Video Clip When Michael is lurking outside where Annie is babysitting, his face is hidden from the camera – 20 seconds
Presenter: “My characters aren’t created by me, but by the fears of everyone else” (item 11) is a statement which all other directors try and follow, they develop their characters to feed on modern issues and fears. Subjects such as kidnapping and rape have helped directors develop their characters over time. In my opinion, to truly understand what started Horror to what it is today and the developments it has taken, we have to look at Hammer Horror. “After Universal, Hammer ruled the waves when it came to horror” (item 7).
Projector Article on how Hammer horror are remaking there movies. (item 7)
Presenter Hammer horror is the primary reason why we enjoy Horror so much today. Without Hammer horror, killers such as Frankenstein and Dracula would have all been forgotten.
Projector List of Dracula films from A-Z of Horror films (item 6)
Presenter I bet many of you haven’t seen half the movies on this list, to be honest, neither have I had the chance to watch them either. The only one that sticks out to me is the 1958 version of Dracula produced my Hammer horror (item 2 is an example). One of the main reasons is that starting from the earlier Dracula (item 2), the character of Dracula has been greatly developed with things such as, blood shot eyes, long black cape and menacing glare.
Projector Close up of Dracula when he is about to attempt to kill Mina – 2 seconds.
Presenter I think we can both agree that it is a lot scarier than the original. Although saying this, in these times audiences would have been scared. Another reason for the developed killer is so popular is the actor playing the role. Christopher Lee was a icon back in the late 50’s, mainly for playing Dracula, but now developments in the genre have led to more over the top actors playing these roles, such as Bruce Campbell “The B-Movie king” (item 7).
Projector Highlighted lines showing how Bruce Campbell’s role in the Evil Dead developed the B-Movie – 5 seconds.
Presenter Bruce Campbell helped develop the B-Movie craze and with that the B-Movie killer, which was very popular in the 80’s. We must thank him for helping in B-Movies such as The Evil Dead and Chopping Mall, two of my favourite movies of all time. The killers in these movies were vastly different from killers in the past. Without B-Movies we would be without many modern Horrors, one of these is Reeker (item 3)
Video Clip Reeker killing Cookie in the outhouse – 20 seconds
Presenter Produced in 2006, Reeker is a completely animated killer; basically he’s a killer that can only be found by the sense of smell. Thanks to CGI, killers like this have been able to be created. CGI is a major development for a horror director as they can really develop and change their killers. If we compare Halloween’s Micheal Myers;
Projector Medium close up of the figure of Micheal Myers
Presenter To the killer in Reeker;
Projector Medium close up of Reeker’s figure
Presenter We can clearly see several differences in appearance, one is completely realistic and is a killer we can understand, this being Myers and the other is equipped with a gas mask, a blade instead of a hand. This isn’t your typical killer, again we can clearly see the developments that the horror killer has taken. This is mainly due to the fact that audiences are constantly changing.
Projector Projected image of list of female killers (item 11) – Always on while I discuss it.
Presenter I don’t know if you guys noticed, but all the killers I have been discussing are all male. As you see from this timeline, (item 11) the first horror film to use a female killer was Metropolis. Metropolis focused on a female/ robot killer, this was revolutionary for it’s time. Female killers have been vastly developed over the years and have changed the representation they were given in many horror films, mainly as the scared character that can’t fend for them self. The majority of horror killers are still male driven and there has been little development in increasing the number of horror movies where the killer is female.
Projector Empire article on Zombies (item 9)
Presenter At least half of you would have watched some sort of Zombie film in your time, even if it’s Shaun of the dead to dawn of the dead (item 4) it’s still classed as a zombie film. This article focuses in on how there are too many zombie films being “Churned out so even the horror fanatic is bored” (item 9). The article states at one point that zombie movies are being churned out.
Video Clip Stephen pushing Peter around the clothing store taking out zombies one by one- 15 seconds.
Presenter I completely disagree as in my opinion although they are similar each have their own unique and distinct bits, and one director who made use of this was George. A. Romero. George. A. Romero, one of the most successful zombie directors, created a trilogy of movies which really enhanced the zombie genre in the 80’s. One of these movies was Dawn of the dead (item 4).
Video Clip Stephen with his last bullet shooting himself while the zombie hordes head towards him – 30 secs
Presenter This film, and also Night of the living dead, was the benchmark for all other zombie movies to follow. They took a simple concept and made it into one of the most terrifying killers today. But this is one of the downfalls of the movie, because it is so simple, many people have copied the idea of zombies but have not developed them in anyway, making them very boring for the spectator. “The zombie franchise is far from dead, this is a bad sign for reviewers like us” (item 7
Audio Credit sequence from Halloween (item 1) – Play until finished.
Presenter Well, I hope you guys enjoyed the presentation and that you all learnt a couple of things. I hope you realised that the horror killer is always continuously being developed, and for that we have to thanks movies such as Halloween and Reeker. Thanks for listening and long live horror.
