Characters in a horror
- 2. Female Victim • Stereotypically the character who is oblivious to the situation. • Portrayed as vulnerable and in need of protection. • Attractive to appeal to the male audience. • Killed in a brutal way. • She is usually a character disliked by the audience due to her actions.
- 3. Final Girl • Offers an interesting twist on a stereotypical female victim. • They go on a journey from vulnerable and innocent to a survivor who confronts the monster at the end of the film. • They use pre-technological weapons to kill the monster. • They change along with the narrative and tend to be the main focus of the story, they also represent the audience as they are introduced to new situations along with the viewers. • For Example – Jenny from Eden Lake, Samantha from the Until Dawn video game, Ellen Ripley from Alien.
- 4. Hero • This is traditionally a male character who saves everybody. • Brave, Strong, Masculine build. • They often die as evil tends to prevail in horror films. • He tends to be the main character if there is no presence of a final girl. • Emotionless and is quick to adapt to the predicament. • Often has a crush who is part of the group who are being attacked or haunted, however he does not tell them. • An Example of a hero is Rick from the Walking Dead, Jim from 28 days later, Macready from The Thing.
- 5. Non Believer • Traditionally a male character as he believes he is in control. • Usually killed due to their inability to change to the circumstances. • Refuse to believe in the monster/threat, which is also a cause of their death. • They offer reassurance for other characters, when he/she dies the narrative dives into chaos. • For example – Steve from Eden Lake,
- 6. Evil Character • For obvious reasons, they are the villain of the plot. • Can take form of any monster, vampires, werewolf's, zombies, teenagers. • For those that are human they often wear a mask to hide their identity and build their narrative and play on the fear of the unknown. • Never any solid proof of their existence.
- 7. Why is this relevant? • Steve Neale’s ‘Repetition and difference’ theory says compares the horror genre to an elastic band. • He says that you can stretch some features for example the use of teenagers as monsters is something difference but not to an extent where it is something so stretched that it becomes unfamiliar hence creating the feeling for the audience that the film isn’t very good. • The repetition part suggests that some parts of the horror genre must remain the same for example, there must always be a protagonist and an antagonist.