The Complex Discovery Plot

Their are two things people look for when they go see horror films: plot and disgustingness or gore. Plot is what separates horror films from other horror films. The plot in horror films tends to be fairly predictable. The most common plot scheme is the complex discovery plot. The complex discovery plot has four parts to it: onset, discovery, confirmation, and confrontation.


The first part is onset. Onset is where the audience first comes to realize that their is monster. Onset begins the horror film. It can happen in one of two ways. The first way is the audience realizing directly that their is a monster. The audience will actually see the monster. The second way for onset to happen is not actually knowing their is a monster, but getting evidence that a monster exist. The monster may not be seen directly but destruction by the monster is seen by the audience. An example of onset is shown in The Ring in the first openning scene. The audience becomes aware of the monster when the two girls watch the movie and the one girl ends up dying.


The second part is discovery. Discovery is where one or more of the characters realizes their is a monster. The discovery of the monster to some of the characters can be through surprise or investigation. An example of discovery is shown in The Ring. The main character in the movie finds out that the little girl and the movie is killing people by investigating and going to the cabin where her niece first watched the film with ring and the little girl in it. During the discovery their is a third party that does not believe in the monster or the supernatural being. This leads into confirmation.

Confirmation is the third part of the complex discovery plot. During confirmation the party that believes in the monster is trying to convince the party that does not believe in the monster. More than one party can need to be convinced. An example of confirmation can also be seen in The Ring. The main character's best friend does not believe that after watching the movie is what is causing the people to die. As the main character goes through the investigation, she tries to convince her best friend of the power of the movie and the little girl in the film.

The last part of the plot if confrontation. Confrontation consist of the characters meeting up with the monster or supernatural being. The most common confrontation is a battle between the characters and the monster. In The Ring when it gets closer to the day of the main character's death, she comes in contact with the little girl and tries to get all the deaths to stop happening. Besides the disgusting and fearsome monster, plot is one of the main reasons people go to see horror films even though the plot is a predictable scheme especially on horror.