Genre research and intertextual links

I have looked at a book 'Legacy of Blood' where i have found lots of good research to help me with my production.
Slasher Bloodlines:

• The film 'Halloween', Directed by John Carpenter in 1978 is considered to be the first slasher movie however it draws much of its inspiration from earlier films.
  
• One critic described 'Halloween' as ' The shower scene from psycho stretched out for an hour and a half'
• The character Norman Bates from 'Psycho' in 1960 has become a template for the standard slasher killer! Sexually ambiguous and impotent, subverting sexual desires into violence and his disguise during the killing.
• The Primary function of a slasher movie remains to be the presentation of images of sex and death.
• Italian film makers created their own brand of psychopath, ( from seeds of Hitchcock's movie)
• The Giallo film first began to develop in 1964 with Mario Bava's ' Blood and Black Lace', Centered around a black killer, stalking and brutally murdering a group of young women.
• In the mid 70's Giallo became one of the predominant Italian film styles , producing a number of acclaimed directors ( Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci ) 
• One of Bava's most influential later films is 'Twitch of The Dead Nerve' a humorous film that influenced ' Friday the 13th ' and its clones. 
• 'Twitch of The Dead Nerve' follows the Giallo format and features a string of elaborate and ex-plicitly gory murders with the setting of a wooded rural area.
• Bava mixes a good deal of humour in with gore, creating a ' Chain of `murder'
• Several of the scream slashers have returned to the Gialli for inspiration, preferring to leave the inhuman, mutated monsters in the 80's.
• Halloween has a high level of fame and is a big influence on slasher films today.

Genesis:

• John Carpenters 'Halloween' in 1978 had a small budget of $320,000. The initial concept was suggested by producer Irwin Yablans, a business man whose intention was to release low budget, youth orientated films.
• Carpenter and girlfriend ( Debra Hill) started to write a script which centered on simple acts of terror: crashes outside the door, pale faces peering through windows and Halloween costumes that suggested real dangers. Main character was Jamie Lee Curtis who is daughter of legendary actors, Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis. 'Halloween' grossed more than $80 million worldwide and it was said that the slasher movie had been born.
• Another very influential film was 'Last House on The Left' directed by Wes Craven, this film came from Ingmar Bergman's play, 'The Virgin Spring'

The Heroine:

• The modern horror has become very reliant upon the idea of the teenage heroine.
• The majority of such films created over the past 20 years has always ended with a lone surviver, almost always a teenage girl.
• Carol Clover, in her book, 'Men, Women and Chain Saws' decided to call this kind of heroine the 'Final Girl',  a generic term that reflects the highly generic nature of the character.
• All final girls have some basic characteristics. All intelligent, smart and resourceful, signs of trouble are always far more apparent to them, Invariably the first to realise what is happening, the final girl usually finds corpses of her friends which alerts her to the danger that surrounds her, the final girl remains one step ahead throughout the film.
• The climax of the film always centres around the final girl and her attacker.
• Often the final girl is a blood relation to the killer. The most example of this is in Halloween (1978) which centres on the relationship between Michael Myers and his sister, Laurie Strode.
• Some of the characteristics of the final girl occur with great frequency, they are by no means universal. One of these which is most often discussed is their status as virgins and their attitude to sex.
• The final girl is always assumed to be virginal while at least one of their friends is sexually active.

The Killer: 

• The aspects of a film that stick in the audience's mind are invariably the weapons and equipment used by the relevant psychopath.
• Characteristics of the Killer are important, Their gender (mainly male). Pamela Voorhees from 'Friday 13th' is one of the most famous examples of such a famous killer. The Killers usually act alone.
• Motivation is very important.
• Revenge is the main motivation but its not always directed against those who were responsible for the incidence.
• A large number of slasher films feature a strong family background for the killer, and example of this is 'Halloween' where the film is based around Michael Myers and the Strode  family.
• Most Antagonists in films use a variety of different methods to kill. 1) Manual slayings 2) tool-based killings
• There are also many different kinds of disguise used. Not used to conceal the murders identity, instead used to give an inhuman and emotionless face to the killer.

Location:

• Most slasher movies are set in one of three general locations: 1) campus 2) wilderness 3) Urban
• Campus: sorority houses are a prominent location, dimly lit corridors and darkened classrooms of schools.
• Wilderness: One specific location ( the summer camp ), Woodland camping ground, nearby a forest and wooden cabins.
• Urban: In a pleasant, suburban environment, middle class housing and well groomed gardens ( example of this is Elm Street) 

Parents and Authority Figures: 

• Obviously for a genre that is primarily targeted towards teenagers and teenage concerns, parents feature heavily in teen horror films.
• Usually hero/heroine's mother/father.

• The encyclopedia of horror' (edited by Richard Davis, fowarded by Peter Cushing)
  
• Richard Davis describes horror films as having developed 'new and rather disquieting trends' From this book i've discovered the plot of a modern horror film is largley centerd around countless killings and sexual refferences(according to the opinion of Richard Davis). This text looks more indepth into films produced between 1910 and 1980. Since these films the genre has developed to meet the consumer wants.
• During the period this book looks at it list horror as it 'pertains to the Realms of the Marvellous' (Page 8). It is almost suggest it is to similar to science fiction or fantasy in that it is an 'extension to the known world.'(Page8)
  
• Though the books claims to have this point of view there are sections of the book causing it to appear hipocritical. A picture (above) from theWarlords of Atlantis (1978, Kievn Connor) supports this hippocritical view. The denotation of the photo shows a giant octopus grasping a provocativley dressed, buxum female; her mouth is also partially open. This photo suggests the connotation  of sexual refferences and sexua activity. Both of theses connotations show a hippocritical opinion compared to that suggested about the films at the start of the book. This hippocritical is again supported with the Jaws (1975, Steven Spielberg) poster used on page 20. This is again a film that casues a hippocritical view with the books opinion of the genre. The film is known for a number of killings again goin against their opinion of the genre.
  
• RD thinks that-Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly(author of Frankenstien)-'undoubtedly achieved what she set out to write:a story that "awoke thrilling horror"
  
• The genre this book largely reffers to is concerning the 'realms of the marvellous'. Frankenstien is a prime example of the use of this in the genre, as 'throuhout the world the name is synonymously with horror, instantly conjuring up images of ugly, hulking monsters stompin murderously across our cinema and television screens'.
• This is also linked to biblical references such as the the story of Adam and Eve in 'Paradise Lost' accounted by John Milton this cant just be coincidence the stroy is dotted with these references throuhout.
  With Adam as the monster and God as Frankenstien, the monstrous Adam never gets to go into te garden of Eden (human society) and God (DR Frankenstien) denies him companionship of Eve.

• The genre as a whole unlike other genres has been able to establish and sustain franchises of a number of films. Over the years there have been successful franchises ranging from Dracula to Saw. Dracula and Frankenstein made by hammer horror between 1959 and 1974 were two of the most successful franchises of their time. These are also considered as some of the most successful British franchises. However it is American cinema that has produced films such as Friday the 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Saw. Of all of these franchises the longest running is Friday the 13th originally released in 1980 now consists of 12 films the most recent being released in 2009.
• The Friday the 13th franchise along with other franchises has experienced convergence into other media sectors, including a TV series and merchandizing. Running over twenty nine years the franchise is still releasing new movies, demonstrating how a franchise can be successful.
• Franchises are a good idea for mostly movies with a big budget and experience overnight success with their first film, as it will be provided with wealth for years to come, as its able to keep old fans with the old background plots but gain new ones by keeping up to date with the media and other films, they will therefore be a trusted name so people are more likley to want to see the new sequel film as the earlier quality is expected, this will therefore target a vast target audience bringing in more wealth from sales, and although horror can also be construed as a family film in some cases as it will apply to so many ages.
• Dimension Films is a subsiduary of The Weinstein Company, formely used as Bob Weinstiens label within Miramax films, so they could produce and release genre films; in particular horror films. The Weinstein Brother kept this name when they seperated from Miramax owned by the conglomerate Disney in october 2005. "Disney continues to share half the proceeds from the Scary Movie flicks and any other future installments in pre-existing Dimension franchises."
• Some of the films the Weinstein Brothers are famous for both when working for Disney and after are: Cursed, Darkness, Halloween, Hellraiser, Scary Movie, Scream, The Amityville Horror, Jeepers Creepers and Black Christmas including all prequels/seqeuls, these were all very popular films.
• These are all horror films, despite some being hybrid genres such as Black Christmas which is both a horror and thriller, the Weinstein Brothers obviously specialise in scary horror films for many years of which have been very influential and set the standards for other horror films, we have even used the intertextual link from Scream where Drew Barrymore is being watched through the window by a male in a hoody in our film, however have developed this link from her on the phone to the stalker to a more modern day text to the stalker, as it is easier for our young primary target audience to relate to.
• I feel that these hybrid genre films are more popular now as they reach a wider target audience, meaning there’s more scope for cross-over appeal, such as 'Black Christmas'-horror/thriller (released 2006) Jeepers Creepers-horror/drama (released 2001) and Scream 3-horror/mystery (released 2000). They target a wider audience because they have more variety in film that they have to offer.
• However these usually have quite high budgets and seeing as ours was a low budget film it would be a little unconventional to try and target a huge audience, as with most low budget films we were targeting the youth audience, also our cast all have regional northern accents as that’s where we live so may not be as clearly understood by say 'southerners' or an American audience as there’s little cross-over appeal apart from some intertextual links of scenes from scream and music from Friday the 13th. But British films with cross-over appeal typically use actors living down south using 'the queens English' accent, so Northern accents may not even be construed as British to them.
• The genre of our film is therefore horror with a hint of slasher, not necessarily to target a larger target audience, although acting in this way is more to keep up to date with modern horror films having sub genres our sub genre is argued as slasher.