Mise en Scene in Slasher

We decided to look at slasher films and I looked at Mise en Scene in particular. I thought about how I wanted the killer in our slasher to come across. Firstly, I thought back to conventions of slasher films and about how the killers often are masked, due to disfigurement or wanting to hide their identity. I looked into the different killers from many slashers, including Jason Voorhees from ‘Friday the 13^th’ and Ghostface from ‘Scream’, as well as some less well-known faces such as those from ‘The Strangers’ and the killer from ‘The Collector’.

We also saw that killers are often wearing masks that resemble clowns or dolls and also seem to be Halloween themed – like Michael Myers in ‘Halloween’.

I went to Asda and looked in the Halloween section for clown masks and came across a doll-faced plastic mask at a low cost. I thought the mask already looked creepy and was perfect for our killer. I also purchased fake blood to splatter across the mask to add to the slasher theme.

Here are the finished results, with use of under lighting to cast shadows on the face in order to add more mystery and suspense to the character.

Another important aspect of a killer in a slasher film is the killer’s choice of weapon. During research, I found many different types of weapon. For example, Leatherface usually uses a chainsaw (hence the Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Freddy Krueger has a glove which has knives for fingers and Michael Myers from Halloween often uses a butchers knife.

We had to think of something original but easy to make at a low cost. We wanted it to be something that hadn’t been previously used but that would also do a lot of damage to a victim. We firstly thought of a trap-like construction, like in the Saw films. But after trying to develop this idea we abandoned it as it would cost too much and we don’t have the tools or skills to make such contraptions.

Instead, we wanted something signature like a knife or machete. We then considered something normal like a golf-club or bat, to make the killer seem more realistic. After all, if you make something normal seem petrifying, it’s going to affect the audience more and make them feel terrified. We then thought of a weapon like the one pictured below, a bat with nails sticking out the end, with bits of meat and blood splattered across it. Unfortunately, we couldn't source a bat at a low enough cost and so we decided to think of another weapon. Whilst searching through a toolbox I came across a rusty old hand-saw. Immediately I thought of 'The Strangers' and how they used normal every-day items to torment their victims.

 

Here are the finished results:

I think the saw and the mask work well together, for me it makes the character seem simply mad, perhaps just killing for the fun of it, much like the characters in 'The Strangers'