Treatment Analysis

Conventions:

• Teenagers are popular in horror films as they serve to make the film realistic and engaging for the horror audiences who are predominately young people. The immaturity and extremity of emotions portrayed are convincing thus providing platforms for postmodern films such as ‘Attack the Block’ to be made. Plot lines have always focused on young people with famous slasher films such as Scream, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween being prime examples. Taking this into consideration, our group decided to revolve our trailer around five teenagers: Nina, Tatum, Buffy Kirby and Thomas.

• Screaming is an expression of shock and fear hence we have incorporated this into our trailer. Screaming is a depiction of the horror that the character is experiencing and this is dispersed through to the audience who are shown a vulnerable and helpless victim.

• Knives are a good horror weapon as they allow intimate contact and cause a slow and painful death. The majority of our respondents thought that knives were most effective horror weapons consequently our group decided to use them in our trailer. According to Freud’s sadism theory, the knife serves as a misogynistic tool when being used against women and this fits our trailer which has mainly female characters.

• Blood is a vital in slasher films to illustrate the extent of the villain’s ruthless quest to inflict pain onto his/her weak victims. By depicting bloodshed and gore, the slasher film subgenre achieves its purpose of representing a dramatic and extreme bloodbath playing on the fears of audiences.

• Masked figure conform to the Structuralist prop paradigms and not knowing the identity of the person behind the mask unsettles the audience. The mask allows the audience to undertake a journey to find out who is behind the mask and this adds mystery conforms to Barthes pleasure of text theory. Our group decided to use the mask paradigm due to its popularity after films like Scream, Friday the 13^th and Halloween.

• Chase scenes add a thrill and excitement which heightens the experience of a watching a horror film. Used in probably all horror films, they serve to build up tension and bring the masochistic viewers to the edge of their seats not knowing whether the victim, usually Clover’s ‘Final Girl’, will triumph or concede defeat to the villain, usually the sadistic voyeur. Our reason for including a chase sequence was to highlight the power difference between the villain and the victim- who despite running as fast as she can, will ultimately be caught by the villain.

• Bathroom scenes or scenes where the victim physically lays exposed to the sadistic voyeurs is something which our group found effective after seeing the classic bathroom scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’. The idea of subverting an everyday activity of a tranquil and peaceful bath into a horrific and fatal experience highlights the merciless nature of our victim accurately thus we decided to include this in our trailer.

• Darkness is imperative in horror films to create fear of the unknown and startle the audiences when the unexpected happens. Accordingly, all of our scenes are set in darkness to highlight the metaphorical darkness the characters have been plunged into.

• “Names are boundary markers of individual identity” as critic Parker has said emphasizing the significance of the names of characters. As a result of this, our group decided to name our characters based on the denotation of the specific names. 
• We looked at Propp’s character types and used them to create the characters in our trailer.

• We chose the name Nina for our final girl and though Clover’s ‘Final Girl’ theory argued that asexual names were used due to the masculine personality trait adopted by the girl in her final confrontation with the villain, we decided to keep Nina as we still wanted her to seem more vulnerable.
• The name Tatum was chosen to represent a promiscuous girl who is always prevalent in horror films. This character always dies due to her engagement in sexual activities as Clover suggests which is why our group decided to show her death in the bath scene where she lays physically exposed.
• Kirby  is short for Kimberly and the nick name reduces her significance highlighting that she is one of the less important characters who dies early on in the trailer.
• Buffy’s name suggests the stereotypical blonde girl who is first to confront the villain. Conforming to the typical representation of blondes in horror films, due to her own mistake, she decides to remain in the dance studio alone and creates the perfect scenario for the villain to enter and commit his first killing.
• The boyfriend character is seen in most horror films either protecting the final girl and dying nobly during the course; or assisting the villain in his quest to avenge the final girl. Thomas is a popular everyday name and is relatable to audiences.