1) Slasher film openings typically use certain conventions for titling, camerawork, sound, and other elements to set expectations and build tension. Titles are often in red or white fonts resembling blood or blades to hint at violence. 2) Camera angles conceal the killer and establish settings, while close-ups show weapons and victims' reactions. Soundtracks use subtle, intensifying music to cue danger and panic. 3) Elements like lighting, costumes, and character positioning provide clues about plots and foreshadow events, such as a killer in black or a victim in white, to telegraph innocence and guilt. Editing employs transitions and effects to startle viewers and ramp up anxiety.

1. Analysis of six horror/slasher films By Anthony Panayi

2. Titling The main convention when it comes to titling in Slasher films is that the opening credits and titles are either in the colour red to represent danger and violence or in white in order to represent blankness and perhaps unearthly spirits. Nightmare On Elm Street, Valentine and Shrooms are examples of this technique being used. They are also usually in font that either resembles blood to show that killings are inevitable, or are ridged and sharp to represent the blades that will be used in the Slasher. However, the film ‘house of wax’ (1953) goes against the conventions by using a golden colour for the titling, it also uses large and solid font, this may be because they want to show that a large event will happen rather than giving away the purpose of the film too early to it’s audience, It keeps the audience watching because they will be curious to see what will happen in the film.

3. Cameraangles/movements Camera angles in the opening of Slasher films are often used to conceal the killer’s face if it is not already covered by a mask, hood or darkness. At the very beginning, there is sometimes an establishing long/extreme long shot in order to make the audience aware of the setting and the character’s surroundings. This technique is used in Scream, House Of Wax and Shrooms. However, it is not used in the opening of Valentine, Nightmare On Elm Street or Saw, this could be because the makers of the film do not want to give too much away to the audience about the surroundings of the victim(s) in order to cause tension and make the film more mysterious. Close-up shots are also used often in Slasher films. They are used to show the weapons that may be used in the film, as it is in Nightmare On Elm Street and Shrooms, this technique causes tension because the audience will wonder how long it will be before the weapons will be used. They are also used to show the emotions and reactions on the character’s face, for example, the face of one of the victims is seen in the bath tub in order to show the shock and fear on his face, this is also used to introduce the first character in Nightmare On Elm Street which lets the audience know what type of film it is going to be. Panning and Tracking shots are used effectively in Slasher films to either survey the setting of the opening two minutes, or to show the panic of the character which can cause tension in the audience in anticipation, in Shrooms it is used to chase the character through the forest whereas in Scream it is used to slowly follow the character round the house during the equilibrium. Point of view shots are also commonly used in Slasher films as it can show the actions and reactions of characters in the shot. In the 6 films that I am analysing, it is most commonly used in the film Valentine when the young boy is asking all of the girls to dance, (which is the action) and when they all reject him (which is the reaction) this allows the audience to see who the possible hero(s) or villain(s) are.

4. Mise en scene Mise en scene is very important in Slasher films as it can give away certain things about the film. For example, in Valentine the lighting is red in order to resemble blood which will hint to the audience that there will be a lot of blood involved in the film and that the location will have something to do with it. Also, in the first two minutes of The House Of Wax, the shadows of the wax statues appeared to be attacking something but when the camera moves to the statues themselves, they look like perfectly normal wax statues. This also lets the audience know that something bad will happen involving the statues and it also builds the tension up for that specific scene. Costume is another good way of representing a particular group or giving hints about the storyline. For example, the girl at the beginning of Nightmare On Elm Street is wearing a clean white top to symbolise that she is innocent and pure, on the other hand, the killer seems to be wearing very dirty cloths which will automatically make the audience dislike this character because you can see that all this character is worried about is killing people. Also, in Scream the killer is wearing all black which suggests that this person is evil and somewhat malevolent. The victim on the other hand, is also wearing a white top like in Nightmare On Elm Street to show that she is innocent and has done nothing to deserve being killed.

5. Character positioning/movement Character positioning and movement can tell the audience a lot about the personality and nature of the character, for example, in the film Valentine when the young boy is asking the girls to dance with him, they are all stood in large groups surrounding him which could suggest that they are bullying him or trying to intimidate him, also in some cases the girls turn their back on him after rejecting him in order to show that they are dismissive and they do not regret their actions. In Saw, the two characters at the beginning are being chained to a wall so their movement is restricted. The lack of movement however, symbolises that they are at Jigsaw’s mercy and that he is completely in control and that their lives are in his hands. They are also down on the floor in opposite corners which also suggests that they are helpless and nothing can be done to save them. This means that many things can be portrayed by the way the characters moves, or is restricted from moving as seen in Saw, it gives the makers of slasher films a lot of different positions to work with in order to create a certain mood.

6. Editing Editing can play a key part in creating certain moods and following certain conventions of slasher/horror films. Editing can relate to things such as camera transitions, special effects and even music. For example, at the beginning of Shrooms, there seems to be flash backs from another time where strange things appear and someone is running from something, it then uses a fast fade-in transition to show that it has skipped forward in time, it allows the audience to get more insight into what the film will be about and to shock them slightly as well. In Scream, the camera transitions start off relatively slow to show that the character is calm and relaxed in the comfort of her home, but as the scene progresses, the transitions begin to get faster and faster to show that she is panicking and that something bad is going to happen which causes a lot of tension for the audience.

7. Sound Sound plays a very large part in the opening of slasher films. There is usually non-diegetic music used which is also very high pitched but has a very thin texture. This creates a lot of tension to make the audience aware that either the killer is close by or something that will effect the film is going to happen. For example, Nightmare On Elm Street plays quite subtle music in the background to build up the tension for the audience, it slowly gets louder to show that the character is in danger and the killer may be approaching. This also happens in Scream, when the girl is speaking to the killer before it has been established that he is going to murder her, the music is very quiet, so quiet that it is difficult to notice, but when the killer is threatening the girl, the music becomes a lot louder and with a thicker texture to show that the character is panicking and that a major even is going to occur. Both Saw and Scream also used digetic sound to create a certain atmosphere for the audience, for example, the killers both have distorted voices over the phone to make them sound more intimidating and to show that they are very much different from the other characters in the film. It allows the audience to establish who the villains and who the victims are.