This is the surviving girl from the legendary slasher film Halloween, Jamie Lee Curtis. She is shown to be sexually retentive. She isn’t made to look sexy or desirable in any way. She is the ‘innocent virgin’. Note how in almost all the slasher films the surviving girl is just about the only girl to have NOT had sex. Halloween is one of the few films that developed this convention
This is an ideal example of the girl not sexually active is the girl who survives. This character is the surviving girl of scream. In one scene of the movie her boyfriend tries have sex with her she resists multiple times saying its not the right time .
From this we can gather that these films are trying to develop an ideology of literally: ‘teenage girls don’t have sex, your virginity is your life in this period of your lifetime’. The film is trying base an ideology in our minds so we can make these our own.
This is not a very common location however it has been used. The main point is that the conventions stay the same. Characters are on a boat trip they find a nice and small little island completely deserted, where they can have privacy and fun. But they soon find out that it was all good to be true and they are not alone on the island.
This would be a typical house used in a slasher movie.Where teenage students would be on a road trip, and would find this big spooky looking house and decide to squat for a few days, only to find terrible things happen.It’s a derelict house, with woodlands around it.
This would be a typical house used in a slasher movie. Where teenage students would be on a road trip, and would find this big spooky looking house and decide to squat for a few days, only to find terrible things happen.
This is a setting from the movie psycho directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is a fairly large house in the middle of nowhere, somewhere where if you screamed for help no one would hear. This movie set conventions for use of these sorts of houses in almost all slasher movies.
Analysis
One question that comes to mind is why the setting of slasher films usually consist of a house. The use of a ‘house’ has almost become a convention in all slasher films since Halloween. The reason behind this is easier to understand if you consider the effects of using a house. In modern day society we all accommodate ourselves in a house, flat or apartment, basically ‘a roof over our head’. We are all generally in our comfort zone when we are home, at home we feel more relaxed and free. The semiotic connotations of a home are safety, shelter and comfort. Now to have multiple murders happen in a house is bound to cause a panic. It goes against the ideology of the general public. This means that it clashes with the ideology of the majority causing them to panic and feel unsettled. Having a monster kill people in the house will have a lot more impact than having the monster kill a person on the streets, as a murder on the streets is accepted by society because it makes sense within their ideology.
