1. Testing Burton’s Theory
Protagonists
Stock Characters
Plots and Stock Situations
Icons
Background and Décor
Themes

2. • On Halloween 1963, the small town of
Haddonfield is shocked when six-year-old
Michael Myers returns from trick-or-treating and
for some unknown reason stabs his older sister
Halloween (1978) to death with a big kitchen knife and is found by
•Killer wears a mask his parents staring into space with the bloody
•Returns after prior killings.
knife in his hand. Sent to a mental institution,
Michael spends the next 15 years just sitting, still
•Victims are teenagers staring into space despite the best efforts of his
•No specific motive for the killings, Doctor, Dr. Samuel Loomis. Now, on October
contradicting standard conventions. 30th 1978, something triggers Michael off and
•Small town, “Haddonfield” during a storm manages to steal a car from Dr.
•Happens on a specific date – Loomis and Nurse Marion (who was coming to
Halloween. take Michael to court to keep him locked up) and
•Protagonist is an innocent, smart girl. goes back to Haddonfield where he steals a
white mask. There, Laurie Strode, Michael's
younger sister, finds that Michael is stalking her
during the day (at school, at her home etc - but
she doesn't know who he is.) As Dr. Loomis
arrives and with the sheriff frantically looks for
Michael he doesn't know that Laurie is baby-
sitting Lindsey and Tommy and that Laurie's
friends Annie, Lynda and Bob are disappearing
one by one...

3. • In 1957, at Camp Crystal Lake, a
young boy named Jason
Friday The 13th (1980) Voorhees drowned. In 1958, two
•Young boy drowns, mother kills for
camp counselors were
revenge. murdered. In 1962, fires and bad
•Young camp councillors are killed.
•Remote camp, nowhere to go for
water thwarted the camp's
help. reopening. Now, in 1979, Steve
•Female protagonist. Christy finally reopens Camp
Crystal Lake with the help of a
few new counselors. Ignoring
the warnings from a crazy old
man, the murders start once
again while a mysterious stalker
prowls the area. Is it revenge
that the killer is looking for?
Who will survive the nightmare
and live to tell the story?

4. • In the early 1980's, a psychopath named
Freddy Krueger - known as the Springwood
Nightmare On Elm Street Slasher - murdered several children with a
(1984) glove outfitted with straight razor blades
attached to the fingers. When a foolish
•Killer comes back for revenge for decision by a judge sets him free, Krueger is
something that happened in the past.
burned alive in the boiler room where he
•Occurs in peoples dreams, essentially
a remote place, where you are on your
worked by an angry mob of the parents
own and there is nobody to help you.
whose children he terrorized & murdered.
•Killer has burnt skin, almost not
Years after his death, the children whose
looking human, distancing him from parents were responsible for Krueger's
society. death - including Nancy Thompson,
•Young group of friends at the daughter of the police officer who arrested
receiving end of the murders. Krueger - are experiencing terrifying
•Protagonist is a ‘sensible’ girl. nightmares involving a burned man wearing
a glove with razor blades on the fingers. The
ghost of Freddy Krueger is haunting their
dreams, and when Nancy's best friend Tina
dies in her sleep violently during a dream
confrontation with Krueger, Nancy realizes
she must find a way to stop the evil
psychopath's reign of terror - or never sleep
again...

5. • Five teenagers head off for a
weekend at a secluded cabin in
Cabin In The Woods (2012) the woods. They arrive to find
•Female protagonist.
they are quite isolated with no
•They essentially bring the murders on means of communicating with
themselves.
•Young group of friends
the outside world. When the
•Secluded, remote cabin. cellar door flings itself open,
•Nowhere to go for help. they of course go down to
•All starts in the basement. investigate. They find an odd
assortment of relics and curios
but when one of the women,
Dana, reads from a book she
awakens a family of deadly
zombie killers. There's far more
going on however than meets
the eye as the five campers are
all under observation

6. • After an anonymous killer guts two
high school lovers, a mysterious
rise in fear and rumours rise in a
Scream (1996)
peaceful Californian town. A killer
•Killer using a mask, for
anonymity/distance from society
starts killing high school teenagers,
•Set in a small, remote town. with a young teenage girl, an
•The victims are high school students eccentric and dramatic cop, and a
•Climax of the movie occurs at a party. selfish and ambitious reporter
•Female Protagonist.
trying to investigate the murders. A
strange number of events starts to
happen around Woodsboro,
including an accused killer, a
suspicious boyfriend, discovered
love and attraction, and, of course,
the mysterious killer with a ghost
face mask. Suspense, cleverness,
and gore.