EVALUATION - In what ways does your film opening use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of existing horror/thriller/dramas?

Stereotypical horror conventions:

• Evil
• Blood
• Monster/Other supernatural power
• Isolation
• Bad weather
• Dumb teenagers
• Sex appeal
• Villain
• Victims
• Darkness
• Weapons

From these typical conventions I used the following; evil, blood, supernatural power, isolation, dumb teenagers, villain, victims, darkness and weapons. I used each convention differently.

I believe that the most vital horror convention is evil. All horror films try to deliver the emotion 'fear'. One of the easiest ways to deliver this is through the power of evil. This is a typical convention of horror films, thereby the audience can relate to it very well and feel flattered by the use of intertextual references.

The next convention on the list I used was blood. This is only seen in the film opening when a mystery person is washing their hands. This follows a beating scene and I believe that this is more effective. This is because it leaves the audience to imagine what happened and what the wounds would have looked like. This use of the convention was used in Alfred Hitchcocks 'Psycho' which I studied earlier.

I didn't want to follow the traditional convention of a supernatural power. This is because I believe it could make the film look more tacky and would not follow my surreal, mysterious theme. Twice in the film we see this dark figure emerge across the camera, but we are never told what it is and are therefore left to wonder.

The convention of isolation is briefly used as at the end the last survivor is left to fight for himself. I did this so the audience could relate to his fear and be on his side, this way they would want him to survive. If the audience felt these emotions then hopefully they would have felt upset/disturbed when he eventually died.

Dumb teenagers was a convetion I used as I believe that the film would be primarily aged at these age groups. The actors are of this age and much of the dialect at the beginning of the film was general 'banter'. Hopefully the primary audience could have related to this.

Although there is a villain in my film opening it is never clear who it is. The first killing isn't scene and the victim emerges later to kill himself. The killing after this is also done off camera. Only the final killing is seen, but the murderer isn't exactly the villain as they seem to be possessed. The audience are lead to believe the supernatural power is possessing these teenagers, but still cannot be sure at this time in the film.

Usually when there is a villain, there is victims. These are every person seen on screen, as they all seem to be a victim of death, apart from one character in which seems to still be a victim. This is because he has been possessed.

Darkness is used thoughout my film as this has connotations of fear and evil. It isn't completely dark as key areas have been lit. This is so the audience can actually see what is going on.

The final convention I used was weapons. Most causes of death in horror movies are from weapons, and when they are seen they denote danger. This is why I chose to have a close up of the knife.

Finally I believe I have used the conventions well. I used them when appropriate to mainly try and influence the audiences behaviour and mood. However I didn't want to follow a stereotypical film, this is why I tried to leave mystery around the villain and the supernatural power. The use of blood also leaves the audience with a lot to think about as this is what I wanted.