Stock characters are fictional characters based on common stereotypes. There are several common stock characters in horror films, including the wanderer, popular girl, jock, final girl, pandora, and pervert. The wanderer is often the first to die, as they wander off alone. The popular girl is attractive but unintelligent. The jock is a muscular male athlete. The final girl is a loner who survives to the end to face the killer. The pervert meets their demise due to sexual desires. Pandora characters take risks that result in death or survival.

2. WHAT IS A STOCK CHARACTER?
A stock character is a fictional character based on a common literary or social
stereotype. They can always be recognized in specific genres Stock
characters rely heavily on cultural types or names for their personality,
manner of speech, and other characteristics.

3. TYPES OF STOCK CHARACTERS
There are numerous popular stock characters found in the horror genre
The ones which I will be looking at are
1. The wanderer
2. The popular girl
3. Jock
4. The final girl
5. Pandora
6. The pervert

4. THE POPULAR GIRL
The popular girl is the attractive, usually a cheerleader and also not
intelligent. Examples include the cheerleader in Jeepers Creepers 2, in
Bloody Pom Poms there is a lot of cheerleaders killed as that is who the killer
targets. Finally In all Pet Semetary there is a cheerleader. None of which
challenge the common stereotypes and are all very similar characters.

5. THE WANDERER
The wanderer is normally the first to die in a horror film. They tend to
wander off by them selves at the beginning of the film and leave the rest
of the group. The wanderer either never returns and is discovered dead
later on in the film or is seen being killed by the rest of the group. The
wanderer is normally portrayed as not being scared of anything and
being the cocky brave character in the group which leads to them
investigating a strange noise or incident or wandering off not scared by
their surroundings.
In the texas chainsaw massacre the wanderer is Kirk. He wanderers off
from his group of friends to find help in a near by house while his four
friends wait behind, he is the first victim in the film.

6. THE JOCK
The jock is usually a tall, muscular male who plays sports. They are usually
portrayed as not intelligent and very cocky . Examples of jocks include
the jock in jeepers creepers 2. Also there is a jock in The Final and
finally there is a jock in Cabin In The Woods.

7. THE FINAL GIRL
The final girl is seen in allot of slasher horror films, she is normally
represented as the ‘good girl’ which may be picked on by the rest of the
group at the start. She does not drink, smoke or have sex in the film and
is sometimes shown as a loner. The final girl is always last to die and
has to confront the killer.
An example of the final girl is Sally Hardesty in the Texas chainsaw
massacre. She is the last girl alive in the film and has to confront the
killer.
Another example is Kristen Parker from A nightmare on elm street dream
warriors. She is last to die in the film and has to try and fight Freddy
krueger. The last example of the final girl is Sidney Prescott in Scream,
she is another example of the girl who lives until the end of the film and
has to fight the scream killer.

8. THE PERVERT
The pervert is a sexually motivated individual who is normally killed in this
genre along with the Jock and the Popular girl. Examples of this stock
character are Frankie in Final Destination 3,Blake in house of wax and.
This character is usually very similar to the Jock. This character sexual
desires are usually the cause of its downfall.

9. PANDORA
The Pandora stock character is a character that is show to be a risk taker
they take risks that will result in them either dying or surviving. In
terms of a horror film
An example of a Pandora character is Scott from The evil dead. He is a
Pandora character as he insists on listening to the tape which then
summons sprits he then realizes he made a bad decision and tries to
escape leaving his group behind.
Sometimes the Pandora character is shown to have a connection with the
killer for example Amanda Young from the saw series, she is a survivor
of jigsaws game and is then revealed in a later film to be part of jigsaws
helpers in killing people.