Researching films like Halloween, The Crazies, and The Cabin in the Woods helped the group better understand conventions of horror narratives and characters. Applying the DISTINCT framework to their story and considering binary oppositions between films enabled effective incorporation of narrative elements. Analysis of representation in Cabin in the Woods provided insight into character roles like the final girl and sexually active stereotypes. Understanding audiences and institutions shapes horror film conventions.

1. How Research has Impacted our
Ideas
By Roisin Thompson

2. DISTINCT
D- Don’t
I- Ignore
S- Settings/Scene
T- Technical Codes
I- Iconography
N- Narrative
C- Character Types
T- Themes
Keeping DISTINCT in mind,
we were able to
effectively incorporate all
of the conventions of
DISTINCT by applying it to
our story and trailer. This
has helped when creating
an effective plot.

3. Narrative- Halloween Vs. The Crazies
After watching and researching both Halloween
and The Crazies, our group were able to learn a
lot about the films and their appropriate
conventions. Afterwards, this enabled us to use
Binary Opposition in our ideas, and integrate
Hollywood Narrative, Iconography and technical
codes.

4. Representation (Cabin in the Woods)
Since ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ focused a lot on the
different characters within the Horror Genre, it
really helped the group to learn the roles of each
character. We learnt that the Final Girl is almost
always virginal and has a lot of androgynous
features but other characters like the sexually active
ones have extreme gender stereotypes, like the
sexually active girl being blonde and the sexually
active male being athletic. The Narrative Theory has
been mentioned within ‘Halloween’.

5. Audiences and Institutions