1. How does the Halloween Trailer adhere to the codes and
conventions of the slasher sub-genre?
The Halloween trailer follows the conventions of a slasher horror through the use of
typical characters you would expect to see within the slasher genre. Slasher horrors
tend to have a promiscuous woman who becomes the victim of the murderer. The
murderer is usually someone with psychological issues, who becomes a serial killer;
which is present within this trailer.
The killer starts of as a child which gives the insight that something is wrong with his
brain as ‘normal’ children would not think about killing others. This is a
psychological state within males because within the slasher genre it is typical for the
killer to have something within their childhood which has psychologically affected
them, causing them to act out in multiple murders. Another typical character of the
slasher genre is the heroic type who goes around trying to save the victims of the
psychopath. In this trailer, the hero is the police officer who warned people of the
dangers of this child psychopath which he could see evil within his eyes. Within the
slasher genre it is normally someone with authority who discovers the murderer,
which is present within this trailer.
The typical weapon within a slasher is a bladed object; the weapon within this trailer
is conventional as the weapon is a knife, because weapons like this are what gave the
slasher genre its name, because of its effect it has when used, for example it creates a
lot of blood. It is also usual for the killer to be masked or hidden and the Halloween
trailer follows this because only as a child are we introduced to the true identity of
the murderer, then referred back to by his therapist as the serial murderer. This
means that the characters are unaware of who the murder is and so is the audience.
It is needed that the identity of the killer is not made aware within the trailer of the
movie because people would be less likely to want to watch the film if they know who
is behind the murders. The use of the I-camera follows this convention because the
identity of the murderer is concealed, however we are able to witness what the
murderer is seeing and doing.
The reoccurring use of the pumpkin ties the trailer into the title of the movie, which
also leads into the supernatural. This links into Halloween is the celebration of the
supernatural. Throughout the trailer there is many elements death and religion
through the uses of tombstones and the Christian cross. The cross is seen as
something which is sacrifice within the Christian religion, so the audience is able to
relate this to the horror and how people, that have not done in retrospective anything
wrong, are sacrificed by the murderer for their own personal pleasure.
The setting of the trailer is quite dark and gloomy, which follows the codes and
conventions of slasher horrors because it creates fear and tension. Due to the
unknowing of the upcoming events, the characters are unaware of the killer and
events so the audience is able to relate to the fear, so darkness is effective. The typical
location of a slasher horror is within a built up residential location, however in
2. Halloween, it is a small town. This is because there is a small amount of people the
murderer is able to victimise, however they are able to get away with the killings
because of the small area.
The trailer of Halloween does follow the codes and conventions of a slasher sub-genre
horror through the typical characters, location/setting and the props used, the
audience is able to compare and know what to expect because of the genre and
trailer.
