1) The document analyzes the stylistic codes and conventions used in the slasher films Halloween and Friday the 13th, such as the point-of-view shot during Michael Myers' first kill in Halloween and the zoom shot during a character's death in Friday the 13th Part 2. 2) It examines how both films employ recognizable conventions like masked villains and signature weapons to define the films and appeal to audiences through repetition, as theorized by Steve Neale. 3) Narrative theories by Todorov and Propp are also discussed, showing how the films follow typical patterns of equilibrium disruption and restoration, and employ character archetypes like the villain and hero.

1. Unit 10 fictional films codes andconventions
Section1 genre stylistic
As two of the most recognizablecharacters in sub-genreof horror known as
the slasher film Michael Myers Halloween (1978) and Jason Voorhees Friday
the 13th
(1981)have been killing people for a long time so their films give me
an excellent opportunity to analyzethe stylistic codes and conventions that
have made these films so good to watch.
Steve Neale’s theory on repetition can apply to these films in the way that
slasher genre is only made for the kills and not for the narrativeelements this
gives the audience what they wantwhich is the kills but in somecases it’s the
gore. the familiarity of this is whatkeeps people in love with these films, this is
what Neale’s theory argues about that audiences love the samerecognizable
conventions and codes of a film.
This theory can clearly be seen in both Halloween and Friday the 13th
, which
both employs the useof these easy recognizable stylistics codes and
conventions .
ref 1.
Arguably the iconic scene fromHalloween, is the scenewhere Michael kills his
sister in the start of the film which uses a point of view shot from Michaels so
we are seeing this event through his eyes , the camera is also obscured by a
mask to highly emphasizethat wherewatching this through his eyes , also in

2. the scenethere’s only one sourceof light and that’s form this prop lamp on
the desk to show that this scene was not meant to be taken lightly . the reason
they use a point of view shot is becauseit is a staple in the codes and
conventions of a slasher film the reason it’s in this is because makes you (the
audience ) feel like you killing instead of Michael this way it implicates the
audience in the scene this is one of the reasons people go to see horror and
slasher films to see the kills .
This scene is got some other stylistics choice is the build-up to this event which
is him sneaking around the house finding his weapon and his clown mask ,
there’s not much sound to this scene apart from this eerie sound that starts
build up once he has the knife this is a standard thing to do in slasher films
which this scene does rightwith the suspenseit builds for Michael to kill his
sister .
One of the great things about Halloween is the soundtrack every scenethere is
a suspensebuilding music in the background and always gives you the feeling
of paranoia because you know he is there but you can’tsee him.
ref 2

3. one of the most recognizable scenes in Friday the 13th part 2 is marks
death, the scene itself is one of shock because the camera slowly
zooms in him until a machete is swung into his head which causes a
chain reaction of him rolling down a set of stairs which was one of
the starting dumb kills for Jason to do. The reason they did the zoom
in shot is to try to build suspense and make you wonder if he was
going to be next to die. The camera also does the shot, reverse, shot
Technique which shows his reaction to what’s in front of him then
what’s coming up behind him and then him again and final shot of
these events is a machete in the face for mark .
the reason they might do this type of shot is to try and makes us
tense to make the audience think he will survive but he doesn’t so
that surprise the audience because they don’t know who else will die
this is also a convention for horror films because sometimes the
audience doesn’t want to know what’s going to happen.
ref 3

4. both films use different types of shots to build suspense on kill but
both do it in their own way Halloween helps build suspense by have
music playing in the background the music also gives a sense of
paranoia, while Friday the 13th have it silent and no music at all , this
helps the audience get in the survivors shoes because they and we
don’t know what is about to happen .
As we can see in both Halloween and Friday the 13th
both used some
of the most used shot types for the genre the point of view shot and
shot reverse shot , due to codes and conventions these two are
popular choices for these types of films ,which Steve Neale says in his
theory of repetition the audience will like this which I have to is true
both of these shot types have major impacts on the films there used
in . plus there’s more conventions that these films follow like having
a masked villains and having a signature weapon one a kitchen knife
the other a pickaxe which help define what film you’re watching
because you’re always going to associate the kitchen knife to
Michael Myers these codes and conventions are always going to be
around for the slasher films .
section 2 narrative theory
Alongside stylistic codes and conventions there’s narrative codes and
conventions so let’s see what narrative codes and conventions these
films follow . the theorist todorov devised a typical chart of how I
film will go
 Stage 1 – The Equilibrium – Life is just as usual
 Stage 2 – The Disruption – A problem happens
 Stage 3 – The Recognition – Think about how to resolve the
problem
 Stage 4 – The Repair – Go ahead and resolve the problem
 Stage 5 – The Restoration/New Equilibrium – Life returns to normal
or to its new state after the events.

5. In horror movies they use this theory well , let’s take Friday the 13th
Jason x For example :
They start of freezing Jason in liquid nitrogen. Then leaving him in a
factory . (Equilibrium)
People find him and then bring aboard a spaceship which they set him
free and as Jason is known to do he goes and to kill everyone on
board ( disruption )
The people on board realize people are dying and try to kill him witch
doesn’t work and the makes him stronger (recognition )
The then try more times to kill him which don’t work and try to
escape by blowing the ship up ( repair)
Which the one of the survivors see that Jason is still alive and then
jumps on Jason makes him and Jason fly into earth killing them both
and the other survivors are happy and alive . ( new Equilibrium )
ref 4
Todorovs theory can apply to almost all the Friday the 13th films the
all have similar stories . which also has some significances in Neale’s
theory of repetition which is one of the reasons why these films do so
well .

6. ref 5
propps theory on character types which the film Halloween (2018)
uses it really well
 The villain – Michael Myers
 The donor – Karen
 The princess – Allyson
 Hero – Laurie strode
 False hero : dr sartain
In Halloweenthe don’t use all the character types so its easer
to identify the characters that are in the films because you

7. could say that a characters may represent more than one
character types for example dr lumes in the first can be
consider to be the helper or donorbecause he gives
important informationto the Laurie strode and shots Michael
to finish him off in the first film. The reason they might have
done this is make a more diverse cast of characters however
this does have its down sides by making the characters more
diverse it can confuse the audienceon what each character is
but luckilythis film does it good and doesn’t confuse any one.
Friday the 13th
also uses this theory as well but used it in a
more simply way by just sticking to the character types like
Jason is the villainandalways acts as such and the survivors
will alwaysact the serotype they have (jock, final girl etc.) .
ref 6

8. We can also see that Lévi-Strauss theory on binary
oppositionsthat it is in these films but it’s the most common
one good vs evil , this doesn’t mean their bad films they just
don’t want to be complicated because in the horror genre
you don’t over complicate things that’s why people go to see
horror films it’s for the scares or the killsyou don’t see it for
the story .
Overall both films use Propps theory in different ways
Halloweengoes for a more dynamic way of using them while
Friday the 13th
goes for a more simplistic way of using it also
they use Todorovs theory as well the both use it in the same
way , the killer escapes or gets brought back to life and then
he start killingpeople, they get stopped or killed , then its al
normal again . arguablythese films stories are straight
forward and are just made for the audienceto see he kills.