Initial Killer Inspiration

Our first thoughts for our slasher killer were inspired by the film 'The Strangers' (2008). In this film, the killers are 'normal' people, i.e. they subvert one common convention of slasher killers - that they are somehow superhuman and never die e.g. Jason Vorhees, Michael Myers. From an audiences point of view, often what is more realistic can seem more terrifying, as they believe they could possibly experience something similar, in their own homes. 

In the film, the couple being tormented ask the killers why they were doing it, and they replied 'because you were home'. This kind of mindless killing, almost as if for fun inspired me to continue researching. A more conventional slasher killer would have the following:

Disfigured

Masked 

Weapon of choice e.g. knife, chainsaw

Childhood trauma/revenge

Often silent and unstoppable

Will never die e.g. Freddie Krueger, Michael Myers

Stalking and killing

One of my favourite conventional slasher killers is Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He ticks mostly all of the boxes. He is disfigured, masked, unusually large, has his signature chainsaw weapon, has an inbred family (trauma), only grunts, never speaks and has some kind of superhuman strength.

I wanted to investigate further into the use of masks in films and link to previous post about deindividuation. It seems that the use of masks can help make someone 'normal' feel extraordinary and capable of things they might not have been if they were just their regular selves. For example, 'The Strangers'. What I find most interesting is the style of mask that each killer wears. One has a doll face, another a potato sack, and the last a kind of pin-up girl. None of these characters are particularly terrifying by themselves but when coupled with a sinister glare and weapon, they become an element of someone's nightmare. 

I also wanted to look at the idea of just mindless killing and thought of the film 'Funny Games'. I decided to focus on the more recent remake as it will have better quality videos and perhaps will be more relevant to now. In the film, a family on holiday have their home invaded by 2 seemingly normal boys. When asked why they are doing it, they simply say they are playing a game - the boys bet that by the morning the family will be dead. When asked, 'why don't you just kill us?', one responds, 'you shouldn't forget the importance of entertainment'. I think that this type of killer will scare the audience more than the conventional slasher killer as everybody knows how a slasher ends, as it's been done a hundred times before. Perhaps with this new kind of killer, there will be a new kind of fear too.

Another movie which, although I haven't yet watched, is 'You're Next'. The trailer implies that the film is a home invasion movie and the killers appear to wear animal masks, which I think is interesting. Although the use of animal masks is not new (Saw - pig masks, The Wicker Man, even The Shining), I like the particular animals that they actually use. The director said, ''In [1978's] Halloween, John Carpenter took a pre-existing mask and ghost-ified it.'' (Adam Wingard). 

Furthermore, this a relatively new film (2013) and I really like the effects they used in the trailer. It is a full length trailer so not all of the elements they used can inspire our much shorter teaser, however the general atmosphere that the trailer has is really spooky e.g. the use of Lou Reed's 'Perfect day', a song which isn't normally seen as scary. This reminds me of the Bee Gee's 'Turn Around, Look at Me' used in Final Destination 3. I also like the shuttering effect at 00:46 and the slow-motion that follows it. 
At the end of this research, I have decided personally that I like the idea of using animal masks as there are so many different animals/masks that we can use and pair them with appropriate weapons. I will research into the types of masks that we could get hold of and possible weapons too in another post. I also like the idea of using a less traditional killer, one that just 'kills for fun', and possibly explore home invasion a little more.