1. Horror Genre
Characters:
The main protagonist
The Villain, usually a monster, mutated freak, alien or serial killer.
The stupid/immoral teenagers
Creepy children
Ghosts, Zombies, Demons.
Non-believer:
Hysterical character
How are these charactersportrayed and represented
The main protagonist: Themain protagonist or hero of a horror film tends to be played by a male. They
are portrayed as brave and often show little emotion throughout the film, which shows them as strong
and supportive characters.
The villain: If the villain is a human character they often wear a mask, to disguise their appearance and
emotions, so that the audience cannot connect with the character. The characters are often unrealistic,
as they react to injuries, such as being stabbed, unharmed without any pain. Monsters and ghosts play on
the audiences primal fears. These characters have the biggest impact on the audience and strikes fear
into them.
Non-believer: The non-believer is often played by a male character, however, can be played by either
sex. They are portrayed as cocky and at ease. They are often good at convincing the other characters of
over reacting. They areoften seen as overconfident which results in them usually being the first one to
die.
Hysterical character: The hysterical character is usually played by a female character. They arethe
characters that stay in the room or building when they have witnessed a friend being murdered and
refuse to move and break down into hysterics. As a result she will be killed. The character has quite an
impact on the audience as they help build up more suspense.
All charactersare portrayed differently and have their own characteristics just like in real life. The male
characters areoften portrayed as the dominant, cocky and powerful characters, whereas the female
characters posses the ‘sex appeal’ and the hysterics.
Final Girl Theory
The final girl theory refers to the last character left alive in order to confront the killer. The final girl is
always represented as the ‘virgin’, where the only way to avoid death is not to have sex, drink, smoke or
take alcohol. She is presented as intelligent and resourceful compared to the other victims. The final girl
usually has everything; a mixture of a hero, intelligent, attractiveand damsel in distress. This enables the
audience to feel sympathy towards her with the audience taking her side. The character is often a
brunette, contrasting the typical blonde character that often gets killed early on in the film. Being
brunette, the audience can relate to their similarities, unlike the typical blonde who is in the film for the
‘sex appeal’. This theory was discovered by Carol J Clover, who noticed the similar theme of a female
character being the last survivor. This theory subverted the normality of such representation of women,
as it’s usually the male charactersthat we represent as being strong and powerful.
