Horror Genre and It's Slasher Sub-genre

Genre is when media texts are categorised into groups with similar structures and conventions. Horror, Thriller, Sci-Fi and Romance are examples of different film genres.


Among these genres, movies which cause distress which can frighten its audiences and have a gory finale, are often Horror movies. Horror movies with their specific characteristics can be signified from other genres. For instance in both films "Hostel" and "Saw", the killers torture and punish their victims by doing things like finger cutting, throat slicing, gunshots, and so forth.

An example of torturing victims in "Saw"

In movies such as "Scream" and "Saw", killers are wearing scary masks which hide their identities.

The famous "ghost face" mask used by the killer of the same name in the "scream" movie.<-----




The "Jigsaw" mask used by the killer of the same name in the "saw" movie. ----->
                              
Sub-Genre is when a genre splits into smaller and individual categories. Slasher movie is a sub-genre of horror movie. 


Some examples of horror movies' sub-genres are:
Slasher, Vampire, Zombie, Gore, Ghosts, Dracula, Gothic sub-genre and etc. 


Our movie is a horror movie which follows the codes and conventions of slasher sub-genre due to its choice of weapons, such as knife and use of blood an a frightening orchestra soundtrack.


Slasher Sub-Genre is about killers frightening and murdering people, due to some mental illness, revenge taking, personal issues, or etc...
Like genres, Sub-genres also have their own codes and conventions which distinct them from other genres. 




Codes And Conventions Of Slasher Sub-genre:


The Killer, who is the main brutal character in slasher movies. Their identity is sometimes unknown throughout the whole movie and they often have special props that signifies them as the killers, such as knives, axes, hammers or any kind of weapon that can slash the victims. 

The "ghost face" in "Scream" uses knife to kill people

Jason Voorhees in hockey mask is the killer and stalker in "Friday The 13th". This movie unlike most other horror film has a female killer which is Jason's mother.

The killers sometimes wear a mask to hide their identities, like the "ghost face" mask in the "Scream" movie.


As we see in "Scream" and  lot more horror movies, the killer is one of the main characters that assumes to be the innocent until the very end of the film that his role as a killer reveals. 

Alfred Hitchkock's "Psycho"(1960), is known as the mother of all slasher movies.

Killers are normally males, with a dark and traumatic past usually linked with the victims in the movie, which causes the killer to take revenge and make the victims' life painful and horrific as his own. The camera is normally at low angle, looking up to the killer to make them look more frightening and powerful, with lots of point of view shots.

Michael Myers the first killer character in John Carpenter's "Halloween".

The Killers often have supernatural powers or skills that makes them invulnerable and hard to kill.


The Victims are often a group of youths involved in adventurous, rebellious or sexual activities. Sometimes being hallucinated, so that they have less control of their movements and behaviours and are less aware of their environments and the danger behind their back. Camera often chase the victims, giving the impression of the victim being watched by someone who is likely to be the killer. Lots of zoom-ins for showing the victim's facial expressions and establishing shots to show the location and the wait for rescue is typical camera shots in most slasher films. 

The characters in "Scream" are a group of school friends.

Victims are often naive and childish like Drew Barrymore in "Scream"1996 or promiscuous and perverts which targets males as their main audiences.

Drew Barrymore in "Scream" 1996

The Survivor in slasher films is normally one person who can manage to escape the killer and survives at the end by either killing, disabling, or catching the killer. The survivor is often a muscular handsome boy, a sherif or a girl with good morals often called the virgin girl who does not follow the immorality of her group of friends! 

Sidney Prescott is the survivor protagonist of the "Scream" series

Weapons used by killers in slasher movies are any type of sharp and cutting tools, such as knives, razors or axes. Freddy Krueger uses glove with razor fingers to kill the characters in Wes Craven's "Nightmare On Elm Street" (1984).

Freddy Krueger is a revengeful killer who kills his victims in their nightmares with his gloves.

Settings include locations which is often explored by the characters risky journeys to isolated places, such as jungles or out-of-town parties. Murders happen typically at night times or dark places, which all pave the way for the killer to trap the victims easier and also to arouse the audiences' fear of darkness and unknown. The other locations can be schools, parks, house parties or any place that youths possibly come together.


Music is often orchestral and anxious, expecting something bad to happen. Use of sound such as scream or slash of a knife is also so affective and gives the movie more sense of horror.