Locations in slasher & horror films

The Hills Have Eyes' (2006) location is set in a desert area where a family's car has broken down. There are hills surrounding this desert and people living in them; watching the family, but the family are unaware of this until later in the film. This is a typical horror and slasher convention whereby they are oblivious of the other people within this secluded location makes it atmosphere more tense for the audience because they know something the characters do not. The desert idea is good because you don't normally believe much can happen there because there are limited resources so no one could survive for a lengthy period of time there. However, because there are people living there and they are indeed surviving, this frightens the audience because it makes them begin thinking about how powerful and resilient these killers must be.

The next location is from Halloween 2 (2009) and it is on the night of halloween and the killer is talking to a small boy. There is a white picket fence behind them decorated with lights and this gives us the idea of a perfect family home with a front garden and a white picket fence like in most American family film conventions. However, it is dark and you cannot see the killer very much because he is wearing dark clothing so he blends in with the darkness of the night - another slasher convention. The contrast between the perfect family home/suburb phrase for this film is "Family is forever") and the dark night and killer's dark clothing is often used in slashers to scare, and perhaps confuse, the audience.

Other films which include the 'perfect' American-style home are The Orphan and Hide and Seek:

 

In Saw 7 (2010), again, we see a lot of contrasting. A man is set up in a Saw-style act where there is a buzz saw which is going to saw him. He is in a shop window in a busy shopping centre and the colour of the shop window is white which represents innocence, purity and cleanliness which is the opposite of what is happening in this scene.

In Gothika (2003), the woman's husband kills women in their home. This is terrifying for both the audience and the woman because the murders are literally 'close to home' - they seem realistic. The hallway is covered in blood and there is writing on the doors, "Not Alone" written using blood. Murders taking place in a home and writing in blood are two very common slasher conventions.

Another slasher convention is to have a basement in a home where murders happen. In Evil Dead (2012), there is a basement in a remote cabin. There are dead animals hanging from the ceiling and it is very dark and dirty which creates the illusion that the killer was twisted and ruthless.



In many Slasher and horror films, there are often contrasts made between the settings and what is actually happening there, and there are contrasts between colours and mise en scene in that it gives the audience the idea of something good is about to happen or a calm atmosphere, when in fact what is happening is the opposite. Or, the mise en scene matches what is happening, and this helps intensify the horror and repulsion.