Representation of Gender:

Although we only have two characters in our film opening, the stereotypes and representations of gender are clearly displayed in our victim and villain.

The stereotypes of males are that they are strong, dominant, in control, more violent and have power over women. The stereotypes of females are that they are weaker, more vulnerable, more emotional and can be under the control of a man.
Our two characters conform to these stereotypes as the villain is expressing his power over the victim and feels like he has the right to end her life as punishment for being a prostitute and becoming pregnant.

In horror films, the villain is often a male as they are seen as more threatening, more scary and therefore more likely to be capable of harming people without feeling guilty. The victims will generally be females as they are more innocent and vulnerable and will be easier to 'be murdered' by a man.

The fact that our victim is a female also ties in with what people first think about prostitutes as she is wearing revealing clothing and is hanging around in a dodgy area, if we chose a male to be the victim it wouldn't be as obvious and might confuse our audience which isn't really our aim.

People look down on prostitution and dismiss those who work in the field and in the media they are mostly portrayed in a negative light and that they like what they do, which is true for some cases but we wanted to show the other side, how some are forced into it and don't have a choice, making the audience feel sympathetic for them, which they wouldn't usually do.

Representation of Age (social groups)

In our opening, the killer is around 28 years old because he is a doctor and this requires years of training. The victim is 19 years old, we wanted her to be a teenager to make her seem weaker, but also to shock the audience that she is a prostitute who is early into pregnancy.

Our group wanted there to be a distinction between their ages to emphasize his power and intelligence juxtaposing her desperation and vulnerability. A stereotypical convention of any killer/victim films is for the killer to be older than the victim to purposely connote experience and wisdom. This makes the killer seem more intelligent and tactful so the audience believe the killer will get the victim. For example, Jigsaw from the Saw films is significantly older than the victims (who are usually teenagers to 30 year olds).

Other films which conform the convention of the killer being older than the victim(s) include The Collection (2012) and The Human Centipede (2009) which are two films that are similar to ours. The TV series Hannibal also presents this convention. Both the antagonists are well-educated and use that to kill victims. In both films the killers 'collect' parts of their victims and sculpt them into insects. This is similar to our film opening with the killer collecting his victims' foetuses.










For example, in Hannibal the killer used to be a surgeon but instead became a psychiatrist, playing with the victim's mind whilst killing people. In The Human Centipede, the villain is a retired doctor who is fascinated in joining human beings together.








However, some horror films which subvert these conventions are Scream 4 (2011) and Let Me In (2010) where the antagonists are younger so they seem less likely to be the killers because they are assumed to be not as intelligent or tactful as older people.

Representation of Sexuality within our film opening

Thinking about the representation of different themes within our film opening, I decided to look at the way that sexuality is explored within the final product that we have created.

Sexuality is actually a very big part of the representation within this film opening, shown using both of the characters, but in two very different ways.

The victim, being a prostitute, presents herself as an overtly sexual object, enhanced by the fact that she sells herself for money. Shown in the film opening to be wearing revealing clothing, of which she hides with a coat, coloured red to represent the artificial love and lust that is present in her job, and heavy makeup, it is clear that she is comfortable with her sexuality, and uses it to survive in her world.

Completely contrasting to this view, the killer is very inward and distasteful of anything sexual. He keeps a diary full of his thoughts on the subject, going over and over how "dirty" it is to be associated with anything of that context, repeatedly calling his victims "whores", judging them for the way that they live their lives. He even kills his victims for being like this, collating the foetus' of their unborn children with the intention of "protecting" them from this vulgar way of life.

The idea of sexuality being explored more within this film, if it were to be continued, would be an interesting subject to look into, creating more of a depth to the story line. I like that within our film opening of A + E, it not only depicts most of the conventions of a slasher film, but also touches on controversial issues that could be looked into further, if the film was to be developed more.