German Expressionism was an artistic movement of the 1920s that focused on emotional distortions in filmmaking. Films like Nosferatu used low key lighting and shadows to convey inner emotions and opened a new era of film noir, known for dark, gritty crime films shot in black and white. Slasher films commonly feature a final girl who survives the killer, a group of friends that are killed one by one fitting various stereotypes, a masked and seemingly unstoppable killer, and locations that invoke common fears like forests, graveyards, or abandoned buildings.

1. Historic Slasher Codes and
Conventions

2. Film Noir
• Noir films are dark gritty crime based films
which use low key lighting which are black and
white, this was started by German film makers
and it is called German expressions.
• Noir films always have detective
• A women in a red dress.

3. German Expressionism
This was an artistic movement which occurred in the 1920s. German
Expressionism was an answer to the grim reality of daily life. Most of the
filmmakers were in the first world war and most of them migrated to
Hollywood to create films which contained extreme distortions which
conveyed an inner emotional reality. The films opened a new era of ‘film
noir’.
Films like Nosferau, which was deeply interested in the emotion of
horror and the cinematography style of the film which used low key
lighting and focus more attention to darkness than light

4. Final Girl
• A common trope in the slasher genre is that there
is always a female character which survives in the
end. This character is referred to as the final girl
or last girl. The final girl usually has a unisex
name, like Jamie or Alex s, she is not seen as a
masculine but takes on some of the male roles as
she battles the killer in the ending.
• The final girl is seen as an innocent and pure and
survives due to this.

5. Group of friends
Slasher films always contain a group friends which are
killed one by one. The group of friends consists of an
athlete, a virgin, a promiscuous women, a fool.

6. Monster/Killer
The monster in slasher film is mostly covered, they
usually wear a mask to cover their face which is
disfigured. This so that the audience can project their
fear on the unknown.
Common weapons which the monster uses is a knife or
bat. The monster is portrayed as super human, since
he is unstoppable and cannot be killed.

7. Location
The most common locations which take place
in slasher films are grave yards, forests or
abandoned warehouses. These locations are
what the majority of the audience fear. Some
locations included a suburban location, which
most people live in. this shows that nobody is
safe when a monster is around.