The document discusses several key concepts in slasher films including: - The final girl who is usually the last survivor, often a brunette who is not sexually active. - The monster or bad guy who causes most of the deaths in the film such as Jason. - The group of friends which usually includes different stereotypes that are killed off except the final girl. - Slasher films typically receive ratings between 15-18 depending on violence and sexual content.

1. Final girl
The final girl is generally the girl at the end of the movie who survives the
onslaught that occurs in slasher films. Throughout the film she tends to
be the most frigid character out of all of the group of friends and the last
person alive. The girl is generally brunette and frigid. She tends to be a
quiet character who is not sexually active and is tedious and good with
her studies. She also helps her friends out when needed.

2. Monster
The bad guy in a film. This is generally the cause of all the problems that occur and the
reason that most of these people die for example Jason coming back to life in all the
Jason films is the cause of the problem and the reason the majority of the characters die
until generally the final girl saves the day or survives. In a slasher film this person can
generally be seen brandishing a knife or a sharp weapon that can penetrate someone's
skin to represent something.

3. Group of friends
• The group of friends generally consists of sexual girl, a frigid brunette and strong
men. In the group of friends of many movies the majority of the friends die apart from
the final girl. An example of the group of friends dying apart from one in most films is
final destination in which the person who has the vision of everyone dying generally
survives and those that died in the vision out of the group of friends tend to die during
the film.

4. Benefactor
• The benefactor is generally a person that the characters in the film are able to confide
in or ask for advice. They are generally older people as old people tend to be seen as
more wise and have more knowledge so therefore people feel more secure when
confiding in someone. Having a benefactor within a film allows for the pace of the film
to be calmed down and situations to be questioned or even revealed at some points
within the film to allow for happiness and a sense of tranquillity for a period of time.

5. Ineffective Authority Figure
• The ineffective authority figure is the character within a film that is of a high authority such as a
police man or a fireman who is meant to stop the situation occurring however is unable to do so
because of their idleness or their poor attention span. These characters usually have a partner
with them when they are going on their trip and also are always laughing and joking about. An
example would be in Scream 4 in which there is a fat police man who dies towards the end of the
film in the car because he didn't believe something was going to occur when in fact it did. These
characters mainly feel as if they’re making the situation and that they’re ‘doing the best they can’
however in fact they are unable to do so at all and in fact, are making all the situations worse.
They tend to be caught eating a lot in films doing nothing at all apart from having a conversation
and making jokes and when asked what they were doing they tend to stutter and make up
stories. This person is generally comedic but can ruin the entire film for some characters because
of their ineffectiveness.

6. Certificate of slasher films
Slasher films generally have a certificate ranging from generally 15-18. It depends generally on
the amount of gore and sexual content in the slasher films. The more violent the film the higher
the rating will be. They also tend to use older characters in the older rated films such as films like
Saw which are 18 and generally involve women in their 20’s whereas the 15 rated films would
generally involve more teenagers so that teenagers would be more likely to view the film and be
able to relate to it more effectively.

7. Age certificate analysis
Aladdin was rated a U film. This is because it contained 0 discrimination, no
drug usage, mildly scary horror scenes, no bad themes throughout the film
as it was trying to portray overcoming barriers. It also only contained mild
violence so therefore it was able to earn the classification of a U film.
Smurfs in 3-d is a PG rated film. It contains comedic violence, no forced
nudity as the characters always dress the exact same way every time and
never remove their clothing. In this film it also contains no behaviour that
shouldn’t be imitated.
In the lord of the rings it contains moderate horror throughout the film
earning it it’s 12A rating. It also contains violence throughout the entire
film. It also contain slight sexual contact (kissing) so therefore it also
bumps it up from being a PG. The themes in the film are acceptable for
the age group it’s being aimed at.
The terminator earned its 15 rating due to the strong violent content during the film.
It also contained strong language also upping it from its 12A rating. The strong
violence and the visibility of constant threat being present has pushed the film
publishers to give the film a 15 rating.
Saw gained its 18 rating due to the extremely strong graphic violence throughout
this film. It contained strong language, graphic torture and violence. The use of
torture and showing characters in distress was the main reason for the 18 rating.

8. Location
• Suburbia – Suburbia is the setting for many horror/slasher films such as
scream. The reason that this is the location for many films is that it makes
the audience feel unsafe in their own house due to it being set in the
location in which many people live in. By using suburbia as a location the
audience believes that if this is able to happen in a film it could easily
happen in their own area.
• Woods – The woods is the general location for many horror films especially
slasher films. This is because in the woods it is generally a silent
environment in which people are not heard if they scream due to it being so
deep into the woods. Therefore the woods is a good location for a slasher
film as it adds to suspense knowing that anything can happen and nobody
will know.

9. German Expressionism
• German expressionism is an important part within the
cinema industry. The Germans originally started
German expressionism in order to allow for an effect to
be given in the cinema when looking at movies. As you
can see from the example on the right, the shadows are
shown here have been painted on to the scene so that
it stands out and gives a fear effect.
• It also allows it to seem as if things are crawling up the
walls which they are not but it adds to the element of
fear throughout looking at it. This was originally done in
the first original slasher film until it became more
developed in the future and real lighting was used. This
was only used when they were unable to get the perfect
lighting and so they needed another way to create all the
shadows in the scene to make it seem haunting and
release fear into the atmosphere of the film.

10. Early Gothic Horror
• Early gothic horror originally began before the film noir era. It
was extremely dark and attempted to be constantly different by
standing out with characters that are supernatural and also are
located in places that nobody would usually expect them to be
such as castles and mansions on hills in dark places like
Transylvania.
• As you can see from the first image they attempted to have
everything dark in a room apart from a few objects such as the
door to allow the light to come through and give a silhouette of the
person on the ground whilst making the monster themselves
actually stand out when compared to everything else in the room
which would be completely dark in some areas such as behind
the door in the first image etc.
• They also enjoyed highlighting specific features such as in the
Dracula image at the bottom, to allow for a scary scene they have
decided to use the light to only highlight the eyes and put
everything else in the dark so that the you’re able to see the
persons emotions more than you would be able to otherwise
without the light being placed upon it. It explains emotions
extremely well and means that it is able to explain the story better
than the other images that try not to highlight emotion.

11. Film Noir
• This is the lighting from Film Noir. Film Noir was produced
in America by the German expressionists who had moved
when the film industry had become more popular in
America. Film Noir was based upon mainly detective
thrillers where there was an investigation going on. Film
Noir films were generally black and white which allowed
them to create much more vivid shadows than they are still
currently able to do as the shadows have more depth to
themselves and are able to stand out even more.
• The first image is a good example of film noir . It has a
shadow of a man wearing a hat and holding a gun in the
background and you cannot see the person that they are
looking at. This is an example of film noire which involves
dark settings, showing deep shadows and shadows with
strong detail to give the effect of fear which is what is being
given off in the first image.
• The second image is even better as it has lines all over the
persons face whilst they are attempting to look out of the
blinds. The blinds show that there is something being
looked at however there is fear being behind bars and
being stuck behind something stopping you from reaching
what you’re aiming for. The shadow also looks as if it is
looking back it him so in ways it can be used to show alter
egos and to cause more fear as it shows complete
blankness as a shadow cannot have emotion. This is what
led film noir to be as tense as it is.

12. Modern Horror
• In modern horror, it is no longer highly based along the use of
shadows and is more about the use of dark characters as you
can see from the character on the right showing himself in an
all black costume to create the fear rather than relying on the
shadows to create the suspense. However in horror film they
also still currently use shadows such as shadows peering
around corners to give a strong effect and to allow for large
amounts of fear to be created whilst developing the suspense
and allowing the person viewing the film to feel as if the
shadow is going to creep around the corner and commit the
crime themselves. The films are now also more placed
completely at night and only have the happiness occurring
during day time as previously they would have the events
occurring in both times instead of just one which now is the
darkness.
Overall you’re able to see the development from the start of
horror to what we have now from the use of large amounts of
shadow to moving forward and not using shadows as
extremely but using them subtly to give of a strong effect.