This past week in class me and my group have had detailed discussions about who and what sort of characters we are going to include in our film, and whether they adhere or challenge conventions of characters in horror movies. To do this, we made sure we referred back to our research on the depiction of killers in horror movies/ killers in horror movies and also our research on stock characters in horror movies, to make sure we had a clear idea on what sort of conventions of these characters we should be looking to include and also to see where we could possibly challenge any of these conventions.
PROTAGONIST
From looking back on our research on killers in horror movies we found that the commonality between these killers were that they all seemed to be hampered by a troubled background, and hid their identity through the use of a mask or deformity. So looking at that we decided to adhere and challenge these conventions. We adhered to these conventions by creating a troubled background for our character in which she is mentally ill and suffers severely from bipolar and relies on her sister Kate (who commits suicide) for moral support, we did this as with most of the killers we looked at there seemed to be something that triggered off these killers rather than it being just random acts of murder, so we have decided to adheres to these conventions by likewise creating a troubled background for our killer in which the suicide of her sister triggers the murders in our film. However we have also challenged these conventions by not hiding the identity of our killer through some form of disguise (i.e. masks/ deformity), but although our killers identity is known we plan to still create a sense of enigma by making our killer the twin sister to the suicide girl but not revealing the fact they are sisters. This maintains the sense of enigma we are trying to create and in a way still ensures the identity of our killer is hidden without having to use some form of disguise. Also just the fact our killer is a woman challenges conventions of horror movies massively as it subverts this view of male dominance often seen in horror movies like Friday the 13th and Halloween, the only similar movie that also challenges conventions in this way is The Ring. This then perhaps hints at themes of a growing social disruption in society and the fact everyone has the ability to be dangerous.
STOCK CHARACTERS
The Final Girl - Sarah
Looking back on our research into Stock Characters, we've decided to adhere to the conventions of having a sole girl survivor at the end of the film and have made sure the characteristics of this character is very much similar to the characteristics normally found in The Final Girl. Like with The Final Girl in most horror films, although she may take part in the illicit activities of the group, she is is still a very much likable character who is very sincere and has been pressured into cheating and therefore audiences, whilst not liking the rest of the group, will warm to her as they will feel they can relate to her. Because of her good nature we plan to highlight the guilt she feels from cheating and so highlight our underlining message that cheating is wrong and doesn't ensure happiness.
Suicide Girl - Kate
Like with her twin sister, Kate is very much a outcast amongst teenagers and in someways society, which highlights themes of isolation often found in horror. We plan to highlight the themes of our movie through her as she is a very ambitious girl with big dreams, but doesn't seem to ever succeed perhaps due to the fact she is different and doesn't fit in. This plays on the themes of Ambition vs. Disaffection and Success vs. Failure of our film. Whilst also highlighting out emotion hook, something scriptwriter Jesse O'Mahoney stressed was important to have in a film, of cheating, deceit and fail of failure. Like with all horror movies there is a trigger that causes a chain reaction of bad events and so we plan to highlight the death of this innocent character as the trigger that causes the following chaos of events.
The Lad - Jack
As this is a British movie and not American, instead of creating 'the jock' character often seen in horror movies, we have created a British alternative 'the lad' so we could create the type of character that would appeal to a British audience. However Jack still does play on the conventions found in 'the jock' stock character as he is very trendy, popular and confident in his looks and ability, however like 'the jock' seen in American movies this confidence is instead replaced with cockiness and so the character will become disliked by the audience. Adhering to the portrayal of this character in horror movies, he does not survive and is one of the first to die in the film.
OTHER CHARACTERS
Other characters we have created who will play a prominent role in our movie are two more characters who are with the group cheating, one boy and one girl with the boy being very similar top Jack whilst the girl will resemble 'The Popular Girl often seen in horror movies. Both characters will adhere to conventions and therefore will die quite early in our film. Other characters will mostly consist of extras who will just help us to reenact the atmosphere of a school in our movie. This will include a teacher and students.
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