This document discusses how a group of teenagers is represented in the opening sequence of a horror film. It notes that horror films often focus on families or teenagers. The sequence represents teenagers stereotypically through their clothing of hoodies, jeans and trainers to illustrate their normality. It also uses lighting, location, and limited dialogue to portray the teenagers as unsure and terrified in a dangerous situation. Other horror films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Nightmare on Elm Street take a similar approach to using stereotypes to make the characters more relatable and the atmosphere more terrifying.

1. Production Evaluation

2. How does your opening sequence represent
particular social groups?
• There are many different types of social group to consider in any film genre. Horror tends to have a strong
focus on either one middle aged family or a group of teenagers. This means that I can cast my characters
around this, hence why I have chosen a group of teenagers. This social group has been represented in a very
stereotypical manner by wearing hoodies, jeans and trainers. This illustrates that they are normal teenagers
and thus the audience can relate to them.
• I have represented them in the stereotypical manner through the use of Mise En Scene, props and costumes,
lighting, location and dialogue. They are represented through wearing stereotypical clothing e.g. hoodies,
jeans and trainers, thus illustrating their normality. The location is a common place for a group of teenagers
to get up to mischief as it is secluded and out of view from the majority of the public. The lighting is dark
around the teenagers and they are bright due t the torches. This represents them entering a dark, huge new
world that they don’t understand. Their dialogue is also limited to help create suspense and show that they
are unsure of what to say when a dangerous situation occurs. This reinforces the fact that they are young
and don’t have the experience or responsibility to make a decision. All of these factors contribute to
portraying to the audience a group of terrified teenagers.
• Other movies/films that have the same approach to representing the stereotypes of teenagers are ones such
as “Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2009)”, “Nightmare On Elm Street”, “Scream”, “Friday 13th” and “Saw”. All of
the movies/films stated use stereotypical representations to make the characters more relatable and thus
creating a more terrifying atmosphere. This means the audience are on the edge of their seats and instead
of focusing on trying to work out the characters they focus on the plot.