Codes conventions-blog
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This document discusses the common codes and conventions of slasher films. It outlines that typical slasher films involve a psychotic masked killer stalking and murdering teenagers with sharp objects. The victims are usually stereotypical and linked to the killer's past trauma. Slasher films also commonly have distinctive settings, styles, icons, narratives and characters like the "final girl" who stops the killer. The genre aims to provoke an adrenaline response in younger audiences.
Codes conventions-blog
- 1. CODES & CONVENTIONS OF THE SLASHER GENRE Ben Cornhill
- 2. WHAT IS A SLASHER? What is a Slasher film? A slasher film is a sub-genre of the horror film genre. In most slasher films there are many familiar codes and conventions that can found within the slasher, such as: • a psychotic masked killer stalking and systematically butchering a group of young adults. • Away from parent supervision and usually up to no good. • Until eventually the virgin/final girl prevails and seems to destroy the killer therefore stopping the turmoil from continuing.
- 3. STEREOTYPES The stereotype of a killer within a slasher film is often that the killer is a supernatural boogie man that is invincible and wilds a sharp object usually a kitchen knife or axe. The killer in fact is an ordinary person who has suffered some kind of trauma, abuse or injustice in their younger years of life and there killing streak is a way to get revenge and forwards their angers that are trailing from these significant past events. The victims are never random either, they are also somehow linked with the killers past.
- 4. WEAPONS The weapons were always knives or sharp objects never guns. The idea of this makes the killing more upfront, brutal and definitely more personal, the gun is considered to quick and clean. However in the film Halloween (John Carpenter 1978) the doctor does use a gun, but it doesn‟t “finish off ” the antagonist.
- 5. SETTING THE SCENE Some genres have a distinct location, like western is associated with Texas, US and set in the late 1800‟s to early 1940‟s. The slasher film is the same, usually set in suburbia within a well known state of America, for example Wisconsin. A real life example of a menace such a Michael Myers (Halloween, 1978) is Ed Gein, he lived in Wissconsin and was the typical cranky but friendly guy in the little village, but turned out to be a murderer and grave robber, decapitating and gutting the bodies, and then on occasion using their skin to make lampshades and odd things such as this. He was convicted in 1957 spent the rest of his life in a Criminal Mental Asylum and died in 1984.
- 6. STYLE Style and Iconography can frequently be mixed up, Iconography refers to objects and sounds, style refers to how they are represented. Camera angles and composition, editing and the use of colour and special effects, all contribute to the style of a film. The overall excess use of zingers, monotone drones and low key lighting in the work of a director such as John Carpenter(Halloween) suggests slasher.
- 7. ICONOGRAPHY The term Iconography derives from the Art history and refers to a classification of paintings based on common images and icons. Films contain both visual images and „ sound images‟. An iconic image for a Hollywood gangster movie was the machine gun. The iconic images for a slasher can be the sharp object which is used to brutally murder the victim, and the monotone drones and zingers used to add emphasis to the killings.
- 8. NARRATIVE „Narrative‟ refers to both the story structures that films employ and the specific narrative devices or elements that are used in the construction (such as chases, gun fights, dance sequences etc.) They are concerned with conflicts over ideas and values. Most slasher films offer a narrative of „reassurance‟ – for example murders in the films are usually captured or killed themselves. The term slasher is associated with blood, guts, gore and mindless bimbos running round screaming „help me‟ with the final girl at the end being the one to subdue the murderer and bringing all to piece and justice.
- 9. CHARACTERS The narrative is usually developed through the characters. Characters are usually paired in the films i.e. old/young, black/white, male/female. Within the slasher the characters there are usually pairs, boyfriend/girlfriend, male/female, psychotic killer/sharp object. The „final girl‟ also is usually included in every film, described by Carol Clover. The final girl is usually the „wall‟ to the psychopaths killings, preventing from killing any more people and sometimes killing the Antagonist off.
- 10. AUDIENCE RESPONSE There us a much more immediate way in which audiences group films/ We often go to the cinema in search of sensation, an immediate emotional response. The adrenaline-rush of an action film, the „on the edge of your seat‟ tension of a suspense thriller or the release of laughter for a comedy are important elements several genres. Slasher can be referred to as „met movies‟ and ‟skin flicks‟. Its usually the younger audience go to view the films, with girls going in groups for a thrill then they take their boyfriends.