The document discusses potential influences for the female lead character in a horror film. It analyzes characters from The Hunger Games, The Girl Next Door, When a Stranger Calls, and Warm Bodies. While each character displays certain desirable traits, none are the perfect fit. Katniss is too skilled at survival. Danielle is too feminine and passive. Jill is too young and vulnerable. Julie provides the best balance of strength and caring, making her a character audiences will engage with. The document seeks to draw on aspects from these influences to craft a female lead that struggles but is tough, dynamic, and well-liked to create a gripping film.

1. Character – Female lead

2. Katniss (played by Jennifer Lawerence) from
‘Hunger Games’
Katniss would be a good influence as she is crafty and has
skills to help her survive. However, she is probably a little bit
too skilled as we don’t want our female lead to surivive
easily. We want her to have some struggle to create a more
gripping film. We can still take inspiration from Katniss in
who we cast. Katsniss doesn’t have a super feminine face
and isn't the typical pretty, air-headed girl we see in a lot of
horror films. In the trailer she shows bravery when she says
‘I volunteer as tribute’ to do something horrible, so that her
sister doesn’t have to. This shows that she is a brave, strong
character. We will take inspiration from this.

3. Danielle (played by Elisha Cuthbert) from ‘The girl
next door
In this film this actor plays the typical ‘girl next door’ character. This type of
characters are often very ‘wholesome’ and quite feminine. They the are well
liked and down too earth. Often are attractive but don’t seem aware of it. We
will take aspects of this character, as we want our female lead to be well liked.
This means the audience will care about her more as a character and be more
invested in the film. However we want our lead to be more dynamic and
skilled than the ‘girl next door character’ so it is more realistic that she
survives.

4. Jill Johnson (played by Camilla Belle) from ‘When a Stranger Calls’
This character is a good source of inspiration as she is very scared but still puts up
a struggle and survives and manages to save the children she is babysitting in the
film. She is the right mix between strong and weak. She isn’t sexualised and made
out to be a air-head, which often happens in horror films and is not what we
want. However she is quite young and has a very soft and high voice. This makes
her seem more vulnerable and we would like a female lead who seems more
tough and able to take care of her self then this character. Also in the trailer for
‘When a Stranger Calls’, most of what she says is just ‘Hello’ and ‘Who is this?’,
which doesn’t show much depth to her character as this are very generic and
unhelpful things to say in this context. Although at one point in the trailer she
does show edge when she has enough and shouts ‘stop calling me, you sicko’
down the phone.

5. Julie (played by Teresa Palmer) from ‘Warm Bodies’
We will take a lot of inspiration from the casting of this character. She appears
both feminine tough. She wears little make up and has a fairly strong face, not just
soft features. In the trailer for the film we can see that as a character she, is brave
and strong as when we first meet her in the trailer she is handling a gun, killing
zombies. However she also falls in love with the main zombie in the film and
shows a lot of care. Will will take inspiration of this character to make our main
lead girl both capable and caring. This will make her more liked by the audience so
they care and engage with her and the film more.

6. Montage of different female leads who are
the victims in horror films