This document discusses conventions of slasher/horror genre films and how the filmmakers intend to adhere to or subvert those conventions. It outlines common character archetypes like the psychopathic killer (usually male), victims (attractive teens), and final girl heroine. It provides examples from Halloween of these tropes. The document also summarizes existing narratives like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween to help inform the plot of the filmmakers' short film.

1. With reference to the texts you
have examined, discuss the
conventions of the genre/style in
which you are working and how
you intend to adhere to/ subvert
these conventions

2. Conventions - Characters
• In Slasher/Horrors there a usually stereotypical characters for
example:
• The Victims—The victims tend to be young, attractive, high school or college-
aged adolescents:
• The Jock
• The Defenceless Female
• The Nerd
• Psychopathic Killer (the Killer is usually male)
• The Heroine

3. Psychopathic Killer
Has a set kill room
(At first he uses his
apartment as a kill
room but then
moves to Paul
Allen’s apartment
to kill his victims)
Male
Axe- stereotypical Some of the
Mass murderer Villians/Psychopathic killer are
weapon for a
slasher portrayed as an anti-hero. The
most notable are Hannibal
Lecter (Hannibal, Silence of the
Lambs and Red Dragon) and
Norman Bates (Psycho)

4. The Heroine
Survives the murders
Last woman
or girl alive
to confront
the killer.
Helps discover
the murderer
and find a way
to defeat them
With reference to Halloween (Carpenter, 1978) the character Laurie Strode is the
last female to defeat the psycho killer Michael Myers.

5. The Victims
The Defenceless Female The Jock
Get killed
early on in Never
Gets victimised the films survive
and murdered
by the
psychotic killer
The Nerd
Usually one of the first ones
to die.
Survive most
of the film.
One of the
last ones to
die

6. Existing Narratives
Slasher films are a sub-genre of Horror usually involving a psycho killer
from a difficult background that graphically kills a sequence of victims. We
will be looking at existing narratives to help with the making and the plot
lines of our short film.

7. A Nightmare on Elm Street
• A group of four teens experience similar/the same
dreams in which a sinister figure is attempting to the
murder them in their sleep.
• The figure is deeply scarred who wears gloves that
have attached sharp razors that act as his fingers. He
is an un-dead character that attacks his victims
supernaturally.
• Breaks a convention by not having a survivor, the
victims are tricked into thinking the killer is dead
when it is a trick and all of them are killed.

8. Halloween
• Killer has a troubled background of murder and
has broken out of a sanity institute fifteen years
later.
• Wears a dark jump and a mask. Usually uses a
long sharp knife.
• Throughout the film he is trying to murder a
group of teenage high school students.
• The killer is supposedly defeated until his body
disappears after being shot out of a window.