Survey

In order to gain outside opinion on aspects that we were considering for our trailer we used Survey Monkey. Survey Monkey is an online site that allows users to create their own surveys that others can then access and complete via the web link-  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DGQN6MR. We asked for opinions on our film title, amount of gore, how much the killer is seen, what characters should be involved, powers the killer should have and the choice of weapon. There was also the option for people to comment ideas if there was not a choice that they felt was appropriate.

The options for our film title were 'Knock Knock', 'The Unexpected' and 'Who's There?' 11/20 (55%) voted for 'Knock Knock', whilst 8 voted for 'The Unexpected' and 1 for 'Who's There?' We included 'Who's there?' as our tagline as a play on the well known knock knock joke. It is common within the horror genre for twists on innocent child-like things such as jokes, as it is more disturbing for the audience. 

We then asked whether the audience would prefer to see a lot of gore, a little gore or no gore at all. 13/24 (54.17%) voted for little gore, whilst 7 voted for a lot of gore and 4 people voted for none at all. As it is within the slasher genre it would be unconventional to include no gore at all however as it is only the trailer we decided to make it minimal as we felt this would be more effective as we felt that showing too much could make it look unrealistic and therefore minimise the effect of our trailer.

When asked how much of the killer the audience would like to be physically visible of the killer 17/24 (70.83%) chose glimpses of the killer, as opposed to 5/24 that chose for a full view of the killer and 2/24 chose an unseen killer. We decided to go for partial view of the killer, as we felt that a full view would diminish the effect of the unknown slightly and the audience wouldn't be able to use their imagination. Having said this the killer is not completely unseen as we wanted to incorporate a mask and weapon of choice etc which is a large part of the slasher genre.

When asked what central characters the trailer should be revolved around, 13/20 (65%) chose for it to be a group of teenagers as opposed to a family or single character. The use of a group of teenagers is a classic convention within the slasher genre, with the group containing certain characters often found in slasher films such as the jock, final girl and her promiscuous friend. This was useful as it encouraged us to conform to this convention.

We asked if the killer should have super-human powers or no powers at all, which 19/24 (79.17%) preferred. Within slasher genre films, the killer is normally invincible, but does not obvious powers like flying etc. This worked well as we were able to perceive him as impossible to destroy, whereas it may have been hard to make him look like he has other powers such as flying without looking unrealistic. Having said this we did include a scene at the end which through the use of editing on final cut pro we made it look like he has just appeared in the mirror, giving the audience the feel of non-human powers.

We also asked for the preferred weapon of choice for our killer, which is a classic convention of the slasher genre. A knife was the most popular with 12/24 (60%) choosing it, instead of an axe, chainsaw or a rope. This worked well for us as we had easy access to a knife, as opposed to something such as a chainsaw. This also gave a more realistic feel to our trailer, with realism working  as a disturbing feature for the audience, conforming to our genre.

Here is a summary of our results. We conformed to almost all of them, as many of the responses also followed the conventions of existing slasher genre films. Although we wondered about subverting some of these conventions, the survey helped us to realise that this is actually what the audience would find most effective and therefore make our trailer more successful.

Slasher genre continued

'A genre is ultimately an abstract conception rather than something that exists empirically in the world' - Jane Feuer 1992

'Recently, structuralists and feminist theorists, among others, have focused on the way in which generically defined structures may operate to construct particular ideologies and values, and to encourage reassuring and conservative interpretations of a given text' - Bernadette Casey

Origins and conventions

• I already did a very in-depth post about this, linked below.

• READ MORE HERE

Social background 

• As many slasher films came out in the 70s and 80s, it is important to look at the social and cultural backdrop in which the film was made

• At this time, society was becoming more liberal, women more empowered and the feminist movement was in full swing.

• Perhaps slasher films could be a response to that - hugely violent against women, often said to be misogynistic or so unnecessarily violent - if you look at the Final Girl theory 

• Carol Clover wrote the book 'Men, Women and Chainsaws', which focused on the positioning of what she calls 'The Final Girl' in relation to the audience. Most theorists label horror films as a male-driven genre, Clover points out that in a lot of horrors (especially slasher), the audience is 'forced' to identify with the Final Girl. While the dominant killer's subjective point of view may be male within the narrative, the male viewer is still rotting for the Final Girl to overcome the killer. We can see this operating in Halloween, Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street. In horror films, women are usually murdered because of their having ha sex, or their desire for sex.

From the book:

• The image of the distressed female most likely to linger in memory is the image of the one who did not die: the survivor, or Final Girl. She is the one who encounters the mutilated bodies of her friends and perceives the full extent of the preceding horror and of her own peril; who is chased, cornered, wounded; whom we see scream, stagger, fall, rise, and scream again. She is abject terror personified. If her friends knew they were about to die only seconds before the event, the Final Girl lives with the knowledge for long minutes or hours. She alone looks death in the face; but she alone also finds the strength either to stay the killer long enough to be rescued (ending A) or to kill him herself (ending B). She is inevitably female. In Schoell's words: "The vast majority of contemporary shockers, whether in the sexist mold or not, feature climaxes in which the women fight back against their attackers—the wandering, humourless psychos who populate these films. They often show more courage and level headedness than their cringing male counterparts." 

Popularity 

• Popular at the time, in the 70s and 80s when Craven was creating slasher. 

• Revival in 1996 when Scream was made

• Scream is very much aware that it is a movie, and has fun with this. The film features numerous in-jokes and references to other horror films. The victims in Scream are quite self-aware: they each make clear their familiarity with, and make fun of, teen slasher and horror films, which sets up their fairly ironic responses to the film's situations. 

• Since this, there have been remakes of basically every successful slasher in the 70s and 80s: 

• Halloween several times, Texas chainsaw several times, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday 13th several times, Black Christmas, Prom Night, I spit on your grave etc.

• Cabin in the woods 2012 attempted to do something similar to Scream, by revitalizing the slasher genre as a critical satire on torture porn 

• Now, generally less popular, HOWEVER...

Current trends

• The slasher film has shifted over time more recently, to a more hardcore, violent, gore-filled 'torture porn'.

• Filmmaker Eli Roth's Hostel (2005), released in January 2006, was the first to be called "torture porn" by critic Edelstein, but the classification has since been applied to Saw and its sequels (though its creators disagree with the classification),The Devil's Rejects (2005), Wolf Creek(2005), and the earlier films Baise-moi (2000) and Ichi the Killer (2001).

• Violence, torture, nudity, sex, mutilation and sadism are all common themes in this genre

• Saw is the most profitable series of all time in horror box office

• Stephen King and zombie legend George A. Romero both celebrate torture porn as a genre

• Films like Antichrist by Lars Von Trier also influenced by this genre. 

Narrative + Theory

• Bordwell and Thompson (1980) defined narrative as ‘a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship occurring in time’. 
• Syd Field, an American screenwriter has said that in any good film, the audience will be grabbed by the first ten minutes, implying narrative is imperative to a film’s success. Due to the trailer form of our piece 60 seconds), we had to use a restricted narration in order to achieve the audiences interest, as this is often used in the horror genre. 
• Our trailer offered subjective character identification, meaning the viewer is given unique access to what a range of characters see and do. For example, a range of teenagers were used as characters in our trailer, to conform to conventions of the genre.
• Vladamir Propp’s theory of narrative, which he devised from a study of folktales, suggests that characters have the role of narrative. He came up with seven different character types each with a function, including the ‘hero’, ‘villain’ and ‘princess’. 
• Our trailer conforms to some of these archetypal characters, and subverts others. For example, our hero is female, rather than male, but this does conform to the ‘final girl’ theory seen in genre theory. 
• She is not your ‘usual’ hero, as she also has some elements of the ‘princess’ character who is usually threatened and saved, for example framed in mid-shots and extreme close ups you can see her struggle with the killer. In post-production, flashes of light were added to add to the distress and chaos of the scene, further relaying the ‘victim’ character type. 
• The princess character or victim is usually threatened and saved. The difference in our film is that the princess then becomes the hero, and saves herself. 
• Our villain, however, does conform, as he creates narrative disruption throughout,  he is often seen in the background of shots, e.g. a close of the victims face, with low-key and ambient lighting produced by a lighter, the villain is barely seen with his mask heavily distorted by the light.
• Todorov suggested that conventional narratives are structured in five stages, including the state of equilibrium at the start, the disruption of equilibrium and then the reinstatement of equilibrium at the end.
• We heavily conform to this theory. In our trailer, we start with a happy party environment, with mid and close up shots of alcohol, laughing and talking, as well as up-beat non-diegetic music, indicating a party. The mood changes through the use of typography and sound. 
• The upbeat music ceases and a sinister boom and knock at the door is heard, along with creepy typography with a flickering effect used, reading ‘…who’s there?’. 
• On the other hand, we subvert the theory as we do not reinstate the equilibrium at the end, seen through the last shot of the killer slowly turning his head, at a slightly low angle, adding to the suspense, edited with non-diegetic screams and flashing up typography. 
• We did this because leaving the conclusion as an enigma is an important convention for the trailer form.
• Allan Cameron’s theory claims that modular narratives ‘articulate a sense of time as divisible and subject to manipulation’.
• He identifies four different types of modular narrative: anachronic, forking paths, episodic and split screens.  
• In our trailer we conform to this theory by utilising an episodic structure. This is seen by using different victims throughout the trailer, each being killed separately from another, in their own ‘episode’, e.g. one victim is attacked from behind in a hallway framed in extreme close ups and mid shots. 
• Another victim is framed being dragged along the floor through a door way at an eye level shot to the floor. In post-production, the adding of a repeating set of the same noises, each in time to each clip helps reinforce the ‘episodic’ idea.
• Barthes’ codes claim that narratives are like ‘tangled balls of threads which need unravelling’, some being open with many interpretations and others being closed, with only one possible interpretation. 
• Ours is an example of an open narrative as each character can be interpreted in different ways. For example, the character of the killer could be likeable to the audience or seen as a threat. 
• Our film conforms to the Enigma / Proairetic code set out by Barthes, saying that the way tension is built up leaves the audience guessing what happens next. One key example of this is a scene in wh
  ich a man looks out a window. 
• The camera is outside and we seem him peering out, all of a sudden, a creepy symbol noise is heard as the killer emerges in the background, and then the scene is suddenly blacked out, leaving the audience wondering what happens next. 

Wes Craven, John Carpenter and Hitchcock

Wes Craven-

Wes Craven is an American film director known best for his horror films. He is also a producer, writer and actor born in 1939 (till present.) During his career he has won nine cinematic awards and received three nominations.

The last house on the left- subverts slasher horror genre as parents of girl killed kill villains, more than one killer, one killer is a girl, not a group of teens, no final girl, exploitation-horror genre

The hills have eyes 1,- no final girl- girl that survives not virginal, no teenagers, more than one killer, not unknown, in desert land- rocky, there is a sequel, subverts slasher horror genre

A nightmare on elm street- one disfigured killer, group of teens, family suburb, final girl, unhelpful officer, final girl virginal, friends engage in sexual activity, supernatural slasher horror film

Scream 1,- group of teens, motive (girls fault- e.g maureen having affair with bialys father), final girl kills killers- not a virgin, high school and suburb, unknown killer, attend party- drinking, there are three more sequels, slasher film- subverted by non virginal final girl

The people under the stairs- final girl (helped by man)- very good and followed rules leading her to survive, two villains with identities revealed, suburb- family home, not a group of teens- children, subverts slasher horror conventions

John Carpenter-

John Carpenter is a filmmaker and screenwriter born in1948 (until present.) His film Halloween (1978) made his name within the horror genre.

Halloween 1- girl has sex with boyfriend and is killed, family home- victorian house, killer doesnt die, no final girl, identity of the killer is knows, wears a mask, bloody deaths, no group of teens, three more sequels plus curse of michael myers, 20 years later 

Christine- no final girl, killer is ultimately a car, 'killer' is got rid of, no group of teens or specific setting e.g suburb, forest etc, no useless detectives

The fog- no final girl, paranormal not slasher- ghosts and idea of 'the fog', gruesome deaths, mystery- fits paranormal horror genre

Hitchcock-

Alfred Hitchcock was a director, producer and screen writer born 1899 (till 1900.) He was nicknamed 'master of suspense', as he used psychological suspense in films creating a unique viewer experience.

Psycho- paved the way for the horror genre, unhelpful police officer, unknown killer- one killer, 'womans fault- mother found a lover and made him jealous), no final girl, killer is arrested not killed, no group of teens, violent shower scene

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.

Research into Crowd Mentality and Deindividuation

"Deindividuation is a concept in social psychology that is generally thought of as the losing of self-awareness in groups"

As part of my early research into the slasher genre, and in particular home invasion movies, I wanted to research into the idea of herd mentality/collective behaviour etc. to investigate what makes people act in a certain way when they are part of a group. One particular instance I wanted to look into was the Salem Witch trials.

In 1692 the Salem Witch Trials took place. It truly epitomizes what can happen when religious extremism and mobs collide. In the beginning a couple of girls started acting weird (having fits, diving under furniture, contorting in pain, etc.) and claimed witches were responsible for their “sickness.” They pointed fingers at specific women in Salem, and after the doctor confirmed the girls were possessed, the town went berserk. Salem officials started arresting suspected witches based on ridiculous evidence and the town went along with the whole thing, in the end 19 were hanged and 5 died in prison.

Another example was clear from Zimbardo's prison experiment in 1971:

• "Zimbardo created a mock prison environment in the basement of Stanford University’s psychology building in which he randomly assigned 24 men to undertake the role of either guard or prisoner.
• These men were specifically chosen because they had no abnormal personality traits.
• The experiment, originally planned to span over two weeks, ended after only six days because of the sadistic treatment of the prisoners from the guards.
• Zimbardo attributed this behavior to deindividuation due to immersion within the group and creation of a strong group dynamic. Several elements added to the deindividuation of both guards and prisoners.
• Prisoners were made to dress alike, wearing stocking caps and hospital dressing gowns, and also were identified only by a number assigned to them rather than by their name. Guards were also given uniforms and reflective glasses which hid their faces.
• The dress of guards and prisoners led to a type of anonymity on both sides because the individual identifying characteristics of the men were taken out of the equation. Additionally, the guards had the added element of diffusion of responsibility which gave them the opportunity to remove personal responsibility and place it on a higher power.
• Several guards commented that they all believed that someone else would have stopped them if they were truly crossing the line, so they continued with their behavior."

-Wikipedia

In TV I found the example of an episode of Black Mirror called 'White bear':

In this episode, a woman wakes up in a chair, completely confused and unable to remember anything about her life. Leaving the house, the woman sees people constantly recording her on their phones. When asking for help and shouting at the people to stop recording her, a man wearing a balaclava with the symbol on it pulls up in a car, takes out a shotgun, and fires at Victoria (pictured above). This gave me the idea about crowd mentality and anonymity, which is clearly displayed in this episode of black mirror. They combined the idea of us living in a completely technological age and the constant need for entertainment, whatever the cost.

I also watched Derren Brown's TV show 'The Experiments: The game show' for more of an insight. In this episode Brown sets up a fake game show where the audience are in complete control of what happens to an unknowing man, who earlier signed up to be part of some kind of experiment. Throughout the show, the audience decides his fate whilst wearing anonymous masks, to shield their identity. It turned out that the audience voted for the man to have have drinks spilled down him, arrested for shoplifting, lose his job, get his TV smashed up etc. Would they still have voted for these horrible things to happen to the man if they were not masked? This helps me further understand the idea of deindividuation.