Horror Clichés

Clichés are in most films no matter how unique they are. Props and gender stereotypes involve the most clichés especially  in a horror genre:

 

An opening sequence that I think shows these clichés in an effective way rather than making them predictable and boring is Saw:

  

 

This opening sequence introduces the horror genre through many clichés such as: darkness, chains, blood, dirt and a dead body. It perfectly lets the audience know what to expect throughout the film by presenting these commonly used themes in a new and refreshing way.

Mise-En-Scene in Horror Films

Mise-en-scene is important in any film especially horrors. The setting, clothing, hair and makeup and objects such as flashlights and murder weapons are all crucial to the film. The audience will immediately associate certain places with genres and will know what a person is like from their clothing. Their will also be items in the film that the audience would expect to see in that genre.

 

Mise-en-scene is something that should always be thought of when making a horror film. For our opening sequence we had our main character wear a ID badge showing that she was a sixth form/college student. Our antagonist wears only black as the colour is usually associated which horror, loneliness and darkness which I think represents that character quite well. As our location is in a school our props match the scene. Our props are schoolbooks, pens and a pencil case, a backpack, a coat, a mobile phone and a class full of computers. Our character having a mobile phone does fall  into the commonly used horror props which I personally think is a good thing as I wanted to keep some horror clichés in our piece as well as making it unique.

Group Progress - Costumes

Our main character is a everyday girl that has just attended a day at school so she is wearing comfy and casual clothes. Her clothes are neither girly nor masculine but the perfect in-between. This way she does not fall into the girly category or the tough hero woman. She acts and dresses the same way as other teenage girl when they go to college, this means that college students can relate to our character and is appealing to them.

 

She wear a simple white t-shirt and as white usually represents innocence I think it suits our character perfectly. Her trousers are smart jeans which shows that she is dressed under the dress code for a college of sixth form showing the setting through our character. After she leaves the science room she puts on a long black coat and as black is associated with fear or horror it shows that she is the next victim. We also included smaller details such as a ID badge for our sixth form. This shows where she currently is and it also confirms that she is a college/sixth form student.

Group Progress - Props

When re-watching our sequence I wanted to make notes on the props used in our sequence and was surprised to see there was not many. The character carries her bag throughout the sequence but she never really uses it. She does however use textbooks at the beginning of the sequence and she then uses her bag to pack up:

She also get out her phone in one scene. Her phone is modern which shows that the sequence is set in current times and that our character is a girl that can afford having a modern and current mobile:

 

We also use the computers and although this is not a prop  used by the character herself, she does turn one off and is aware that they are there. As the school she is in has a classroom full of computers it could show that she is in a school that can afford modern technology: