Testing Burtons Theory

Burton's theory from Da_Bhoy

 In class we looked at commenalities found within film genres and the various elements used which defines and helps us identifies specific genres. To help us with this we looked at Burton's genre theory, which sets out five key elements that make up the horror genre:
 1) The protaganists in the film (main characters)
 2) The stock characters
 3) The plot and stock characters (how the stock characters all fit into the pliot/story line)
 4) Iconography- icons we associate with the horror genre e.g. An isolated, old house.
 5) The setting of the film and how it used to suggest a certain theme or genre.

Does Burton's Theory work?

 In looking at conventional elements there are a number of commonalities for the horror genre. This proves te theory of repetition and variation as well as genres having specific features. A balance of repetitiona nd variation is vital to the sucsess of a movie. From looking at 5 different movies I have concluded the following; all five horror movies focus greatly on the appearance of the protaganist (mainly disfigurements such as Freddy's burns or claws)which highlights their derangement and seperation from society as they are considered monsters and outcasts among normal people.
All protaganists have a back story also, e.g. Esther from 'Orphan' is actually a 33 year old woman named Leena Klammer who has a condition called hypopituitarism.
This therefore gives the protaganists motives to do what they do, almost as if they are getting revenge on soceity for their misfortune, this theme is common in many other horror movies (Saw, Nightmare on Elm Street ect.)

 Secondly, Stock characters are generally used as a representation of society as a whole, for example typical characters can be noted such as the The popular girl, the jock and the final girl (the Scream films provide a good example of this- the popular girl is the ditzy, big boobed blonde , a character for males to admire(Mulvey's male gaze) who's time in the movie is short lived as she is often caught out by Ghostface at the beggining of the movie. The wanderer in these movies shares a similar fate to the Popular Girl in that they try to take on the killer but go in the most dangerous of places (in the woods, upstairs ect) and end up getting slaughtered. The icons used in the horror genre, are generally tools that are used to disguise or mask an individual's (the protaganist's) identity. For example Ghostface's famous scream mask is used a key part of the movie as it has the role of hiding the killer and therefore creating fear of the killer and getting the audience questioning and thinking about who the killer is.

Although the movie has the same plot each time, the main thing that changes is the fact the killer is different each time- the stock characters are very much the same and aid the killer in getting what they want. The fact the killer is behind a mask provides a fear of the unknown. The settings used in horror films are normally a danger in themselves, although somewhat different from each other e.g. a normal high school with average teenage kid's is used in Scream 4 whereas films like Saw focus predominantly in isolated chambers or cabins which are full of dangerous objects and very isolated in a place where no help can be recieved (the chamber's are isolated in Jigsaw's lair)