Generic influences

Session 3

‘Jennifer’s Body’ was perhaps the most important influence used in the short film, rather than the other previous short films or feature length films that we had watched, in order to assist us with creating the short film. The conclusion of the plot for our short film is similar to the one of ‘Jennifer’s Body’ as the antagonist eliminates the protagonist by killing them. However, in terms of the character’s persona for the antagonist, she is not perceived to be the character that everyone ‘wants to be friends with’. This is the distinctive contrast made between the antagonist of ‘Jennifer’s body’ and the antagonist used for the ‘Fallen Apples Productions’ short film. The persona of the antagonist in the short film is shy and quite reclusive. We decided to create this type of persona because It adds to the ‘whodunnit’ element in the film, which is very much used in the horror genre; the audience are always left to decide who killed who.

The storyline and location in this feature film are strongly linked, which is will also be used in our short film. The location of the school introduces the audience to both the antagonist and protagonist. However, it is the location of the woods that will bring the antagonist and protagonist head to head.

Feature film influences; ‘Jennifer’s Body’

Conventional character types and Subversive character types

‘The Final Girl’ - http://www.horror-movies.ca/horror_16446.html‘’ For the uninitiated, “The Final Girl” is exactly what you think it is. Like Halloween (78) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (84), it was the last surviving member of the horrifying ordeal who happened to be a girl. In many ways, she varied from her peers in the film due to her cunning and of course, her preoccupation with anything else besides just getting laid’’.

The conventional character type for a female in a horror film is the character role of ‘The Final Girl’. The Final girl is presented as smart intelligent and is usually of a good moral character. For our short film we will be maintaining the concept of ‘The Final Girl’, however she is cunning and defeats the protagonist in the end. The plot type used for the short film will be subversive to the conventional conclusion for a horror film because the protagonist will not defeat the antagonist. This is a rare conclusion for horror films. Furthermore, this type of conclusion for conventional horror feature films signifies to the audience that another sequence of the film is yet to come again and that the antagonists story is not finished.