Evaluate how much our media text uses, develops or challenges forms and conventions.

My vision of the horror conventions is that we stick to some of them for financial reasons, for example the woods are a horror convention and it is near the school. However we didn’t want to make a completely stereotypical horror film that followed all of the conventions as we wanted to stand out from other horror films and also to show that we understand the conventions of horror.  We also went against some of the horror conventions as the blonde girl being the victim is a horror convention to show we can make a mainstream commercial product without being to cliché. We made a mainstream film to target our audience as the majority of teenagers aren’t interested in art-house films due to them not being shown in cinemas such as Odeon and VUE. Therefore we have to provide a product that meets up to the audiences expectations of the horror genre.

One horror convention that is relevant in our film is the use of a conventional location. We chose to use the woods which are a typical genre code largely due to the connotations of isolation. We have used this convention as the woods are mysterious and isolated and they connote the fear of the unknown which is relevant to our film as the fate of the character isn’t known in the opening two minutes, and neither is the identity of the killer. We did this to create a sense of mystery and have the audience guess who the killer will be throughout the movie which means the audience will be more engaged in the film as they are constantly questioning who the killer to build tension, suspense and ambiguity as these are all common horror conventions. We used these conventions as the reason the girl is walking through the woods is to get home. This could make the audience feel afraid as our target audience are likely to walk home from school and this allows them to sympathise with the character by aligning our audience with the protagonist the sense of fear and jeopardy is being heightened.

 

(Screen shot of Amelia walking through the woods)

 

 

Another horror convention that is relevant in our film that develops these ideas is an isolated setting. We developed this convention as we have the main character alone studying in an empty classroom. Classrooms usually connote education and the audience will know it is a safe place to be as the majority of our audience have been in or will be experiencing still a classroom environment. We challenged this because we wanted to make the audience feel unsettled in what is supposed to be a safe environment to them as they are more likely to be frightened.  It also creates a sense of jeopardy as it is a horror convention that causes suspense and thrill for the audience. Although we felt we were developing with this, it should be noted that classrooms are a common location in some teen horror such as ‘Scream’ and ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’.

 (Screenshot from 'New Nightmare')

 (Screenshot from 'Amelia' - our film)

 

A third horror convention that is relevant in our film is a having a female character with blonde hair in the opening but we have challenged the stereotype of having this type of character dying first because we wanted to represent young women positively as she is the lead character we have done this by having her dressed in appropriate clothing instead of hypersexual clothing as we didn’t want to present her as a sexual object which can be a convention of horror films but we are challenging the male gaze theory as it you are also challenging the use of the male gaze, again a common convention of horror.  We also challenged this as the girl is on her own instead of being with a sexual partner or a group of friends. It shows that she is independent and isn’t the ‘damsel in distress’ it was important to do this as the audience will be able to relate with the character as they are likely to be independent.

Another horror convention that is relevant in our film is the blood, we used blood as it connotes violence and that someone has been injured or been killed. It connotes that there is something unusual in the woods and fear for the lead characters life. It was important to use this horror convention as it signifies to the audience that they are watching a horror film as in our survey most of them expected to see blood in a horror film. We made this decision to successfully target our horror audience.

Another horror convention is negative representation of a youthful character such as they are often outspoken, arrogant and they are also presented as stupid. We have gone against this stereotypical convention as our film has one teenage girl and she is represented positively as she is staying after school to study and she is presented as reasonably sensible, we did this as our target audience are young and they can relate to this character which means they are more likely to enjoy and be interested in the film as they can see themselves as that character.