pro's and con's of slasher and conventions

Pro's and Con's of Slashers

The typical conventions of a slasher film:

• The 'Final Girl' is the first  typical convention of a slasher, horror film. This theory is that by the end of a slasher film the final girl will be left and this is the girl who's the most innocent, virtuous and dresses the most reserved.
• The monster/villains identity is normally not known until the end of the film. This is achieved by using clever camera angles, lighting and camera movement. Usually at the end of the film the villain's identity is revealed. The killers identity remains unknown this is due to the fact that the killer wears a mask.
• The location is usually a suburban, quiet town where you would normally expect to feel safe and comfortable, this subverts the audience's expectations. The location is normally far away from civilisation so that the killer can cut off the characters main escape route. A commonly used setting in more recent ‘Slasher’ films is a high school. This is an environment that the characters are familiar with, the fact that they are familiar with it makes it more interesting as they aren’t expecting anything unusual to happen, as they may in a location which is unfamiliar to them. For example ‘Prom night’ Setting/Location
• The lighting is dark normally to create a tension for the audience, especially when the murders take place it's normally night time.
• Slasher’ films form a very structured narrative pattern, the narrative is set so that sequels can be made. During ‘Slasher’ films there tends to be two parts of the narrative, one being the past and one being the present. The past person feels out of place or gets bullied by certain characters and this person wants to seek revenge, at a later stage then turns into a killer and kills the people made him feel unwanted.
• The colours, red, black and white are very conventional within ‘Slasher’ films. RED – The connotations of red are blood, death and evil. BLACK – The connotations of black are, evil, darkness and danger. The colour black makes the atmosphere much more scarier and helps the film become more realistic. WHITE – The connotations of white are, pure and innocence.

Pro's of Slashers

• Slashers are normally more low budget as it's set in a small town, house or around a small radius of an area.
• Costume isn't that expensive as the characters wear normal clothes and the murderer normally has their persona hidden until the end of the movie.
• You don't need accurate actors as the plot is quite simplistic normally and so the actor doesn't have to be highly skilled.
• Slashers are the most popular horror genre to recreate.
• They appeal to a wide audience for example Halloween was made in 1978 and slashers are still being made today for example Crimson Peak in 2015.
• They don't need to have a complex plot as most slashers follow the conventions as mentioned above.

Con's of Slashers

• Money for makeup and effects eg blood spill which has to have an investment into it otherwise the effect would look fake.
• Hard to film as need permission if filming actual slasher scenes outside in the local area.
• can sometimes come across as cheesy if the acting is too bad.
• Can scare the audience if an age limit is not suitable for the film
• There is usually a lot of non-diegetic sound leading up to an event like murder which causes a suspense. This is difficult to place over the actual movie when editing.
• Non- diegetic sound if being created individually takes a lot of time and accuracy.