The Gothic Horror Archetypes

In lesson, we were taught about Gothic horror archetypes and how and why horror films or stories attract people to watch or read. On below are the notes from the Powerpoint in lesson.

Gender In Horror

Women
Women are normally take the role of murdered for rule breaking and indiscretions in the past, but after years of playing screaming victims, women depict a more variety characters and portray something much more scary than before - repressed female anger. 

Female Horror Archetypes:
• Sex crazed bimbo
• Badass babe
• The smart one
• The bitch
• The invisible one
• The witch
• The postmodern 
• The final girl , for example: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Scream, The Ring, Jeepers Creepers, Saw II, etc.

Blondes:

• Slashers tend to prefer blondes
• There are different types of blonde - evil/ dumb/ innocent 

"Blondes make the best victims. They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints." 
(The Birds, Alfred Hitchcock)

Men

• Men are the expendable gender
• Men are neither supposed nor allowed to be dependent. They are expected to take care of others & themselves, when they cannot and will not do it, then the assumption at the heart of the culture is that they are somehow less than men and therefore unworthy of help. 

Double Standard: Abuse - Female on male

• It's humorous and funny?
• Retribution 
• Women aren't really strong enough to harm a man, unless a weak man
• Men have done something really bad to be injured by a woman
• Women would only resort to violence when necessary 

Why people attract to Horror?

• Temptation to play God?
• Interest/ fear of death
• The possibility of salvation
• The opportunity to see things that are taboo
• Affinity with the monster within us all
• Addressing mans inhumanity to man
• People like to be scared 

Target Audience 

• Male aged 14-35 years old
• The reason why they want to fear of someone or something is because they want an adrenaline rush 

In the past, horror films or TV series were mainly enjoyed by white male teens. But nowadays, the biggest demographic is women. For instance, the demographic for 'The Walking Dead' is female who aged 18-49 years old.

Horror is a great vehicle for this demographic because it...

• has a limited amount of ideas to be explored
• often features metaphors for life
• offers cautionary tales (horrific consequences of the actions of the protagonists)
• explores social commentary
• explores fear of the unknown
• explores awareness of our own mortality and death 
• feathers urban myths which attract them

Contemporary horror characters are indicative of postmodern society - antiheroes (Although they do bad things but for good reasons, therefore the audience forgives them). They tend to:

• Be confused & conflicted 
• Lie
• Be tough
• Not be graceful
• Have eccentricities 
• Function outside the mainstream & challenge it

Mood and atmosphere

In films or TV series, as they want to scare the audiences, they will use music and darkness to create a mystery and uncanny atmosphere or mood which helps to add excitement effect and dramatic tension. Darkness is correlative with unknown as we cannot see what is in the darkness and what will happened next.The use of dark colors in horror is related to the reason why a lot of people are afraid of being in the dark.