Evaluation Q1 Forms and conventions

Our media product is quite conventional in a number of ways. It follows Todorov's narrative structure, beginning with a form of equilibrium as the characters go carol singing at Christmastime. It is only when the masked killer is added then a state of disequilibrium is reached and the singers begin to be targeted, one by one. This format of teens being stalked and killed by a mysterious, unseen adversary uses Barthes' narrative engima; a common slasher feature and one that appears in what's considered the earliest slasher film, Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960).

However, in other ways our product does try to challenge some of the established conventions. For example, in the opening scenes there is very little explicit sexual or violent content, long considered standard in horrors and slashers in particular. Furthermore, the character that we initially choose to follow does not conform to many of the 'scream queen' stereotypes, and could be said to be a countertype instead. There is also a sense of naivity about the main characters, they have not transgressed some cultural norm, they have simply been over curious and investigated somewhere they shouldn't.

Our killer character is perhaps more of a standard archetype. Dressed in an outfit rather than normal clothing, and carrying a sharp object which he uses as a weapon, he fits in with many established on-screen killers. And as mentioned above, his mysterious nature is another factor of his conventionality, killers from Norman Bates to Leatherface have been enigmatic in either motive or identity (or sometimes both!). Our killer initially seems to follow in this tradition.

In terms of film making, we have stuck to long-established methods. Quick, rapid cutting and shot selection during scenes of violence contrasts with long, drawn-out takes to create a sense of unnaturality and foreboding. Another common technique we have use is one of showing a scene from the killer's point-of-view; again this has been used almost right from the beginning of the genre and is still commonly used today. Overall, our film can be considered to apply methods and techniques that have continued throughout the history of the genre.