The Antagonist – The bad guy or villain, the antagonist can be of two forms a supernatural entity / monster or a psychopathic killer, the main role of the antagonist is to kill the other characters before the end of the movie but the majority of the time he never succeeds.
The Protagonist – The victim or good character within a film, this character is usually female. If so she will be the final female, the final female is a female character that survives either to the end of the film or just until it climaxes.
The Helper – A character who aids the protagonist or gives advice to the protagonist, often killed before the end of the movie.
“Monster Fodder” – Standard stock characters that have been placed in the movie only to be killed by the antagonist at the start of the movie to build tension these are usually “stock characters ” such as a the captain of the football team in a teen horror.
Iconography – Specific elements of mise en scene related to the genre of the film.
Weaponry – Props that can be used to harm or kill other characters often used by the antagonist or the protagonist to protect themselves. Weapons in horror films are normally household items such as kitchen knives or tools such as hammers this is because the protagonist would usually be to powerful and kill the antagonist on sight if they had a gun.
Costumes and Makeup – Within horror films the antagonist is wearing a mask 9 times out of 10, this is because it will obscure their face and make the emotionless and inhuman. Characters are normally dressed in everyday clothes which become torn and blood stained by the end of the film. Also makeup is used on the actors frequently in gore films as they need to create situations which would normally kill or badly wound people, this is obviously inhumane and unfeasible to do to the actors portraying the characters.
Setting – The setting of a horror film is very important to the storyline and the subgenre for example it would be hard to set a psychological horror in a toy shop compared to one se in a abandoned hospital.
Isolated Environment – Isolated environments are often used to make the protagonist seem very vulnerable as they cannot call for help or the police in this situation and must face the antagonist alone. Good examples of this are the woods, houses in the country and underground caves.
Suburban Environment – The suburban environment is used to make the situation more practical for the character as they have all the conventions of the modern world to help them, yet are still powerless. This environment is usually good if the antagonist is a supernatural being and is to powerful to be effected by the law a good example of this is predator 2 where the predator has a cloaking device so it may hid within the city whilst stalking and killing it’s prey
Traits and subgenres – There are many traits of horror films but these all fall into different categories such as:
Slasher films the stereotypical film where a masked psychotic killer preys on a group of teenage girls with a weapon such as a knife.
Psychological horror where the antagonist who will menaces the protagonist with psychological threats before a final attack.
Splatter films where the horror focuses on graphic portrayals of gore, these films use excessive amounts of blood and guts.
Vampire films – A supernatural vampire preys on female victims sucking their blood.
Zombie films – The come back to life and begin to attack the living.
Werewolf / Mummy films –as above but the protagonist is menaced by another supernatural character.
Teen Horror – A group of teenagers are targeted by a killer.
Super Natural Thriller – A ghost story which focuses on the haunting of the ghosts victims there are often a few deaths to build tension.
Themes – Films often use thematic devices to draw a audience in, themes are often “binary oppositions ” or opposites for example:
Known Vs. Unknown
Life Vs. Death
The Natural Vs. The Unatural
Human Normality Vs. The Unconsious Self
Social Order Vs. Social Disorder
Sanity Vs. Insanity
Health Vs. Disease
Narrative of horror films
The narrative of a north American horror film is usually linear and has a clear start middle and end and can often make use of the flashback technique or a intransitive narrative.
There will often be use of the classic three part structure there will be a set up which sets the story a confrontation where “monster fodder ” is killed and a resolution where the antagonist is killed or the problem solved.
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