History of Iconic horror films timeline

http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/699617/History-of-Iconic-Horror-Films-timeline/

Iconic horror characters

Concept Script - The Call / Hide by Adam Boiselle

4 Representation theories

Laura Mulvey - 'The Gaze'

• Representation of women = Male Gaze
• Women's body on screen = male has erotic pleasure, women is object
• Gaze of heterosexual male
• Male directors
• Men are now 'sex objects' = Female Faze

Carol J. Clover - 'The Final Girl'

• Last female alive to confront the killer
• Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Scream & A Nightmare on Elm Street
• Typically virgins, avoids sex and drugs, unisex name, sometimes shared history with killer
• Final girl is investigating consciousness of film

Sarah Dobbs - Feminism in Horror

• Female protagonists = Rom-coms
• Most women are actresses, not directors, producers or writers
• No need for the Final Girl in so many horror films

Charles Derry

1. Hauntings & Demonic Possessions

• Exorcist & Paranormal Activity - fear of unknown, superstition, evil exists
• Religion, gender and sexuality
• Spiritual presence - witches, ghosts, demons
• Characters fall prey to evil force
• Sexual connotations to 'possession'
• Evil force wants to corrupt its victims - 'The Shining'
• Good and evil, temptation and sin

2. Apocalypse

• Mankind threatened with extinction by inhuman creatures - sometimes virus or plague
• Sometimes from harmless creatures
• Set structure - sudden appearance of creatures
• No explicit reason for rising of creatures

3. The Human Monster

• Psychopathology and insanity - mind of a killer or insane person
• Monster in human deals with propensity for evil
• Sympathetic monster

Narrative Essay

Narrative Essay

I feel that my trailer follows Todorov's theory partly. The narrative theorist, Todorov, said that there were three main stages that should be shown in a teaser trailer. These are the equilibrium, the disequilibrium and the resolution. My teaser trailer shows the equilibrium. This is the introduction of it, and it shows the setting of the horror trailer, which is what the equilibrium should do in teaser trailers. There is also a disequilibrium, which is when the antagonist is introduced to the audience. The disequilibrium is a disruption in the trailer, and when a thing goes wrong in it, so this follows that particular convention. However, there was no resolution in my trailer because I believed that it would be more complex and intriguing if it included more of the disequilibrium.

My trailer also follows Levi Strauss' narrative theory. Strauss believed that everything had a binary opposite, and in my trailer there were protagonists against an antagonist. There was also a hint of man vs. nature, when there was a shot in my trailer of the killers’ knife stuck in a tree. I followed Levi Strauss' binary opposition theory as it is conventional and also it is quite simple for the audience to understand and know what is happening in the trailer.

Another theorist that I will talk about is Vladimir Propp. In his narrative theory, he said that there are key characters that should always be in every horror trailer. These are the protagonist, the antagonist, the donor, the false hero, and the princess/prince. In my trailer, I partly followed this theory, as I included the protagonist, which is a group of teenagers, and the antagonist, which is the killer with a knife. However, in my teaser trailer there wasn’t a donor, a false hero or a princess/prince.

Finally, I am going to talk about Roland Barthes’ structuralism approach. Barthes said that there are three main codes that should be included in all horror trailers. These are the enigma code, which concerns the mystery within the trailer, the action code, which creates suspense, and finally the symbolic code which tells the meaning of the trailer. I didn’t follow the enigma code as in my trailer, there were lots of shots of the antagonist, and they were full shots of him as well, instead of just parts of him. In my trailer, I followed the action code and symbolic code, as the audience could get the meaning of the trailer from watching it.

Overall, I believe that in my trailer, I followed most of the narrative theories. However, I also feel that my trailer should have consisted of more conventional aspects in it, such as including a resolution. Although, changing it up a bit and doing something unconventional can be good for the audience, as it keeps them guessing, and they are not watching the same sort of thing over again.

Summer trailer evaluation

My summer horror film trailer was for a slasher, and it was about a killer murdering some protagonists in a graveyard.

The equilibrium introduces the setting of the trailer, and also introduces only a few characters. This follows the convention of the equilibrium of many horror film trailers, as their purpose is to introduce some things to the audience, such as the location and some characters. The equilibrium should not reveal every character because there will be no surprise for the audience when they watch the full film.

The disequilibrium reveals the killer, who has a knife, and is chasing one of the protagonists through the graveyard. It is conventional for something like this to happen in the disequilibrium as something has to go wrong. However, the killer is never fully revealed in trailers. Instead, only parts of the killer is revealed, so that it is still quite a surprise for the audience when the killer does eventually get completely revealed. But in my trailer, the killer is fully revealed so this does not follow this typical convention.

The montage involves seeing the knife stuck in the tree. Also, we see the killer again, and the protagonists . We then see the killer walk past all of these protagonists, each one of the dead, as a result of this killer. The montage should be the longest part of a teaser trailer, and my trailer is. It should also show the most scary parts, and this one does.

A stock scene in my teaser trailer is a killer with a knife. This is one of the most common stock scenes to see in a slasher horror film, so this is very conventional. Also, the killer is chasing a protagonist, which is another stock scene in my trailer.

The tone of my summer teaser trailer is very good, because it was filmed at night time, and also it is set in a graveyard, which is a good setting for a horror film because of the scary and tense atmosphere of it.

The Call (Hide) by Adam Boisselle - Script

The Call (Hide) by Adam Boisselle

Tagline: Be Careful Who You Call…Your Life Could Be On The Line…

Characters: Brett, Kayla, Jack, Rebecca, and the Killer

·         “Prank Calls, I mean we can’t get caught now can we?” – Key plot point for trailer

·         ‘The girl screams one last final scream; we see the knife covered in blood’ – Key horror moment and key plot point for trailer

·         ‘Rebecca is walking up the road, she looks back at the house and suddenly she hears footsteps. She looks around, scared’ – Key horror moment and key stock scene

·         ‘We see a figure appear in the Glass Window, perfectly seen. We go from looking at him to passing over to the knife, which is still out’ – Key horror moment and key plot point for trailer

·         ‘The teens are now asleep, and the TV is still running. Suddenly Brett begins to wake up, he lazily walks over to the TV and shuts it off, suddenly there’s a loud noise from within the house, Brett whips around looking towards the Hallway’ – Key horror moment

·         'Kayla, still pinned against a wall is standing there. Suddenly the Killer brings the knife up to her neck’ – Key horror moment

·         'The teens all run out to the Driveway, and begin running away. Suddenly Brett trips and falls to the ground, as he does this the Garage Door opens behind him. He slowly begins to get up, when suddenly the Killer begins to walk out’ – Key stock scene

·         'The teens run around Brett’s body, and over the small wall, Rebecca jumps down right into the Killer’s arms. She screams in fright and kicks him, he buckles over and she runs’ – Death scene

·         'The Killer raises his knife, and turns and slams it into Rebecca’s abdomen! She screams in pain, and he rips the knife out and slashes Jack’s side. He falls to the ground in pain, but gets up, Rebecca falls, coughing up blood; she falls to the ground and dies’ – Death scene

·         'Suddenly the door they came in swings open, revealing the Killer’ – Key horror moment

·         'The Killer raises his knife, kicks Jack onto his stomach steps on his back and begins stabbing the knife into him, over and over and over. Jack soon stops moving’ – Death scene

·         'She gets to her feet and looks at the mirror to see that it reads: I Saw What You Did. Kayla gasps and from behind her the Killer rises up from the bathtub. He grabs her from behind and we… CUT TO BLACK: On the sound of her screaming’ – Key horror moment and possible death scene

How does the concept of genre apply to your Trailer? - 30 min essay

How does the concept of genre apply to your Trailer?

Films are categorised based on similarities in the narrative elements from which films are constructed, their genre. One way of categorising film genres is by the target audience. In horror films, certain things often happen, including a death near the beginning and frequent scary scenes and jump scares. These are some of the conventions of horror films. Some examples of sub-genres of horror are Slasher, Splatter, Zombie and Supernatural/Psychological. There are some horror films that combine the genre of horror with another genre. ‘Warm Bodies’ is a film combines the genres of horror and comedy. ‘Shaun of the Dead’ also does this. When watching horror films, the audience will have expectations regarding the content of the film they are watching. Therefore, repetition and predictability in the film can excite them. In contrast, audiences may take pleasure when there are differences, such as when two different genres are combined in one film because this isn’t what they would expect to see.

One genre theorist is Daniel Chandler. He believed that “conventional definitions of genre are based on the idea that they share particular conventions of content, eg. themes or setting”. Another is Steve Neale. He believed that “genres are instances of repetition and difference; this is what pleasure for the audience is derived from”. The comedy-horror film, ‘Warm Bodies’ is a good example to use. The film combines two genres that you wouldn’t usually expect to see together. This is done to gibe the audience something new and different, and so the typical things that happen in horror films are not repeated in every one. The audience could get pleasure from this, as it is unique. However, they could also be left disappointed because they are fans of the horror genre and were only expecting to see horror in the film. Rick Altman was a genre theorist who proposed a semantic/syntactic approach. Finally, the genre theorist, Graeme Burton, argued that films from a certain genre will all contain recognisable characteristics and key elements. These are the protagonists, stock characters, stock situations, icons, background and décor, and themes. In Slasher films, there will be protagonists and small characters who get chased by the antagonist, and always fall over when trying to get away. This is called a stock situation. Icons in Slasher films include masks and knives, used by the killers.

Media Horror Teaser Trailer