Archetypal Characters Within the Slasher Film Sub-Genre Essay -- Film

Archetypal Characters Within the Slasher video Sub-GenreOne of the most telling traits of a society is how it entertains itself. Although Americans of the late ordinal century have many choices for distraction, one medium has had a particularly significant impact upon the fabric of American culture film. Through pandering to the ideas and beliefs of the audience, filmmakers analogue those ideas and beliefs in their creations. This correlation was demonstrated in the glut of so-called slasher films during the uttermost 1974-1984. Although the films were diverse in form and execution, the basic plot of these moving-picture shows involved whatever sort of deranged psychopath gleefully stalking and killing a number of unfortunate teenage victims. Within this sub-genre there can be found a number of basic character styles, or archetypes. These archetypes non only serve to bind certain movies into the slasher category, but withal to raise a window into the culture that they cater to.In order to give up a specific example of each archetype, I have chosen four films that are exemplary of the overall sub-genre. Tobe Hoopers The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) tells the tier of a van full of traveling teenagers and their run-in with a family of backwoods cannibals. John Carpenters Halloween (1978) has killer Michael Myers strangling baby-sitters on the night of said movie title. Sean Cunninghams Friday the 13th (1980) looses a hockey-masked psychopath upon a host of unsuspecting dwell counselors. Finally, Tobe Hoopers The Funhouse (1981) finds four teens trapped in a carnival with a bloody sideshow freak.The most evident archetype within the slasher sub-genre is the Virgin. Usually the Virgin is the promoter of the film, a female tee... ... of the sub-genre that began with the Wes Cravens Scream (1994). These films are not only aid to carry the archetypes of Halloween and Friday the 13th to a new generation of moviegoers, but also updating them as the cu lture has updated itself. Despite the changes some form of these archetypes entrust continue to exist, no matter how much American society alters. As long as a teenager yearns for the adrenaline rush from a masked murderer, slasher films and their archetypes will endure.Works CitedHalloween. Dir. John Carpenter, with Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis. Falcon Productions, 1978.Friday the 13th. Dir. Sean Cunningham. Paramount, 1980.The Funhouse. Dir Tobe Hooper. Universal, 1981.McCarthy, Ken. The spit Film Guide. New York St. Martins Press, 1992.The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Dir Tobe Hooper. Rosebud Communications, 1974.