What does it take to be a Slasher film?!

There are a variety of key concepts and conventions that belong to a 'Slasher' film. They may include:

  • a psychotic killer who is masked
  • main characters being young adults/ teenagers
  • a sequel, where the killer makes a return
  • a final girl
The monster or killer's identity is often unknown, this is achieved by a mask or through creative lighting and camera techniques. This is to keep the audience on edge because they don't know who the killer is and so leaves the killer without an identity. It is almost likely to be a man, and their weapon of choice would either be a knife or chainsaw - anything that is sharp or jiggered really. The killer's identity is usually revealed at the end of the movie, and the reasoning behind his killings is because of childhood experience. The killer is often made out to be understood by the audience and is pitiable - they usually don't speak very much and are extremely unstoppable; able to survive stabbings, falls and shooting from his victims. A villain that would fit in well with these conventions is Jason Voorhees of Friday the 13th.



The location is a quiet and suburban town - sometimes isolated - a place the audience would consider to be quite safe in. The location may be related to the killer's past - it could explain a bad childhood or a significant event in which the killer was involved in. Furthermore, the location is often lowly populated and is far from civilisation. Any means of escape will be destroyed by the villain i.e. their vehicle or phone line.



The lighting is used to add tension to the scene, it is mostly dark, and shadows are employed to give a mysterious feeling. The connotations of shadows are important, as a shadow can be a symbol of death. Therefore, shadows are important assets to this sub-genre.



The victims are usually young adolescents. One theory suggests that they are being targeted for their indulgence in activities such as pre-marital sex and drug-taking. Another theory suggests that taking part in these activities simply makes the victims more vulnerable as they becomes unaware of their surroundings, and thus become easy prey for the killer.



The benefactor is a character within the film who gives the final girl any valuable information, including who the killer may kill next. They may also give the final girl the weapon required to defeat the killer.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Inner form and Outer form

For every film, there are always two sections; the inner form and the outer form. The concept of the inner form represents the film's thematic qualities which can account for themes, morals, messages, characters, and storylines. A typical storyline of the horror genre would be when a boy and girl are at an isolated location, camping in the woods for example, and a 'villain' finds them and kills them because one is more stupid than the other. On the other hand, the outer form refers to the iconography of the film - what makes it so special, so iconic. The outer form involves the film's location, colour, marketing and mise en scene which involves anything that one can see in a scene - props, weather, lighting, facial expressions etc.
Read more

Conventions of a horror poster

Image
There are a variety of codes and conventions that are tied to media publications that define them and differentiate them from other publications. In particular, film posters of the horror genre predominantly employ the use the colour scheme of white, red and black. This is to convey a sinister quality, thus helping to promote the product of a horror film. Sometimes a lack of colour can be effective too as it could connote death or a sense of emptiness.   The horror poster often has edges that are considerably darker compared to the centre of the poster, the purpose of this is to put more focus on the central image, and to also add a shadow effect. I plan to incorporate this using a vignette effect as I believe in following the conventions of a horror poster. Furthermore, most posters, regardless of genre, follow the rule of thirds. This involves having the title of the film positioned in either the top or bottom of the poster, the ma...
Read more

Theories of Horror

Image
In his The Philosophy of Horror , Noel Carroll developed the attraction/repulsion theory, which is when we are attracted by gore and transgression and repulsed to it. He said; "Horror genre gives every evidence of being pleasurable to its audience, but it does so through the means trafficking in the very sorts of things that cause disquiet, distress and displeasure." A prime example of the attraction/repulsion concept in horror would be when we fear vampires, yet we fancy them because of their sex appeal. Like Damon Salvatore, for example, in The Vampire Diaries .   Damon Salvatore     A problem with Carroll's theory is that he does not take into account the interplay between attraction and repulsion, and he also rejects psychoanalytic accounts: does not consider role between conscious and unconscious - he only considers the cognitive side to psychology in regards to schemas. In her essay titled "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinem...
Read more