A.M : Conventions and iconography of Slasher Films

A slasher film is a sub-genre of horror, these are the conventions of Slasher films:

Setting

·         The location of Slasher films are usually isolated, rural or abandoned areas where there is little civilization: islands,  forests, small towns, abandoned buildings and farms. Due to the location victims end up having no phone reception reach civilization, or if they manage to call someone such as the emergency service they can’t get there quickly to help.

·         The killer may have a connection to the location, maybe a tragic event or just live/frequently visit the area.

·         Generic settings for teen Slasher films are old abandoned houses or cabins in the woods that teenagers go to in the summerbreak. Also in most teen Slasher films there is a lake or a river.

Characters

·         A mysterious psychopath who kills and stalks victims .

·         The Killer is usually mute and appears as unstoppable, heightens this increases the killers threatening nature.

·         Stereotypically a group of teenagers.

·         The victims tend to be young and attractive .

·         Adults in slasher films are often unaware youths are being attacked by a killer.

·         The Adults are usually on holiday or away. Usually they find out what happened via a police phone call.



final girl

·         There is often a final girl also known as ‘the heroine’- a single survivor nearing the end of the film who has to face the killer. She is almost always a peer of the victims, but unlike them she is virtuous. Slashers are one of the few film genres that feature strong and independent female leads.

·         The police usually fall into 1 of 3 categories :




Deputy Dewey Riley in Scream series

-They are slow-witted, and get killed after laughing off a threat .      

- are extremely competent and are killed.

-or turn up at the end when most characters have been killed.

Storyline

·         Rather then focusing on plot and character development they focus on the killing. The storyline is constructed to give the killer a reason and opportunity to murder.

·         Characters are killed one by one.

·         Most of the time they are very graphically violent.

·         There killer often is injured, followed by a moment of relief, and then gets up and starts attacking again.

·         The killer  as a back story which often includes a childhood trauma that changed him into the maniac he is today, this makes the audience feel sympathetic towards the killer. In the end the real star of a slasher is the killer, not the hero.

·         There is an unwritten moral code in these films that punishes bad behavior. As nihilistic as they might seem, slasher fans like to know that the people who die somehow "deserve" it.

·         Slasher films usually incorporate intense chase scenes.

·         Usually in slasher films the hero beats the killer and is saved by the police/help/adults. However sometimes this isn’t the case.  In the movie Bereavement, ‘the protagonist Allison is killed violently by an 11-year-old child named Martin, who stabs her in the stomach repeatedly.’ Also, in I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer,’ the protagonist Amber is killed by Ben Willis at the end of the film when she gets out of the car to look around just as Ben appears behind her and slashes her with his hook, killing her.

Friday the 13th screenshot

Props

·         Usually the chosen weapon is hand held, such as a knife, axe, chainsaw or scythe this means that the killer can get close to the victim when they kill them making the scene more gory and makes the death longer rather than using a gun which is quick and sudden.

·         Prosfetic blood is used as Slasher films are very gory.

·         Masks, low key lighting or camera work are used to hide the identity of the killer. This adds an essence of mystery and intensifies the victims fear of the killer. At the end of the film the killers identity is usually revealed.

A.M