The document discusses conventions of settings, camera work, narrative, iconography, and character types in horror slasher films. Settings that are commonly used include isolated places like dark streets, woods, abandoned buildings to build tension. Camera techniques like handheld shots and frame work to obscure the antagonist are employed. Narratives usually involve a hero on a mission to stop a killer who is often motivated by trauma from their past. Iconography features masks, weapons and low light/red colors. Character types include victims, heroes, police and villains.

1. Conventions of Genre
Horror Slasher

2. Conventions of Horror Slasher
Setting
The setting in a horror slasher are generally small communities, dark streets , isolated places,
urban environments and narrow alley ways. There are sometimes the use of large cities and
ghost towns this is because it connotes isolation.
Other places that are good for horror slashers can be hotels or abandoned houses this works well
with horror slasher as it connotes isolation and brings the audience to there home life and
how they feel the same way when similar things happen to them.
All different locations such as underground rail ways , woods and dungeons would work well in a
horror slasher as these settings help build up tension and

3. Horror Slasher Settings

4. Camera Work & Special FX
• High and low angles are often used to connote fear and nightmares and also to put someone in a position of power or
weakness.
• Handheld camera movement in the shots makes it difficult sometimes to make out what is happening however it creates the
feeling of it being real and you don’t know what is going to happen , it can often be a lot more scarier than a professional
camera.
• Framework in the shots can help the editors to make the monster or criminals harder to see them creeping up on the victim
and so this is a easy and effective way to show the antagonist appearing out of know where. This again creates a lot of fear
and sudden emotion.
• The sounds that get used are really important to a horror slasher with the use of ambient diegetic sounds such as footsteps
in a quite place to make the victim feel as though they are being creped up on.
• Different shots that get used create different feeling that the audience will receive and a lot of the time we see extreme
close ups (ECU) which connote fear and emotion however they are also used to make the audience aware of the horror and
fear this also makes us scared as we cannot see what they are seeing while we are looking at there face and so the audience
get even more scared.
• With the editing you can create unsettling noises and dispense through out the horror slasher and different ways in which
you can build up tension between the screen and the audience by slowing down the pace to connote something bad is
about to happen or speeding the pace up to connote someone may be scared or running etc.

5. Narrative
• Narrative in a horror slasher , there is always a hero and a protagonist , a man or a final girl fitting with the normal
conventions of a horror.
• Usually the hero has to go on some sort of mission or journey to kill someone or solve a personal problem.
• Some narratives have it so the killer has a previous story as to why he is a killer , or he has had a bad child hood and so he
has changed into some freak of nature.
• We often see it where the villain returns to a place he once loved or was from and this has brought about bad memory’s and
so he will take it out on other children growing up in the same area.
• In a horror slasher there is sometimes a survivor and this tends to be a female character because it is going against the
convention that men are stronger than women and will be able to fight for longer etc.

6. Iconography
• Iconography of the villain help to connote fear and terror things such as vampires , werewolves, canables and mummies.
• Common objects that are used include masks and weapons such as knifes , chainsaw’s and axes these weapons connote
blood and gore.
• Low key lighting can help to create darkness and shadows , however we often see lighting such as torches when the victim
or victims are fighting there way through the battle which often takes place at night because that’s when the monsters come
out.
• The colors used in the shots are mainly back and red to connote darkness and blood this makes the audience more edgy and
means they cannot rest.
• Props that the villain is holding are often knifes and chainsaws etc , these weapons we can identify with the killer as he will
want to chop his victims up.

7. Props

8. Character types
• Main Protagonist often victim or hero from the film.
• Teenagers are victims who are striped and often get killed.
• Police officers that can either be good or bad.
• The villain who is often a monster , freak or serial killer.

9. Characters

10. The End