Typical characters presented in a horror film. Majority of examples from Eden Lake as it is a good horror film that presents stereotypes of gender within it's narrative.

1. Characters in Horror
films

2. Female Victim
• Stereotypically the character who is oblivious to the situation.
• Portrayed as vulnerable and in need of protection.
• Attractive to appeal to the male audience.
• Killed in a brutal way.
• She is usually a character disliked by the audience due to her actions.

3. Final Girl
• Offers an interesting twist on a stereotypical female victim.
• They go on a journey from vulnerable and innocent to a survivor who confronts the
monster at the end of the film.
• They use pre-technological weapons to kill the monster.
• They change along with the narrative and tend to be the main focus of the story, they
also represent the audience as they are introduced to new situations along with the
viewers.
• For Example – Jenny from Eden Lake, Samantha from the Until Dawn video game, Ellen
Ripley from Alien.

4. Hero
• This is traditionally a male character who saves everybody.
• Brave, Strong, Masculine build.
• They often die as evil tends to prevail in horror films.
• He tends to be the main character if there is no presence of a final girl.
• Emotionless and is quick to adapt to the predicament.
• Often has a crush who is part of the group who are being attacked or haunted, however he does
not tell them.
• An Example of a hero is Rick from the Walking Dead, Jim from 28 days later, Macready from The
Thing.

5. Non Believer
• Traditionally a male character as he believes he is in control.
• Usually killed due to their inability to change to the circumstances.
• Refuse to believe in the monster/threat, which is also a cause of their
death.
• They offer reassurance for other characters, when he/she dies the
narrative dives into chaos.
• For example – Steve from Eden Lake,

6. Evil Character
• For obvious reasons, they are the villain of the plot.
• Can take form of any monster, vampires, werewolf's, zombies,
teenagers.
• For those that are human they often wear a mask to hide their
identity and build their narrative and play on the fear of the
unknown.
• Never any solid proof of their existence.

7. Why is this relevant?
• Steve Neale’s ‘Repetition and difference’ theory says compares the horror
genre to an elastic band.
• He says that you can stretch some features for example the use of
teenagers as monsters is something difference but not to an extent where
it is something so stretched that it becomes unfamiliar hence creating the
feeling for the audience that the film isn’t very good.
• The repetition part suggests that some parts of the horror genre must
remain the same for example, there must always be a protagonist and an
antagonist.