SLASHER GENRE: Titles

Order: 

Through my analysis of general film and genre film openings, I have found the general order of titles to be: 

1. Distribution company

2. Production companies

3. Director

4. Cast

5. Crew

6. Director again

In more detail: 

1. Distribution company- Conventionally the first title, it is usually structured as (distributor) presents...

2. Production companies- Depending on the budget and year of the film, the number of production companies differs. If it is one company it appears as a (producer) production, and if it is multiple it appears as (producer 1) in association with (producer 2) presents...

3. + 6. Director- It is conventional for the first and last appearing name to be the director's. This repetition highlights the important role of the director, and the two named appearances are worded differently. It normally appears as, a (director) film, a film by (director) or directed by (director) 

4. Cast- The cast names appear next and typically start with the most prominent role, to the least. If an actor is unknown or it is their first appearance, the title says introducing (actor), if they are known it says starring (actor), (actor), or (actor) as (role). If the actor is very well known and playing a supporting role, the title says with an appearance from (actor), or with (actor) and they are usually one of the final cast names to appear. 

5. Crew- The crew conventionally appear after the cast names, and highlight the most prominent roles, while the final credits detail the whole crew. These are typically the roles of; director of photography, editor, costume designer, and casting director. The roles are typically presented as costume design by (costume designer), and the name differs in font, font size, or case, to differentiate the role and the name. 

Colours: 

The colour most frequently used to denote horror or slasher was red. The colour red has connotations of danger, blood, and anger. This is seen in examples like Scream (1996) , Eden Lake (2008), and The Cabin In The Woods (2011). 

The colour white was used to connote good, innocence, purity, such as in Cherry Falls (2000). It was also used along with black to accompany red, like in Scream (1996). 

The final colour I saw used was blue. This colour denotes coldness, and is conventionally used to connote science-fiction or the supernatural. This is seen in Bride Of Chucky (1998). 

The background colour is usually dark, to set the tone for the dark atmosphere of the film, and sometimes to create contrast against a white title, and symbolise good vs. evil. 

Fonts: 

The font types varied based on the hybridity of the film and the other genres included along with horror/slasher. It also varied depending on the primary target audience. 

Cursive fonts were used when targeting a primarily female audience. This was also used to target both genders, like in Bride Of Chucky (1998). Examples of cursive are seen in Jennifer's Body (2009) and Heathers (1988). 

The use of a serif, or elongated font, was used in examples presented as serious, such as Eden Lake (2008), and The Cabin In The Woods (2011), which are marketed towards an older audience and tend to be classified as psychological thrillers, rather than slashers. 

A sans-serif or bubble font, was used to denote comedy. This is seen in the examples of Scream (1996), and Bride Of Chucky (1998), and are hybrid films, featuring a comedy element. 

The case of the fonts varies between sentence-case and uppercase. The sentence-case denotes a less serious film, and the uppercase denotes serious horror. 

SLASHER GENRE: Narrative Structure

Within the slasher genre, the structure and conventions are very specific, so audience expectation is of a reoccurring pattern. This is an example of genre purism. As an extension of Todorov's narrative structure, the slasher genre has its own interpretation of it. 

This is best summarised in the figure below, taken from Richard Nowell's book, "Blood Money".

According to Todorov's narrative structure this would be; equilibrium (the teenagers daily life), disruption (stalking or killing begins), recognition (noticing murders), attempt to repair (attempt to survive), new equilibrium (killer is defeated). 

This structure is seen in older slasher films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Halloween (1976), Prom Night (1980), as well as modern examples such as Scream (1996), Bride of Chucky (1998), The Cabin in the Woods (2011), and The Babysitter (2017).

"The horror genre's hidebound founding texts prevent films from deviating too far from tradition...The audience is itself psychologically unsuited for drastic changes in the formula horror film."

- John L. Crane, "Genre Criticism and the Horror film"

This quote summarises the idea that the early, blueprint slasher films have set the conventions for following films, and created the audience's expectations. When the conventions are slightly altered, this is counter-typical, and instantly recognisable within the formula, often to the disappointment of audiences. 

Resources:

https://gatecrashers.fan/2021/10/29/slasher-history-1/

https://sk.sagepub.com/books/terror-and-everyday-life-singular-moments-in-the-history-of-the-horror-film/n2.xml

SLASHER GENRE: Role of Comedy

"Horror-Comedy is a literary, television, and film genre, that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction." 

This genre is categorised into three subtypes; dark comedy (Heathers, 1988), parody (Scary Movie, 2000), and spoof (Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday The 13th, 2000). Many comedy-horrors and parodies satirise the slasher character archetypes, and are prevalent throughout pop-culture. 

Background and History: 

The short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving is considered to be "the first great comedy horror", being published in 1820 and taking place around Halloween. The first horror-comedy film is the 1920 short film Haunted Spooks, by Harold Lloyd, but the most successful first release was Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, 1948, directed by Charles Barton. The initial reasoning behind the film, was to combine iconic monsters such as Dracula, Frankenstein, and the werewolf, played by household comedy names. This unintentional hybridity proved commercially viable, and evolved into four quadrant films such as Beetlejuice (1988), The Addams Family (1991), or Casper (1995). 

After the first slasher cycle ended in the late 1980s, and slasher conventions had been established, postmodernist films and parodies or spoofs began to emerge. An early example is 1981's Student Bodies, followed by Bride of Chucky in 1998, and notably Scary Movie (2000). This exaggerated slasher tropes and plot lines, ridiculing them and directly referencing popular films of the time. This resulted in strong box office figures and a large number of sequels, and solidified the horror-comedy genre. Another film of the time was the zom-rom-com, Sean of the Dead (2004), which added a further layer of hybridity and was followed by large success and further adaptations (Warm Bodies, 2013). In recent years, the self-awareness and mockery of tropes in films such as The Cabin in the Woods (2012), The Final Girls (2015),  and The Babysitter (2017), have dominated the horror-comedy genre.

Psychological Elements: 

Apart for the increased commercial appeal created through hybridity, the popularity and success of comedy-horror lies in the safety felt by the audience compared to a classic thriller or slasher. In "Comedy-Horror Films: A Chronological History", Bruce Hallenbeck summarises this best: 

"(comedy-horror films) provide the permission to laugh at your fears, to whistle past the cinematic graveyard and feel secure in the knowledge that monsters can't get you." 

Definitions/Concepts: 

Comedy: laughter and humour is created due to the contrast of a characters existence and the attempt to achieve their goal, which a viewer is able to watch from afar and see elements a character cannot perceive about themselves. 

Horror: discomfort, terror, and repulsion is created to provoke a psychological reaction within the viewer.

The sub-types of the comedy-horror:

As I had previously mentioned, there are three main types of the horror-comedy; dark comedy, parody, and spoof.  

Parody: A common way and type of comedy-horror, as it relied on parodying the distinct tropes of the horror genre. This is because of the horror's set conventions that an audience can recognise and see in a different element. For example, the film Scary Movie (2000) is a great example of a parody, as it makes fun of the film Scream (1996), as well as many other classic horror films. For example, the opening sequence is a recreation of Scream, but adds elements of humour such as the "safety/death" sign or the slow motion running of the victim. 

The reminder of watching a film allows a viewer to laugh at their own fears, while also leaving them vulnerable for a scare, as laughter is relaxing. 

Dark Comedy: Dark comedy creates humour from a dark subject matter as a coping mechanism, to remove the seriousness or fear from a bleak situation. It is not as reliant on horror conventions as the other sub-types, and often ends negatively, but the manner in which the story was carried out does not have the same effect on the viewer as a serious horror film would. For example, the film Heathers (1988), features comedic ways of death or accidental killings, and the protagonist ignores the death of her friends as she has her own teenage problems, as well as the de-sensitisation of her classmates. This creates humour as it is an inappropriate manner in which to react at the horror, while having the bleak situations still depicted. 

Spoof: A spoof refers to the humorous exaggeration of something for comic effect. When a situation is depicted extremely, this removes the horror element and allows for more violence as it is seen as comedic. The more unbelievable and exaggerated something is, the more humour it creates. For example, the clips of The Babysitter (2017) seen below, contain a lot of violent imagery such as blood, but because it is so exaggerated, the viewer is aware it is fictional, and humour is created. 

Conclusion: 

The most frequent combination of horror-comedy in these films is in jump scares (false scares), killing methods, the killer, or the victims reaction. This hybridity allows for a wider audience appeal, and more commercial adaptations of the genre, as family films (The Addams Family, 1991), or satire (The Final Girls, 2015). However, the main reason behind the comedy-horror's success is the genre purism of horror, and the distinct conventions it has. In order to effectively create a comedy-horror, the filmmaker must establish and recognise the conventions, in order for them to be subverted. 

Resources: 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/432309

https://industrialscripts.com/comedy-horror-movie/

https://www.vulture.com/2015/10/history-of-horror-comedy-in-11-crucial-films.html

https://books.google.lu/books?id=_jZnAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA201&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedy_horror

SLASHER GENRE: Auteur Directors

Wes Craven

Wesley Craven (b. 1939- d. 2015) was an American film director, screenwriter, editor, actor, and producer. 

He is "recognised as one of the greatest masters of the horror genre due to the cultural impact and influence of his work." (Wikipedia) He is best known for satirising horror cliches of the slasher genre, and for his films A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), the Scream franchise (1996-2011), The Hills Have Eyes (1977), and the Swamp Thing (1982). 

Dario Argento 

Dario Argento (b. 1940 -) is an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter still active today. Known as the "Master of the Thrill," he is "one of the most important figures within the Italian sub-genre of giallo films". (Wikipedia) Giallo films are "not strictly adhering to the tenets of either slasher films or arthouse cinema, and feature striking colours, propulsive music, and unseen threats to create their auras of suspense, bridging the gap between horror and noir." (Wikipedia)

He is best known for the films Suspiria (1977), Deep Red (1975), and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970). 

Tobe Hooper

Willard Tobe Hooper (b. 1943- d. 2017) was an American film director, screenwriter and producer. The BFI has cited him as "one of the most influential horror filmmakers of all time". He is known for his films The Funhouse (1981), Poltergeist (1982), Eaten Alive (1977), and most notably The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). This realistic horror film is one of the early examples of slasher, and the visceral imagery and sound was found too disturbing, and consequently banned in many territories. 

James Wan 

James Wan (b. 1977 -) is an Australian filmmaker known for his work in the horror genre and is still active today. He is best known for creating some of the most prolific contemporary franchises, such as Saw (2003-), Insidious (2010-) and The Conjuring (2013-2021). He has directed many films of the franchises, which are some of the highest grossing horrors of all time. 

Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Hitchcock (b. 1899 - d. 1980) is an English film director, producer, actor, and editor known as the "Master of Suspense", and regarded as "one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema." He is known for his thrillers, such as The 39 Steps (1935), The Birds (1963), Dial M for Murder (1954), Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1960). Psycho is regarded as one of the first slashers, and Marion as the first scream queen. His style includes editing and movement to mimic a gaze (voyuerism), his shot framing, and soundtracks instilling fear into the viewer. 

John Carpenter

John Carpenter (b. 1948-) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor and composer.
Many of Carpenter's films are considered as cult classics, such as In the Mouth of Madness (1978), The Thing (1982), Christine (1983), and most notably Halloween (1978). The film is seen as the start of the first slasher film cycle, and was a box office success. He popularised the masked knife wielding killer, POV shots, and the recognisable Halloween theme, which he composed. 

Resources: 

https://www.slashfilm.com/643505/best-horror-movie-directors-of-all-time/
https://www.wikipedia.org/

SLASHER GENRE: Sound

Sound is an extremely important element of the slasher genre. This not only sets the tone for the film, but also serves to illustrate scenes graphically without having to visibly portray the acts and gain a higher age certification, that can damage the film's success. 

An example of this is the film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), that was banned in many territories due to its violence, despite the violence mostly being portrayed through effective use of sounds. 

Below I have attached videos that I believe to be good examples of sound in the slasher genre, as well as some I am taking inspiration for in my film opening. 

Psycho (1960) shower scene: 

The score here creates tension, and is a recognisable theme. The use of slashing and stabbing sounds of the knife creates the effect without having to be visually and violently represented. 

Scream (1996) titles: 

The layered sounds (screams, slashing, banging) created in the titles denote the slasher genre, and I am taking inspiration for my film opening main title.

Halloween (1978) opening sequence: 

Carpenter's recognisable score and theme uses long drawn out and repetitive synth notes to create tension, which I am recreating in my film opening. 

Friday the 13th (1980) theme: 

Similarly to Halloween, Friday the 13th's theme creates tension with the high pitched and fast paced notes, accompanied by sounds of slashing. 

What is SLASHER?

What is slasher?:

A slasher movie is a horror sub-genre that features a killer murdering people in a brutal manner. The genre is also nicknamed as "slice and dice". 

Rather than complicating the narrative through psychological or paranormal activity, slasher movies reduce the genre to simple terms, of a killer on the hunt for blood. There are typically large amounts of violence and visual gore, and typically follow a group of teenagers based on the slasher character archetypes. 

In his book; "Horror, the Film Reader", Mark Jancovich defines it as "The films of this sub-genre are supposedly concerned with a process of terrorisation in which a serial killer methodically stalks a group of teenagers who are killed off one by one, and it has been presented as deeply conservative, particularly in its attitudes toward women."

The first slasher is considered to be Psycho (1960), and the first to achieve large box office success was Halloween (1978), which began the first slasher film cycle. This was followed by other films such as 1980's Prom Night and Friday the 13th. The similar narrative structure of these films, as well as shared conventions, classed them under the slasher genre. Although there is much discourse around the original recognition of the new genre, in the book "Blood Money" by Richard Nowell, he says: 

"Even though... no stable labelling system had become established by 1980 and 1981 to describe .... Teen slasher films, it is clear that, at this point in time, individuals speaking from all levels of North American film culture, recognised the existence of a new type of film that was distinguished from other films by virtue of the story it told- the story of a blade wielding killer preying on a group of young people."

According to Altman's genre theory, in the slasher genre the structure is the distinct narrative, the label is the term slasher and its conventions, the contract is the audience's expectations, and the blueprint is the producers repurpose of a successful film such as Halloween (1978), and creating a slasher film cycle. 

In regards to the labelling of slasher, Nowell ("Blood Money") says: 

" In this respect, the teen slasher fulfilled three of the four criteria laid out by Altman, as constituting what he calls a genre… missing is what Altman dubbed the label a name that conveys relatively unambiguously the alignment of structure blueprint and contract in such a way as to demonstrate that speaker/writer and listener/reader recognize that a film features a structure because it has been fashioned to a blueprint thus establishing a contract."

Slasher Film Examples: 

- Psycho (1960)

- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

- Halloween (1978)

- Prom Night (1980)

- My Bloody Valentine (1981)

- Scream (1996)

- Bride Of Chucky (1998)

- Scary Movie (2000)

- Happy Death Day (2017)

- Pearl (2022)

VODCAST: Slasher Genre Conventions

 

Transcript: 

In this vodcast I will analyse the following slasher conventions: the killer, the setting, character archetypes, character separation, signals, jump scares, illogical thinking, sounds, shots, and lighting. 

SLASHER GENRE: Character Archetypes

In this post I will analyse the following slasher character archetypes; the killer, the jock, the fool, the nice guy, the scream queen and the final girl, as well as treatment of minorities and adults. 

I will be mainly referring to the films The Cabin In The Woods (2011) ,  The Final Girls (2015) and The Babysitter (2017) , as they are post-modern films satirising these archetypes. 

SLASHER GENRE: Audience

"Kids with loose change are what summer movies are all about."

- Frank Mancuso, Friday the 13th (1980) marketer

After reading the book "Blood Money: A History of the First Teen Slasher Film Cycle" by Richard Nowell, I have complied a further understanding of the slasher audience. 

Age: 

The primary audience of the teen slasher genre is teenagers aged 15-24+. At the time of the beginning of the first slasher cycle in 1979, MPAA research showed that 12-20 year olds made up 49% of cinema attendance, making them the largest attending demographic. This means that the target audience for my film would also be 15-24+, as it is of the teen slasher genre.

In 1980, the journalist Patrick Goldstein reinforced this, saying: "the majority of the current victims are school kids - by clever coincidence the same age as most horror movie goers." Producer Don Borchers also said: "if you get the audience to identify with young teens in trouble and you do a knife movie, it's always going to work." These quotes reflect the concept of personal identification, part of Katz and Blumler's UGT, showing that on-screen representation attracts an audience that can identify with the characters and situations. I think that the reason slasher films are so popular within a teenage demographic is due to the relatability of the characters, as well as the situations included in the narratives; school, parties, relationships... I think that the use of substances, nudity, sex, and violence also attracts teenagers, as these are stereotypical activities that they participate in. 

A practice in 1980s America was "date movies", where films were targeted towards young males and females that they would be equally interested in seeing while on a date. This was a turning point in the film industry, as films, specifically horror were primarily targeted towards males as they believed them to be a more profitable demographic. 

Gender: 

Although horror is believed to be a stereotypically male dominated genre, I believe it is equally split. This graph reflects this, and shows women as the larger demographic. In 1978, the production executive Marilyn Tenser said: "women influence our box office, they're the ones that decide what movie a couple is going to see."

However, the slasher genre "has been presented as deeply conservative, particularly in its attitudes toward women." (Jancovich) I believe this is due to the archetypes of the scream queen and the final girl, which are binary opposites and are simplified representations of women. There is also frequent nudity in the genre, and the female characters are objectified for male pleasure. According to Mulvey's male gaze, this attracts male audiences to see a slasher film.

The archetype of Clover's final girl is a strong female representation, as she outsmarts the killer, but is represented as virginal, innocent, and weak, through most of the film, leaving the conventionally male killer in power for the majority of the film. The male killer and male archetypes are also used to attract a male audience, as they can personally identify with them. 

I am targeting a primarily female audience with my film, but the inclusion of male characters targets the secondary audience of males. 

Class: 

I think that slasher films are targeted toward teenagers of all classes, and as it is not a social realist film class wouldn't be a strong deterrent or attractor for audiences. However, if a film is aiming for commercial success, I think a BC1C2 group would be represented, as middle class or wealthy characters are easily marketed internationally. 

Ethnicity: 

I don't think that slasher films target a specific race, but past representations were euro-centric and there was little diversity. Often ethnically diverse representations were negative, and resulted in the "murdered minority" trope, where minority characters would be killed first. This is also known as the "black guy dies first" trope. This is why I chose not to include any ethnic representation in my opening, as I didn't want to have a negative representation, as well as satirising the conventional slasher archetypes. I would have included ethnic diversity in a full length feature. 

Sexuality: 

I don't think that slasher films target a specific sexuality, but past representations were heteronormative, and that is still often a convention. In the 1960 film Psycho, the killer Norman Bates is a cross-dresser, which is a negative representation for the LGBTQ+ community. LGBTQ+ characters also fall under the "murdered minority" trope, and I similarly did not want to include any negative representations in my opening, but would have if it was a full length feature. 

The knife is usually the weapon of choice in slasher, hence where the name comes from. The knife is seen as a phallic symbol, and is part of Freud's theory of psychosexual stages. This is a symbol of assault, especially from a male killer awards a female victim. I did not include any slashing in my opening as the shots didn't achieve verisimilitude, but slashing sounds are heard during the main title.