Alex (Henry Davine)Henry’s physical appearance can be associated with

gang connotations and interpretations of social issues.

His shaved head and over-sized black hooded jacket

emphasises the dominant hegemony of teenage

apparel. It provides a deep wide analysis of ‘The Return’

as it focuses on the pressing social and soci-historic

context that the film was made in. in addition,

performance wise Henry could verbally fulfil the typical

teenage role with the use of colloquialism or slang which

the audience can relate to hence satisfying the audience

and catering to their wants and needs due to ‘The

Return’ having many relatable aspects for the teenage

demographic it is aimed for.

Frankie (Alex Kelly Lambert)Frankie who is played by Alex Kelly Lambert plays the

role of our final girl. We felt she was perfect for the role

as she is perceived as not wearing too much makeup

which reinforced her innocence. She could also utilise

her facial expressions well, imitating effective confused or

overwhelmed expressions which would work well in

scenes where Frankie is being attacked. She is

perceived as attractive and good looking, yet does not

display an overly flirty demeanour which reinforces our

protagonist. We can see that she also has long dark hair,

which is also a convention for a final girl as it reinforces

hegemonic values. This was perfect for the conventional

aspects of the role of the final girl in a formulaic manner.

Also the role required a sister, and due to Mia Kelly

Lambert being her identical twin, this allowed a realistic

portrayal of a biological sister in our film. Her sister

provided an area to apply to Claude Levi Strauss’s theory

of binary opposites as Mia (who plays Amy) could display

everything Frankie is not, making good consumption of

narrative theory.

Jay (Nitin Kapoor)Nitin provides further reinforcement for the dominant

hegemonic values of the general reckless teenage

lifestyle. He provides an outgoing, bubbly and ultra-lively

performance which implies a drunken state when

juxtaposed in a party scene with surrounding entailed

alcohol and music. Through the slight humour displayed

in his performance, he could provide an entry point for the

audience to relate to. The role of Jay is close to Frankie,

who can be seen as ‘more than friends’, although due to

Frankie’s role of the final girl and being ‘virginal’, this is as

far as their friendship goes. Therefore, viewers will be

rooting for his survival and expect him to live, and shares

a similar amount of empathy with the final girl. These

qualities further enhance and boost audience

engrossment with the character and provide a richer

viewing experience. Nitin provided these qualities which

as a result obtained him the role of jay.

Jason (Dilan Patel)Sharing similar characteristics with male friends Jay, Alex and

Trey, Dilan provides in his performance qualities that

collectively, when accumulated with in particular on-screen

best friend Alex, reinforces typical teenage behaviour. Dilan

maintains a driver’s license which allows consumption of a

vehicle which creates a more realistic verisimilitude for the

audience to become engaged with. His clothing worn during

the audition provided the reinforcement of dominant ideology

of the generic teenage materialism via the Nike branded

product he is wearing. This idea of materialism shown in his

performance displays a desire to be identified with a group or

gang which targets pressing social issues seen today such as

gang conflict which demonstrated soci-historic context and

commentary in ‘The Return’. This also may be provided in

focal point of relation for the teenage demographic this film is

targeted for. The name Jason also provides a direct

intertextuality reference to Jason from Friday 13th, and this

provides viewers gratification as slasher fans will be pleased

to identify the link catering to the wants and needs of the

audience obtained through my audience research.

Chelsea (Rosie Jacobs)Rosie plays our character Chelsea who characterises

the role of a conventional formulaic sexually active girl.

Similar to Mia’s (who plays Amy) performance, she

provides a flirty and sexually accessible performance in

her audition which suited the conventional role. She also

has blonde hair which is codified for the role of the

sexually active girl as it reinforces hegemonic values.

This is useful as when analysing ‘The Return’ genre

wise in a wider meaning, Chelsea is punished for her

sexual activity. She is attractive and wears a reasonable

amount of makeup to be deemed or identified as

sexually active by the viewers. She also provided a

realistic ‘drunk’ performance for the party scene which

reinforces dominant hegemonic ideology of teenagers

living recklessly. She and Harry (who plays Trey)

represent the wider meaning of ‘The Return’ hence why

she and Harry were chosen to play the on screen

couple.

Trey (Harry Adebayo)Harry plays the role of Trey, who demonstrates a typical

generic representation of the conventional black

character within slasher films. It is conventional for this

character to die first as ethnic minorities are

formulaically displayed this way. Harry suited the role

with a good build and in the audition displayed a

sexually active appearance which reinforces the reason

for him dying first. This is useful as Trey engages in

sexual activity with his on screen girlfriend Chelsea. We

felt this sexually active appearance can be used as an

area for relation in terms of the teenage demographic

‘The Return’ is aimed at, who may relate to his

behaviour which thus provides a more immersive and

gripping viewing experience for the audience. In

addition, Trey is quite aggressive towards his peers and

when being hunted down by Ruby, this was a quality

prominent in Harry’s audition hence our selection of him

for the role.

Amy (Mia Kelly Lambert)Mia provided the role of the final girl Frankie’s sister which

opened up an opportunity of usage of binary opposites.

She could display a flirty, playful and a sexually accessible

demeanour in her acting which subverted Frankie’s

behaviour of being the formulaic innocent and virginal girl.

Her blonde hair reinforced dominant hegemonic values of

blondes being sexually active which fitted into her role as

her character is killed with the wider meaning implying

punishment because of this. In addition to these attributes

displayed she also bears Frankie’s likeliness which creates

a more realistic representation of a biological sister on

screen. The vast personality differences allowed the main

character Frankie (the final girl) to be clearly displayed and

easily identifiable in comparison to Amy, otherwise the

likeliness between the two actors would have been a

hindrance however the binary opposites application gets rid

of this possible complication.

Ruby (Roma Nair)We chose Roma as Ruby to perform the main

role of the villain for various reasons. Firstly her

eyes were sharp and large similar to a child’s

eyes but also when her eyes were made wide it

created an unnerving look. Also her long black

hair provided a perfect ‘mask’ to abide by the

codes conventions of a masked killer in the

slasher genre, yet catering to a female killer role.

We felt that having a female killer yet masked

abided yet subverted the conventions of the

slasher genre in a healthy and interesting way.

Roma is also perceived as petite which implies

dominance with elements of a smaller childish

nature. Acting wise, Roma displayed strange

stared and sluggish scary movements which fell

into the role of a villain hence her selection for

the role of Ruby.

Ruby, Amy and Frankie’s

mother (Sharon (Ms) Malins)Ms Malins performed the mother of Ruby, Amy

and Frankie. Her performance was very sincere,

calm and collected. These factors fit perfectly into

the role of an older benefactor who is wise or

beholds a greater level of intelligence to the

teenage characters which may be regarded as a

‘gift’ (Vladimir Propp narrative theory). With the

utilisation of Ms Malins as the mother, she can

fulfil the formulaic aspects of the wiser older

character which are a conventional aspect in

slasher films.