, this reduces visibility and increases nervousness of the audience by making them unsure as to what's coming next
• Usually in isolated locations such as the wilderness or in the sewers, somewhere that it would be difficult for people to assist the characters if they were in distress.

Horror films are well suited for short films as often with feature length films the suspense becomes too drawn out, and the effect that was previously keeping the audience on the edge of their seats, ends up becoming boring. With a short film this is not a problem and having just one major 'scare' is very effective. These films are also often left on a cliff-hanger which is effective and works because the audience has not spent the entire film investing in the back story of the characters and is just enjoying the film based on its horror aspects.
A good example of this is the short film 'lights out'  posted to the left. The film is very short and consists of seeing a dark figure getting ever closer when the lights go off with the final shot posted below.
The final shot is a jump scare, with the face of the 'demon' or 'monster' being shown just before the screen cuts to black, leaving the fate of the character to the imagination but obviously implying that they have suffered some terrible fate. This is effective as after the audience has jumped and recovered from being scared and recomposed themselves, they then begin to contemplate the fate of the character and this means the story sticks with you and continues to scare the watchers after the film has finished, when they themselves are sitting home alone and are about to turn the lights off.
One thing that would be difficult however would be building the suspense throughout the film, this is a challenge throughout the entire genre of horror and is not specific to short films. However the limited time frame does make it difficult to use the time to effectively build suspense. Because as a producer, I would need to tell some sort of story in amongst the suspense building and have some form of recognisable structure to the plot, as well as building suspense and creating a scary setting.

If I was to do a horror film I would do a crash landed pilot in the forest who is isolated and lost and believes he is being chased by something and every time he stands still that something gets closer and so as exhaustion sets in this 'thing' that is chasing him gets ever closer.