The genre of the film that my group and I are creating is Horror/Slasher. We understand the codes and conventions to produce an incredible slasher film that will automatically attract the main audience and other genre fans; including the tabloids. Slasher films usually have a set of characters that has a particular role, for instance, the final girl who survives the attack from the monster. The final girl is amongst a group of friends who all get killed one by one. The final girl is usually a virgin with brown hair, masculine and nerdy. In some film such as the first Halloween the final girl is seen walking down a windy suburban area hugging her books close to her chest. This represents the ideology in which describes a good teenager and sends out a message that young people should cherish their virginity and concentrate on their studies. On the contrary the promiscuous blond girl ends up being killed first. She is usually blond and not too keen on school but rather into boys and party. She represents the danger of sleeping around with men and by killing her off first illustrates her getting punished for having sex with all those men. The monster is usually a male, with a mask to hide his identity and has some sort of supernatural power for example in Halloween, the monster never dies. The monster represents a penis, robbing the final girl of her virginity as he is trying to kill the final girl; she escapes for he is dangerous and capable of damaging her life if not even robbing her life away from her. In addition thorough out life there is usually a responsible adult warning the youths of the danger of certain decisions. In slasher films this is illustrated through the character known as the benefactor. He is an older person who gives advice to the victims warning them of the monster and providing them with advice that will prevent them from getting killed. Although he does not have a major role in changing the plot and situation in the film, he however provides the audience with suspense and builds tension. Vladimir Propp was a Russian critic who studied 100 folk’s tales and analysed any similarities in structure. His book “Momrphology of the Folk Tale” was first published in 1928. Inside the book you will be able to identify 8 character roles and 31 narrative functions. The 8 character roles are: The villain(s), the hero, the donor, the helper who aids the hero, the princess, her father, the dispatcher and the false hero. Moreover the benefactor fits in the role of “the helper who aids the hero”. Furthermore the ineffective characters being a policeman for example in Halloween does not affect any of the storyline as they are normally clueless in the matter, which in turn raises more tension for the audience and gives them a sense of helplessness as there is no higher authority to help the victims as there is an absence of parental figure as parents are supposed to be around to protect their vulnerable children.
Breaking these codes and conventions that have been set for so long is what attracts the horror film fans as it can be difficult. It is also exciting as we are bringing a new face to horror films and making it so unpredictable. This could be an advantage as the film will have a different twist to it. However this could also lose viewers as it is contrary to what they are used to.
In our synopsis a lot of codes and conventions have been broken, not to change the message of keeping ones virginity safe, but rather to go deep into that and allow people to realise the importance and meaning of sex and responsibility that involves. Instead of having a disfigured monster that represents a penis and is automatically dangerous by the first appearance, we decided to challenge people’s perception and break that convention by replacing him with a mentally disturbed and twisted young lady with a pretty face; however she murders the men in her life as revenge of her dark past. This decision is supported by the Femme Fatale is a woman who is extremely beautiful with a provocative body, powerful, mysterious and quite dangerous especially for men. Example of a femme fatale is the bride of Dracula. This ideology has a social historic context as after the Second World War when men came back from war and to find their jobs had been taken by women who later found out they were capable of doing what the men could, so they began to demand more. The face of Hollywood changed and their films became darker and pessimistic as some directors were awakening by the harsh reality of the war.
Moreover there is a social and historical reason as our film also relates to noir-genre. Noir is a French word meaning Black. Film noir are films with dark content, usually having scenes with dark lighting producing long shadows and claustrophobic atmosphere which emerged after World War II during the 1940s. This can also be noticed in German expressionism as German film directors like Lang and Murnau used light and shadow, and very low key lighting to emphasize the shadowy aesthetic. The theme tends to be dark, underlining a sense of the darker side of human nature and crime. German expressionism was inspired at the time of the Nazi and their control over Germany.
The setting for our movie is in a suburban area where a lot of people can identify with. There will be park scenes which the audience can also recognise as the park is a place where people go with their friends and family to sunbathe, walk the dog, make a picnic and have fun with friends and family. And to have a pretty woman in the park, walking her dog one morning, looks innocent but later its revealed dangerous; this will raise tension for the audience. The season in most horror films is typically in autumn. Reason being is that autumn weather illustrates the end of something good and the beginning of death as the leaves die away from the trees. This is a good connotation as this period is a terrible beginning for the victims. In the film Halloween the final girl is walking towards her house with wind blowing through her hair, and leaves falling. This shot is recognised in some horror film scenes and is known as an iconography. Iconography is like mise en scene, where some certain objects and colours have connotations of a deeper meaning such as red has connotations of passion, anger, danger and even sexual acts. Iconography can be identity in our trailer film as Holly mostly wears black. She wants to be in the background and not noticed and she is odd amongst her peers.
The storyline of our synopsis relates to the film ‘Psycho’ as it involves having a mentally disturbed person who was damaged from a young age and later on grew up psychologically unstable. Our synopsis is illustrating that issues from the past must be tackled immediately as if it is left for long, one will grow up unstable. There is also a sexual message suggesting not only should girls protect their virginity, also men need to, as we live in a corrupt society where a guy will be praised for sleeping with countless girls, however a girl will be called all sorts of ugly names and put to shame for doing the same act.
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