Amber's as Media Portfolio
Horror directors
Quick case studies of two very different horror directors, datailing their life, films , style and what makes their work so popular.
Guillermo Del Toro
In recent years Guillermo Del Toro has been a powerhouse of a director annd producer, with many movies spanning several genres in the works. Although Del Toro has been producer and exec producer to very well known children film projects , he is best known for his twisted fairytale/dark fantasy horror. This is a fusion subgenre that sets Del Toro apart from other directors and gives him a leauge all of his own.
Guillermo was born in Mexico on the 9th of October 1964 and raised in a strict catholic household. when he was 8 years old he began to show an interest in film making, using his fathers Super 8 camera to make short films focused around his toys. Even then he showed an interest in similar writing as he uses today focusing one film around a 'serial killer potato' aiming for world domination that murdered his mother and brothers. He made about 10 short films before his first feature, however only the last two have been made available.
Del Toro went on to study special effects and media make up with special effects aritst Dick Smith, spent 10 years as a special effects make up designer and finally formed his own company called Necropia and later in his directing career, followed it up with his own production company: The Tequila Gang.
Del Toro continued living and directing in Mexico until the tragic kidnapping of his father caused him and his family to move overseas soon after his father was released. He still maintains that he is in "involountary exile from my country".
Some of Del Toro's horrors include:



Don't Be Afraid of The Dark (2011)
Athough Del Toro never directed this movie, he was the main writer of the screenplay and as soon as you watch the mvie, it shows. this movie combines the typical 'creepy house' aspect that is very popular with his sinature dark fairytale themes.It shows a family move into a house infested with small creates that we learn are a terrifying version of the tooth fairy, that kill children and eat their teeth.This is a prefect example of a succesful Toro movie combining usual film themes with his dark fantasy to create a very popular movie grossing $24,042,490 as of Nov 2011
Pans Labyrinth (2006)
This movie is arguably his most famous , grossing $37,623,143 as of June 2007. It features the nightmarish fantasy world of young girl who must complete 3 grousome tasks to return to her world in which she is a princess. With grusome violence, fairytale pincesses and magical creatures all backed with the spanish army and revoloutionary conflict, this spanish film perfectly illustrates what makes Del Toro so fascinatingly popular.
Alfred Hitchcock






Alfred Hitchcock is a director who has shaped the horror film industry with a booming career spanning over half a century. Often nicknames the 'master of suspense' Hitchcock pioneered aspects psychological horror and suspense.Throughout his career Hitchcock intoroduced the film industry to some of the methods we still use today and helped to shape both filming , editing and filmaking as a whole.
Hitchock was born on the 13th of August 1899 in Essex , England to parents of half english and irish ancestry. He had a very regular upbringing for the time, being raised strictly catholic and working in the family business.
Hitchcock only joined the film industry in around 1920 when he began drawing sets and was only named director of a film after the regular director fell ill and he was asked to complete the film.He finally had his first chance at directing a full movie when he was given Number 13 although the film was never finished due to the studio closure. not one to be put off , he continued to seek out opportunities and directed a movie called The Pleasure Garden that became very popular and finally made his first film (The Lodger) in 1927.
In the 1940s the Hitchcock family moved to Hollywood and he was hired to direct a recreation of Rebecca and shortly after this, a movi called Sabateur.It was after this that Hitchocks fame as a director really grew, with him churning out the movies that are still known and loved that began being known as 'Alfred Hitchcock's' films.
Some of his most popular titles include:



Alfred Hitchock's Psycho (1960)
Considered one of his most famous films , Psycho has been praised by film critics and scholars around the world and is still considered a main stable of the psychological horror sub-genre. Psycho features a young secretary who steals $40,000 dollars and goes on the run to be with her love, only to be brutally murdered by Bates, a man with two personalities and a taste for murder. Introducing the aspects of psycholoical horror that we know and love and mixing them with the slasher style murder has made this film an incredibly popular classic grossing $32,000,000 in the USA alone.


Frenzy (1972)
Unlike Psycho, Frenzy is a less well known Hitchcock film, but by those who know of it, it is considered his last great work. Due to the relaxation of censorship in the 1970s this shows the 'Master of Suspense' at his most graphic, featuring both violence and nudity. The story centers around the police search for a London murderer that is stranging women with a necktie and adds another tyopical Hitchcock plot device. The wrong man. although a slightly less famous film, this movie still grossed $6,300,000 in the USA on rentals alone, making it yet another successful Hitchcock creation.



