Theorist Of Horror And Conventions Of Horror

Graeme Burton  

A media theorist called Graeme burton suggest that we understand a lot about the film genre by looking at key concepts which are;

·         Protagonists- main character

·         Stock characters- minor character

·         Stock situations- eg  car chases, shoot outs

·         Icons-  props, actors, music something which becomes iconic pf the film or genre.

·         Background and décor- setting, the set decoration

·         Themes-  love, revenge, betrayal, surivial, family and honour

·         Hybid genre- genres can also be combined to form hybrid genres such the mixing of honour and science fiction in the ancients films

Todorov  

Todorov argued that the basis of conventional narrative structure consists of the following pattern.

v  Beginning

Equilibrium = kids living their lives of going to school, partying (drink drugs etc)

v  Middle

Disequilibrium = the balance is disrupted by some problem/ event setting in train a series

v  End

Resolution the problem is then solved which allows the reinstatement of the intia; situation/ equilibrium perhaps with slight changes.

Propp Key Elements  

·         The villain :  creates the narrative complication / struggles with the hero

·         The hero: usually male the hero is invariably the texts protagonist

·         The helper: who aids the hero in the task of restoring equilibrium

·         The dispatcher: who sends the hero on his / her task

Barthes codes  

Barthes argues that every narrative is interview with multiple codes.

Ø  The hermeneutic ( enigma) code

Refers to any element in a story that is not explained and therefore exists as an enigma for the reader, raising questions that demand explication

Ø  The proairetic ( action code)

Refers to the other major strutting principle that builds interest or suspense on the part of a viewer any action that implies a further narrative action.

The Gaze

The theory being that a women body displayed on screen makes the (male) viewer a voyeur who experiences erotic pleasure from seeing her. This controls the woman making her an object of gaze and as the cinema is largely dominated by the males so men are in control of the making of the cinematic texts.

The Final Girl

The final girl is a horror film (often slasher) theory that refers to the last female alive to confront the killer the one left to tell the story. According to clover the final girl is typically virginal avoids the vice of the victims (sex drugs etc). And sometimes have unisex names and occasionally has shared history with the killer. Clover argues that for film to succeed the survivor must be female experiencing terror as viewers would reject the terror of a final male.

Also in horror there is always a choice of weapon ie : knife , axe, the knife can represent phallic symbol which means penis.