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1. (Research) Assignment 9:
Individual Research
By Liam Howse

2. Slasher: Friday the 13th
Conventions within the subgenre:
- Last survivor tends to be the female ‘virgin’.
- Game of ‘cat and mouse’. (Killer is always chasing the victims)
- Confrontation with killer (Jason Voorhees at the end of the film)
- Police always make an appearance in Slashers whether it’s at the beginning, middle or the end.
- Main victims are normally teenagers. Some character types in Slashers are the virgin, jock, nerd,
over-sexualised girl etc.
- Killer is an outcast in society. Examples of this are Freddy Krueger (NoES), Jason Voorhees (F13th),
Michael Myers (Halloween)
- The colour ‘red’ is used within the text in order to convey the sub-genre. It is used to indicate
blood.
- Shows gory scenes.
- Many tracking shots are used within Slashers when victims are running away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqqej9T2gqI

3. Alice’s confrontation with Mrs Voorhees.
Jack’s (Kevin Bacon) neck being impaled.

4. Ghosts and Spirits: The Ring
Conventions within the subgenre:
- The antagonist is normally heavily associated with a particular
object(s). In the Ring, the object is the tape.
- Informs the viewer of a death that has already happened. Normally in
the OTS.
- The colours of white/black are heavily used in the costume of the
antagonist in order to convey the dark and evil mood.
- The story of the antagonist is explained in detail in contrast to other
paranormal sub-genres.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PkgRhzq_BQ

5. The object inn which the film revolves around, the VHS tape.
The colour scheme on the costume is very dull and
ragged. This conveys the mood in which is shown
throughout the movie.

6. Home Invasion: The Strangers
Conventions within the subgenre:
- Involves around the protagonist(s) home.
- The antagonist(s) face is covered in order to make their identity anonymous. In some
movies, this is done to build up drama as characters will be introduced at the start in
order to get the viewer thinking on who it may be and why they are doing this.
- A lot of Home Invasion movies follow a theory known as ‘Todorov’s narrative theory’.
This is made up of three sections the Equilibrium, Disequilibrium and New Equilibrium.
- Usually at night when the invasion starts.
- Household items such as kitchen knives are often used in these movies.
- Establishing shots are often used in these movies as they indicate where the event is
going to happen.
- Fast paced editing is used in order to build tension of the chase between the protagonist
and antagonist.

7. Establishing shot sets the location for the movie in
which the event of the ‘home invasion’ will happen
in.
The antagonists wear masks in order to hide their identity
leaving them anonymous.

8. Supernatural: The Conjuring
Conventions within the subgenre:
- Normally set in a new house or an isolated location. (The location will
normally look old).
- Story revolves around what had happened before they bought the
property/arrived at the location.
- Characters in these types of movies vary as in some cases it may just be a
female but in others it will be a family or just a couple.
- Profile lighting is used within Supernatural movies in order to create
sinister moods.
- Many modern supernatural movies are starting to use the handheld
camera technique. This originated from ‘The Blair Witch Project’

9. At the start of the trailer, a handhold camera technique
has been implemented in order to convey realism.
Old antiques tell the audience that the house they are
investigating is very old.

10. Giant Monsters: The Mist
Conventions within the subgenre:
- Normally, the only people that can defeat the monster are
people/characters in the army or who work for the government.
- Affects the whole population of a city or even a country. (In other words,
the amount of victims in these types of movies is substantially higher).
- Establishing shots may be used in order to indicate where this is taking
place.
- The monsters in these type of horror movies normally have a ‘signature
sound’. This is seen in movies like Godzilla, King Kong (1933) etc.
- Explores what ordinary people would do in extraordinary
scenarios/circumstances.

11. Establishes the setting for the movie. It tells the audience
that this location has a large amount of significance on
the story.
Shows that all of these people are in the same
position/all of them are affected by this.

12. Virus: 28 Days Later
Conventions within the subgenre:
- A disease/ virus that spreads into a most commonly global pandemic.
- Apocalyptic/Abandoned world.
- Movie will focus around a group of people as there is more sense of a triumph if
there is more people.
- Usually a character who makes extremely bad decisions such as opening a door
letting zombies in or abandoning the group etc.
- There are a variety of different characters in the group in order to view how they
would act in a scenario like this.
- Normally shows what the world was like before in order to create a contrast.
- If there are sequels to it, a lot of the time there are left at cliff hangers in order to
draw in the viewer to wanting to find out.
https://youtu.be/c7ynwAgQlDQ

13. Shows that London is in an apocalyptic state as
everything seems to be abandoned.
Tells us through sound and visuals how the virus was
unleashed. In this screenshot, there are rats swarming and
before this you can hear monkeys.

14. Comedy Horror: Leprechaun
Conventions within the subgenre:
- It has jokes as well as dark humour within the film in which separates it
from other subgenres.
- It’s objective is to both make the audience laugh and also create a dark
atmosphere/mood.
- Many comedy horrors take aspects from already made films in order to
make fun of or make light of something that a viewer may have already
seen in a darker situation.
- The film will start off with an unexpected situation in order to create a
story.
- Characters in this a much more comedic in what they do in contrast to
other horror movies hence the name comedy horror.
https://youtu.be/0xD8AE8ZcpA