The document analyzes common tropes and elements found in classic slasher films from the late 1970s and 1980s. Many feature a female protagonist who is somehow connected to the killer. The remote settings like small towns or isolated cabins emphasize the characters being cut off from help. The films often take place on significant dates and involve a group of teenage friends as victims. Common characters include an innocent female lead and a killer seeking revenge for past events.

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

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

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

5. • Five teenagers head off for a
weekend at a secluded cabin in
the woods. They arrive to find
they are quite isolated with no
means of communicating with
the outside world. When the
cellar door flings itself
open, they of course go down to
investigate. They find an odd
assortment of relics and curios
Cabin In The Woods (2012) but when one of the
•Female protagonist.
women, Dana, reads from a
•They essentially bring the murders on book she awakens a family of
themselves.
•Young group of friends
deadly zombie killers. There's far
•Secluded, remote cabin.
more going on however than
•Nowhere to go for help. meets the eye as the five
•All starts in the basement. 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
peaceful Californian town. A killer
starts killing high school
teenagers, with a young teenage
girl, an eccentric and dramatic
cop, and a selfish and ambitious
reporter trying to investigate the
murders. A strange number of
events starts to happen around
Woodsboro, including an accused
Scream (1996) killer, a suspicious
•Killer using a mask, for boyfriend, discovered love and
anonymity/distance from society
attraction, and, of course, the
•Set in a small, remote town.
•The victims are high school students
mysterious killer with a ghost face
•Climax of the movie occurs at a party. mask. Suspense, cleverness, and
•The protagonist is female, and has gore.
some sort of relation to the killer, who
killed her mother a year back.

7. Conclusion
• The main character, typically female, is also somehow related to the killer, for example, Laurie
Strode turned out to be Michael Myer’s sister, and Nancy Thompson was the daughter of the
people responsible for Freddy Krueger’s death.
• The setting is always a remote town, or a cabin, or camp. They are never set in a big city, this
emphasizes the idea of being isolated from society, and having no help.
• The events of the movies often happen on significant dates, for example Halloween, Friday
the 13th. Also Scream happens on the anniversary of the murder of the protagonist’s
mother, linking back to the main character being somehow related to the killer.
• They all consist of similar stock characters, a young group of friends, with the main character
being a innocent, intelligent girl. Cabin In The Woods decides to make this a part of the story
by claiming that it is some sort of sacrificial ritual.