Researching Characters and Costumes

My group and I were asked to research a range of horror films and link our own conceptions to it. The concepts that we were asked to look at were props, locations, settings, mise en scene, characters, costumes, plot lines, summary, narrative, themes, motifs and ideology.

Characters and Costumes:


blog 2 - picture slideshow

Researching costumes and characters I have found that in most horror genre based films they don't usually use human looking killers. For instance in the film 'Chucky' they use a doll creating more thriller and alluding the audience, making them think that the doll is just a doll and harmful. However, once the character Chucky starts to kill it has more of an effect on the audience and shocks them in a much more dynamic way. I have also realised that if the killer (protagonist) is a human and not a creature or monster they usually where masks to hide their identity. For instance in the film 'Strangers' the characters who are the murderers all where masks this type of costume gives these characters a superior feel meaning that it makes their characters even more intensely scary and since we the audience don't know who's under that mask it keeps mystery and therefor superiority.

However looking at so called killers who are human and don't hide their identity also can be quite thrilling and have a major effect on the audiences emotions. For instance looking at the trailer 'I spit on your grave' the protagonist of the film ends up being the killer and tortures the men that hurt her. The protagonist who is a woman creates a dehumanised character within the actions she does during the film (torturing). The protagonist creates the tension and puts in on the audience without having to hide her identity. The fact that she doesn't hide her identity makes her character even more scary since it makes the film so much more realistic almost saying anyone can be a killer to get revenge.