SLASHER GENRE Conventions

1. There is always an anonymous, sometimes masked killer. 

2. Usually set in/at a forest, school, toilets in somewhere, in a house, by a lake, on a camp by a lake - these are all isolated places where there is no help for the characters and no hope of finding somewhere to run. There is also the use of pathetic fallacy which consists of thunder and rain used to enhance on the use of isolation. Also, usually, the scary, sinister scenes are set at night because it's dark and the dark connotes evil.

3. There is more than likely low key lighting throughout the film or at some points in the film. 

4. There is the character/s of the 'scream queen/scream king', there is usually more than one 'scream queen/king' in the film who die one by one in the film. 

5. There is the character of the 'final girl' in the film, she is a resourceful, nerdy, intelligent, usually brunette character. She survives the killer in the film and usually kills the killer. 

6. Commonly, a group of teenagers are the protagonists of the film. One of them being the 'final girl' and the rest being the 'scream queens/kings'. 

7. Stereotypically, the authority figures in slasher films are useless - final girl's father is commonly a police figure.

8. There is frequent use of dutch angles to make the audience feel uncomfortable and that something bad is going to happen. 

9. Todorov's 5 part narrative structure can be applied to slasher films - for example, the 1st and 2nd stage, the equilibrium and disruption, take place in film opening. The 'scream king and/or just scream queen are killed by the anonymous masked killer at the start of the film opening.

10. Propp's character archetypes theory can be applied to slasher films - the villain/antagonist archetype is very evident within the anonymous killer and the the hero/protagonist archetype is very evident within the 'final girl' character. 

11. You will commonly in slasher films see the group of teenage protagonists who are the scream queens and kings, doing immoral acts like having sex, doing drugs, smoking, drinking alcohol or doing something rebellious.

12. You will also commonly see the group of protagonists split up to explore somewhere individually or go somewhere alone to fetch something. For example, after a couple have had sex all alone in a house, the male in the couple says he's going downstairs to get a beer, therefore, they are both now alone.

13. Stereotypically, you will see the victims in the film and the final girl say for example "hello, who's there" or "this better not be a joke this isn't funny Annie cut it out" when they are all alone somewhere and hear noises of someone else being there. 

14. Levi-strauss' binary opposition can be applied to slasher films - between the killer and the 'scream queen' in the film opening and also between the 'scream queen' and 'final girl' who we see after the 'scream queen' dies. 

15. Laura Mulvey's 'male gaze' theory can heavily be applied to slasher films - the scream queens/kings are usually objectified and sexualised within slasher films. Their bodies are on show, so for example, in the film 'Halloween', you see some of the scream queens' topless, this is done to attract a strong male audience.

16. Amount of film idents is between 1-3, duration between 5-10 seconds.

17. The duration of the film openings is between 3-13 minutes.

18. There is use of fast cuts and whip pans to create suspense and action.

19. Opening shot is usually an extreme long shot but can sometimes be a close up of an object of significance.
Some quotes I found from books that are relevant to slasher genre conventions:
'The Mammoth Book of Slasher Movies'
By Peter Normanton
"Way Back then, you could scream all you wanted, but it was never going to make them stop, as for an entire decade the doors to the madhouse were thrown open to a plethora of hack and slash killers who were free to slip into school dormitories, college campuses, the woods, shopping malls or for the very unlucky their local neighbourhood. Each was armed with a sharp knife, with blood murder in mind. There never was a decade quite like the eighties".