2. What is a stock character?
A stock character is a character that can always be
recognized in specific genres. An example of a stock
character in horror is the wanderer, the wanderer is
normally always the first to die. They die by wandering
off away from the rest of the group and never return
normally to be found dead later on in the film by the
remaining group.
3. The stock characters I will
be looking at are…
The wanderer
The popular girl
The Jock
The final girl
The pandora
The pervert
These are all very common stock characters in
horror films. I am going to find examples of each
in different horror films.
4. The Wanderer
The wanderer is normally the first to die in a horror film. They
tend to wander off by them selves at the beginning of the
film and leave the rest of the group. The wanderer either
never returns and is discovered dead later on in the film or is
seen being killed by the rest of the group. The wanderer is
normally portrayed as not being scared of anything and
being the cocky brave character in the group which leads to
them investigating a strange noise or incident or wandering
off not scared by their surroundings.
In the texas chainsaw massacre the wanderer is Kirk. He
wanderers off from his group of friends to find help in a near
by house while his four friends wait behind, he is the first victim
in the film.
5. Another stock character
seen in horror films is the final
girl.
The final girl is seen in allot of slasher horror films, she is normally represented
as the ‘good girl’ which may be picked on by the rest of the group at the
start. She does not drink, smoke or have sex in the film and is sometimes
shown as a loner. The final girl is always last to die and has to confront the
killer.
An example of the final girl is Sally Hardesty in the Texas chainsaw massacre.
She is the last girl alive in the film and has to confront the killer.
Another example is Kristen Parker from A nightmare on elm street dream
warriors. She is last to die in the film and has to try and fight Freddy krueger.
The last example of the final girl is Sidney Prescott in Scream, she is another
example of the girl who lives until the end of the film and has to fight the
scream killer.
6. The Pandora stock
character
The Pandora stock character is a character that is show to
be a risk taker they take risks that will result in them either
dying or surviving.
An example of a Pandora character is Scott from The evil
dead. He is a Pandora character as he insists on listening to
the tape which then summons sprits he then realizes he
made a bad decision and tries to escape leaving his group
behind.
Sometimes the Pandora character is shown to have a
connection with the killer for example Amanda Young from
the saw series, she is a survivor of jigsaws game and is then
revealed in a later film to be part of jigsaws helpers in killing
people.
7. Jock
Jocks in horror are very self confident and cocky. They usually
date the Popular girl and are usually rather dim. They are
usually one of the first people to be killed because of the traits I
have listed above. Examples of this character are Billy in Final
destination, Tom in My Bloody Valentine and Kurt in Cabin in
the Woods. The Jock is very similar to the pervert in that they
spend most of the film trying to seduce women.
8. The Pervert
The pervert is a sexually motivated individual who is normally
killed in this genre along with the Jock and the Popular girl.
Examples of this stock character are Frankie in Final Destination
3,Blake in house of wax and. This character is usually very similar
to the Jock. This character sexual desires are usually the cause
of its downfall.
9. The Popular Girl
The popular girl is usually blonde and not the brightest and
throughout the film they usually date the Jock. They can also
be mean and dismissive towards the smarter more intelligent
individuals which is often there downfall. Examples of this
character are Tatum Riley in Scream, Helen in I know what you
did last summer and Buffy from Scary Movie. This character is
the master of its own downfall because if they sepnt there time
listening to more intelligent characters maybe they wouldn’t
die so quickly.
