Slasher Overview Notes

Looking at the other overview vodcasts from the class,

• Poppy, Kate and Millie

Looking at Psycho and the archetype of the girl in the opening shot shows an early archetype and earl final girl and scream queen. Slasher name is linked with the killing with the knife.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a massive step ahead for the slasher genre. Showing vast improvements from the older film Psycho. The violence kicks in almost instantly with more gore and nudity despite being an incredibly a low budget movie. Just like us because we do not have much funding for our slasher film
Black Christmas was a good example of the slasher genre being easy to shoot cause you can film it in only 1 house and shrinking the location costs so it makes it better and more of a challenge to shoot due to not giving that away, Black Christmas TCM and Psycho all have been remade showing that they were good films but needed tweaking them. You tend to get some characters that carry over from slasher films others but only killers due to the victims being killed off. Halloween credited for the point of view shots at the start from the killer showing a first in the slasher genre. The audience comes to see violence however the audience is positioned to be the killer and see through the eyes of the killer. Narrative enigma is tended to be used in slasher films at the start to hide the identity of the killer. Slasher genre makes alot of profit for the films made. Jamie Lee Curtis was a key figure in the film prom night and horror train showing her significance as a final girl. Friday The 13th was an instant hit showing huge fame for th franchise, inluding 10 movies from the franchise crossing a nightmare on elm street and friday the 13th. Final girl sometimes shares a history with the killer and has a past with him or her.Classic final girl aspects with unisex names ie laurie strode in halloween. Therefor casting female role as the start character but as the film goes on she gets more physically and mentally tough aswell. Usually the final girl looks old fashioned and not very sexually apealing. Childish attributes for the scream queens and silly behaviour often occurs. Final girls tend to be portrayed as intelligent and academically sane. Music in slasher films with long notes make you want to hold your breath and the shorter notes increase the heart rate and cause you to feel on edge and uneasy. Therefor it messes with your heart beat to cause or create a scare. Conventions all link with one another.

• Tilly and Hannah and James

Looking at Peeping Tom the sub genre of horror and slasher contrasting with one another, directed by Micheal Powell it puts the audience in the killers point of view. proto-slasher is another way you would say what the genre of the film is, Linking in with the film scream and the 'who done it' sort of aspect to the film.  Tropp are used in the film which is a widely recognised thing used to show certain things for the prefered reading. The first sign of sci fi coming into the genre would be from the film halloween where micheal myers isnt dead when he is shot 3 times. Then the more moddern types of sci fi to the leprechaun franchise. First Film to use a mask to hide the killer with use of narrative enigma was Halloween. Post modern slasher first know film started with New Nightmare by wes craven and Scary Movie with the intertextauality is taken to the extreme by putting in key quotes and scenes from other films. Characters in Films like scream talk about being in movies when they are so its a film about a film a slasher about a slasher being referential.

In the 50's the genre was more horror based with the characters as creatures and demons however in the 60's the genre was accosiated witht the upper class adults. The protagonist were working and middle class like TCM and Black Christmas thses used a castle alot in their movies. Hammer Horros are some what theatrical like on a stage or play so hammer was sort of stagey where as the early slasher movies were in the late 70's were on a hand held camera. Peeping Tom and Psycho were the start of the slasher genre however Pepping Tom was horrific and too gory so Psycho was more well known. Hammer was the biggest film company in the world for horror films in the 50's but TCM and other films ruined them and changed their ways. The idea of the scream queen were refered to hammer a being the very busty and very blonde characters. Commutation Test for when you dont know when the convention is used or where it has to be and would dull the fear factor for the audience. Hitchcock was the first idea of an auteur and doing the music for the shower scene. The BBFC rate the film and your movie shows more of the gore and violence and nudity then more people will want to come and watch it. Death of a stranger is a tv movie which is very little of the gore and the exoplicitness. and b y surgesting a primary target audience is key for example 15-24 which is the key stage of a target audience. Core audience is the 15-24 age range with minor intertextual referances. and 18-24 is still classed as a youth age range. Characters are teens to attract a teen audience and the dominant figure such as a sherriff or a Head teacher which is useless. Halloween bacame the most profitable movie ever made when the scream film came out however now it is not and is being massively over taken. Found Footage sub genre was a new unveiled. An exeption the dis equilibrium is mainatined in the halloween movies 1 and 2 which carry on from one another. False scare is demonstrating hybridity in the genre.