The technique of using a mask is very clever. It’s very disturbing. When we watch these slasher movies for e.g. Halloween we wonder why it is he is masked. What’s wrong with his face? This makes us feel disturbed and makes us feel we have lost all sense of security. The mask disconnects us and the killer in everyway; we cannot see emotions or expressions, just a cold hearted killer.
It is safe to say Halloween, the most influential movie of the slasher genre, started this clever technique of using a mask.
This character is ‘leatherhead’ from the movie the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He is masked and in the movie he makes disturbing noises that of an animal however does not speak like a normal human. Again making us lose that sense of safety.
Research has shown that when we see a masked person many assumptions are made in our imagination to what we see behind the mask. Research shows that people who are looking at a masked character and wondering whose face is behind the mask, are actually imagining the face of someone they very much dislike or are scared of. Therefore this is a very useful convention used in slasher movies to unsettle the mind.
This is the killer from the scream movies. The mask being worn here is now a globally available item. In the slasher genre movie’s, the use of a mask is almost inevitable. If not a mask the killer is always shown to be abnormal, different from the norm.
This killer has an altered voice. He has voice that is made to sound disturbing. This is one other convention of slasher movies, because this voice is not normal. Another very commonly used convention is the killer not having a voice at all. Meaning all their cold hearted murderous actions do the speaking for them. A great example would Halloween where Mike Myers as an adult does not utter a word. This in turn makes us feel even more scared and abnormal, as we cannot make any assumptions of the killer, letting our imagination go wild.
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