Conventions of Genre

Horror Slasher

Conventions of Horror Slasher

SettingThe setting in a horror slasher are generally small communities, dark streets , isolated places,

urban environments and narrow alley ways. There are sometimes the use of large cities and ghost towns this is because it connotes isolation.

Other places that are good for horror slashers can be hotels or abandoned houses this works well with horror slasher as it connotes isolation and brings the audience to there home life and how they feel the same way when similar things happen to them.

All different locations such as underground rail ways , woods and dungeons would work well in a horror slasher as these settings help build up tension and

Horror Slasher Settings

Camera Work & Special FX• High and low angles are often used to connote fear and nightmares and also to put someone in a position of power or

weakness.• Handheld camera movement in the shots makes it difficult sometimes to make out what is happening however it creates

the feeling of it being real and you don’t know what is going to happen , it can often be a lot more scarier than a professional camera.

• Framework in the shots can help the editors to make the monster or criminals harder to see them creeping up on the victim and so this is a easy and effective way to show the antagonist appearing out of know where. This again creates a lot of fear and sudden emotion.

• The sounds that get used are really important to a horror slasher with the use of ambient diegetic sounds such as footsteps in a quite place to make the victim feel as though they are being creped up on.

• Different shots that get used create different feeling that the audience will receive and a lot of the time we see extreme close ups (ECU) which connote fear and emotion however they are also used to make the audience aware of the horror and fear this also makes us scared as we cannot see what they are seeing while we are looking at there face and so the audience get even more scared.

• With the editing you can create unsettling noises and dispense through out the horror slasher and different ways in which you can build up tension between the screen and the audience by slowing down the pace to connote something bad is about to happen or speeding the pace up to connote someone may be scared or running etc.

Narrative • Narrative in a horror slasher , there is always a hero and a protagonist , a man or a final girl fitting with the normal

conventions of a horror.

• Usually the hero has to go on some sort of mission or journey to kill someone or solve a personal problem.

• Some narratives have it so the killer has a previous story as to why he is a killer , or he has had a bad child hood and so he has changed into some freak of nature.

• We often see it where the villain returns to a place he once loved or was from and this has brought about bad memory’s and so he will take it out on other children growing up in the same area.

• In a horror slasher there is sometimes a survivor and this tends to be a female character because it is going against the convention that men are stronger than women and will be able to fight for longer etc.

Iconography• Iconography of the villain help to connote fear and terror things such as vampires , werewolves, canables and mummies.

• Common objects that are used include masks and weapons such as knifes , chainsaw’s and axes these weapons connote blood and gore.

• Low key lighting can help to create darkness and shadows , however we often see lighting such as torches when the victim or victims are fighting there way through the battle which often takes place at night because that’s when the monsters come out.

• The colors used in the shots are mainly back and red to connote darkness and blood this makes the audience more edgy and means they cannot rest.

• Props that the villain is holding are often knifes and chainsaws etc , these weapons we can identify with the killer as he will want to chop his victims up.

Props

Character types• Main Protagonist often victim or hero from the film.

• Teenagers are victims who are striped and often get killed.

• Police officers that can either be good or bad.

• The villain who is often a monster , freak or serial killer.

Characters

The End