Top 10 Slasher Horror Movies

Rank	Title	Studio	Lifetime Gross /Theaters		Opening / Theaters		Date
1	Scream	Dim.	$103,046,663	1,994	$6,354,586	1,413	12/20/96
2	Scream 2	Dim.	$101,363,301	2,688	$32,926,342	2,663	12/12/97
3	Scream 3	Dim.	$89,143,175	3,467	$34,713,342	3,467	2/4/00
4	Freddy Vs. Jason	NL	$82,622,655	3,014	$36,428,066	3,014	8/15/03
5	The Texas Chainsaw Massacre	NL	$80,571,655	3,018	$28,094,014	3,016	10/17/03
6	I Know What You Last Summer	Sony	$72,586,134	2,524	$15,818,645	2,524	10/17/97
7	Friday the 13th (2009)	WB (NL)	$65,002,019	3,105	$40,570,365	3,105	2/13/09
8	Hallowe'en (2007)	MGM/W	$58,272,029	3,475	$26,362,367	3,472	8/31/07
9	Hallowe'en: H20	Dim.	$55,041,738	2,669	$16,187,724	2,607	8/7/98
10	My Bloody Valentine 3-D	LGF	$51,545,952	2,534	$21,241,456	2,534	1/16/09

When looking at this table we can see that the Scream franchise has had a huge success and we would like to incorporate elements from this film into our own opening sequence.

Research into target audience and genre

The audience of horror films tend to be adults, mainly due to the fact that the BBFC usually rates horror films above the rating of 15. This is due to the severe graphic content that is displayed throughout a horror film, including gore, extreme violence and death. These type of themes are deemed inappropriate for younger teenagers or children, however must teenagers from the ages of 13-18 will have seen the most gory productions in todays modern film industry, and even consider horror being their favourite genre of film.

research into genre

HORROR

• noun 1) an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust.

2) a thing causing such a feeling.

3) intense dismay.

4)informal a bad or mischievous person, especially a child.

— ORIGIN Latin, from horrere ‘shudder, (of hair) stand on end’

The Gothic Origins

Horace Walpole's 1764 novel, The Castle of Otranto, initialised the term 'horror' as it was full of supernatural surprises. Many people imitated this and today it's called the Gothic Genre. Later on in 1818 the first great horror classic was written by Mary Shelley - Frankenstein.

Nineteenth Century Writers

Many novelists tried to write horror fiction such as Emily Bronte writing Wuthering Heights and Charles Dickens with The Signalman and A Christmas Carol. Edgar Allen Poe is also another celebrated author of the gothic genre and has written literary classics such as 'The Tell Tale Heart' and 'The Raven' - both of which have been parodied in the Simpsons.

Later in the century Sigmund Freud continued Poe's work however advanced the topics including psychological terms with madness and insanity becoming key genres in this new mode of writing. Popular gothic novels included The Turn of The Screw in 1898, and The Yellow Wallpaper 1899. Another revelation in the horror novel genre was Dracula in 1897 which included sexual themes as well as the psychological and horror.

The First Horror Movies

These previous novels have been transformed into the early classic horror films such as Frankenstein which has had many modern adaptations. Other first horror films include:

• The Golem 1915/1920
• The Cabinet of Dr Caligari 1919
• Nosferatu 1922

Horror films of the 1930's include Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Dracula, Frankenstein, Freaks, The Mummy, King Kong and The Bride of Frankenstein.

Contemporary Horror - The Noughties

Due to horrific terrorist attacks such as 9/11 the world's perspective of what is terrifying altered and horror films became reborn with these new fears. There was even calls to ban horror movies for world peace, but in 2005 the horror genre became as popular as ever. The classic monsters have been replaced with paranormal activities such as 'death' in the final destination franchise, which is seen as an unstoppable force as appose to a disfigured beings.

Horror films of the noughties include:

• Final Destination (2000)
• 28 Days Later (2002)
• Dog Soldiers (2002)
• Death Watch (2002)
• The Grudge (2004)
• Hostel (2005)
• Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
• Wolf Creek (2005)
• Slither (2006)

Also in this time a new phenomenon is Asian horror films which are slower paced, heavy thrills and draw heavily on the spirit instead of a material world focusing on ghosts and curses. They do not have so much of a logical plot which creates an aura of strangeness adding to there appeal. Although not popular yet with a mass audience this sub-genre is steadily growing.

As for the future who knows? Only time can tell...

Mind Map conventions of genre

individual analysis of scene

This is the opening sequence to Saw 1.

When the scene starts the lighting is very dark and non synchronous eerie music

can be heard, there is a Birds eye view shot of a mans face under water, there is

a lot of coughing and spluttering obviously coming from the man who is under the

water. The coughing is very frantic that gives you the idea that the man is scared.

The man then begins to scream 'Help' and sounds completely terrified while this is

going on the screen is completely black nothing can be seen you can just hear the

mans terrified cries for help. Another mans voice is hear his voice sounds very

husky as if he has a sore throat and he sounds more relaxed than the first man

but he says "there's no point in yelling, I've already tried that" which explains he

has been there and already tried shouting for help so although he is more relaxed

than the first man he still sounds very anxious but has calmed down.

The lights are turned on and the lights are very bright and hurts the mens eyes,

there is a panning shot to show the lights turning on one by one, and then a point

of view shot of the first man hiding his eyes from the light. The first man is wearing

a normal striped shirt with a white T-shirt underneath. The second man is wearing

a shirt and tie and patches of sweat can be seen under the arm pits and around

the neck, the seconds mans face also seems to have dirt on it.

We now see the setting of the scene and we see very dirty white tiles behind the

characters and very rusty pipes and a sink can be seen near the second man

and it looks full of grime, It looks like a very old bathroom.

There is then a point of view shot showing the first man and it is very blurry this is

as if the camera is showing what the second mans eyes are doing as they are

registering to the bright lights trying to get a glimpse of the first man.

There is then a tilt down to show what the men are looking at and there is a birds

eye view of a body laid on the floor tiles, with a lot of blood surrounding him.

There is then an extreme close up of the bodies head and then of his hand which

is holding a tape player and then to his other hand that is holding a gun.

The two men then realise they are chained to rusty pipes and cant move much,

there is terrifying screams from the second man while close ups of the chains

and padlocks are used to show the terror the man is going through.

I think this is a really good opening sequence because the audience will already

be freaked out and will want to know why the men are there and why they are

chained up.

Brief and group members!!!! :]

In my group there is myself, Sarah Lester, Anna Frostwick and Adam Strickland and we are going to create a horror film opening sequence.