The horror genre (III): the iconography 
After talking (in previous articles on the horror genre) of the stylistic elements, ie the Sermon, we return now to the story, which is divided into Events and existence. As for the iconography, an integral part, along with the characters, of the existing, if the 70s onwards, the horror has tried to disguise himself with sober and free from gender-related elements to increase the surprise effect in period of genre cinema has always been strongly influenced by the iconographic point of view, that is, in the words of Schatz, has always availed itself of a given space: German Expressionism has inherited the large use of twilight and marked chiaroscuro (for example, one of the most famous films of the first phase of Universal horror, The Black Cat by Edgar G. Ulmer, photography recalls the famous Nosferatu Murnau); prefers night scenes, perhaps illuminated by the feeble light a spark or flash of a lightning storm. To increase the sense of anguish and loss chooses the isolated, remote places, again separated from the rest of the world from a great and mysterious forest (such as Transylvania), but in any case it is "closed universe", capable of carrying size in a surreal and alienating, in which we can accept any strange or monstrous. The interiors are more often set in castles crumbling, ghostly cathedrals and ancient villas, as well as to emphasize the direct descent from the Gothic novel. The characters, like any other illustrations, are immediately recognizable by the viewer, the distribution of roles is clear and systematic: we are now able to distinguish between the good and bad, then we will understand a few details with the various specific functions in the two groups (leader, right arm, lackeys, fearful, bold, etc.). .*
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taken from Alvise Barbaro,
Frankenstein: from horror to parody , Thesis, University of University of Milan, 2004
