To further my understanding of the key elements of the horror genre i will find a synopsis of an arbitrary horror film and highlight the key elements, I will use a key to show which colour corresponds with each key element. I will then do this a second time with a different horror film and compare and contrast my findings to test how many similarities and dissimilarities there are.
Key
Protagonists
Stock Characters
Plots and Stock Situations
Backgrounds and Decor
Themes
Icons
Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) and her brother, Franklin (Paul A. Partain), travel with three friends, Jerry (Allen Danziger), Kirk (William Vail) and Pam (Teri McMinn), to a cemetery containing the grave of the Hardesty's grandfather. They aim to investigate reports of vandalism and corpse-defilement. Afterward, they decide to visit an old Hardesty family homestead, and on the way, the group picks up a hitchhiker (Edwin Neal). The man speaks and acts bizarrely, and then slashes himself and Franklin with a straight razor before the group forces him out of the van. They later stop at a gas station to refuel, but the proprietor (Jim Siedow) tells them that the
pumps are empty, and they continue to the homestead, intending to return to the gas station later after a fuel truck makes its delivery. Franklin tells Kirk and Pam about a local swimming hole, and the couple head off to find it. Instead, they stumble upon a nearby house; Kirk calls out asking for gas, while Pam waits on the front steps.
Receiving no answer but finding the door unlocked, Kirk enters the house, where Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) suddenly appears and kills him. Pam enters soon after, finding the house filled with furniture made from human bones. She attempts to flee, but Leatherface catches her before she can escape, impaling her on a meathook. At sunset, Sally's boyfriend Jerry heads out from the old Hardesty house to look for the others. Finding the couple's blanket outside the house, he investigates and finds Pam still alive inside a freezer. Before he can react, Leatherface appears and murders him, stuffing Pam back inside the freezer afterward.
With darkness falling, Sally and Franklin set out to find their friends. As they near the killer's house, calling for the others, Leatherface lunges out of the darkness and murders Franklin with a chainsaw. Sally escapes to the house, finding the desiccated remains of an elderly couple in an upstairs room. She escapes from Leatherface by jumping through a second floor window and continues to flee, eventually arriving at the gas station. As she reaches it, Leatherface disappears into the night. The proprietor at first calms her with offers of help, then binds her with rope and forces her into his truck. He drives to the house, arriving at the same time as the hitchhiker, who turns out to be Leatherface's younger brother. When the pair bring Sally inside, the hitchhiker recognizes and taunts her.
The men torment the bound and gagged Sally, while Leatherface, now dressed as a woman, serves dinner. Leatherface and the hitchhiker bring an old man from upstairs to the table to join the meal. During the night, they decide Sally should be killed by "Grandpa" (John Dugan), out of respect for his work at the slaughter house when he was younger. "Grandpa" is too weak to hit Sally with a hammer, repeatedly dropping it. In the confusion, Sally breaks free, leaps through a window and escapes from the house, running out onto the road. Leatherface and the hitchhiker give chase, but the hitchhiker is run down and killed by a passing semi-trailer truck. Armed with his chainsaw, Leatherface attacks the truck when the driver stops to help, and is hit in the face with a large wrench wielded by the driver. Sally escapes in the bed of a passing pickup truck as Leatherface waves the chainsaw above his head in frustration.
On June 13, 1980, a young Jason Voorhees (Caleb Guss) witnesses his mother (Nana Visitor) beheaded by a camp counselor (Stephanie Rhodes) who was trying to escape Mrs. Voorhees's murderous rampage around Camp Crystal Lake. Approximately 30 years later, a group of vacationing friends—Wade (Jonathan Sadowski), Richie (Ben Feldman), Mike (Nick Mennell), Whitney (Amanda Righetti) and Amanda (America Olivo)—arrive at Crystal Lake on a camping trip to find some marijuana that was planted in the woods. As Mike and Whitney explore the abandoned Crystal Lake camp, an adult Jason (Derek Mears) begins to kill the rest of the group one-by-one. Jason also kills Mike, but he spares Whitney and decides to kidnap her because she resembles his mother at a young age.
Six weeks later, Trent (Travis Van Winkle), along with his girlfriend Jenna (Danielle Panabaker), and their friends Bree (Julianna Guill), Chewie (Aaron Yoo), Chelsea (Willa Ford), Nolan (Ryan Hansen) and Lawrence (Arlen Escarpeta) arrive at Trent's summer cabin, which sits on Crystal Lake. The group is unaware of the events that occurred a few weeks prior. Additionally, Clay Miller (Jared Padalecki) arrives in town to search Crystal Lake for his sister Whitney, whom he believes to be alive. Clay eventually makes his way to Trent's cabin, where Jenna agrees to help him look for his sister on the other side of the lake. As Clay and Jenna search for clues to Whitney's disappearance, Jason kills Nolan and Chelsea, who are wakeboarding on the lake. Clay and Jenna reach the old Crystal Lake campgrounds, where they witness Jason hauling a dead body into one of the abandoned camp houses.
The pair run back to warn the others about Jason, who arrives shortly after them and cuts the power to the cabin. After killing Chewie and Lawrence, who ventured outside the house, Jason sneaks inside the cabin and kills Bree. Trent, Clay and Jenna escape the house, but Trent is killed when he reaches the main road. Jason then chases Clay and Jenna back to the campgrounds, where Clay discovers Jason's lair and finds his sister chained to the wall. Clay frees Whitney, and all three attempt to escape as Jason arrives. The trio find an exit, but Jenna is killed before she can get out. Jason comes after Clay and Whitney, but Whitney uses Jason's love and memory of his mother—by pretending to be Mrs. Voorhees—to distract him long enough to stab him in the chest with his own machete. Afterward, Clay dumps Jason's lifeless body into the lake. Before he and Whitney can leave, Jason bursts through the wooden dock and grabs Whitney.
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