Typical characters of horror genre

Depending on the subgenre of horror you are producing will affect which typical characters
you will see, some are universal where as some are conventional to a specific sub genre

The Protagonist - The protagonist is just our main character, the one we follow throughout
the film, they tend to be the final survivor and battle the antagonist at the end of the film,
usually winning the battle and later leading to either a normal life afterwards, or traumatised
by the events suffering from numerous issues afterwards

(These two intertwine)

The Final Girl - The final girl is probably one of the most typical characters for the horror
genre as women are portrayed to be the most vulnerable and having them as a final
character and overall hero directly contrasts typical gender roles. The final girl role is more
seen within horrors of the slasher variety, for example within Halloween, you have Laurie
Strode, within A Nightmare on Elm Street you have Nancy Thompson, a final girl can be a
universal character for horror films, be it slasher, or zombie, or supernatural, but is more
typical for that of the slasher variety of horror film.

The Jock - The jock is typically the stereotypical male character, they're athletic and are very
cocky, they are arrogant and usually rude they are the type of person you would expect to be
the hero, the one to kill the antagonist or save the day, but they usually go through a large
amount of character development and sacrifice themselves, or die a meaningless death as
filler for a body count. Examples of this would be Billy Hitchcock, and Curt Vaughn from Final
destination and Cabin In The Woods

The Couple - the couple are a duo, as specified by their name, they usually have a fight and
get separated from each other, or wander off from one another during an intimate scene,
which is very conventional for the genre, this allows for them both to die in a quick way, like
the jock, they may survive to be the with the final girl at the ending, or may both die, like the
jock as filler for a films body count. Horror film couples could also be a couple of killers, such
as within You’re Next where the attack on the house was arranged by a couple within the
family. good examples of horror film couples would be ​Billy Loomis & Sidney Prescott from
Scream or Frankenstein's Monster and Frankenstein's Wife. Within scream, Billy does
Betray Sidney as he is the killer, but throughout they do play the couple role

Cannon Fodder - These characters are literally there to be Cannon Fodder, they are thrown
in as usually the first to die, and to die throughout merely to slow the killer down so our more
important characters can escape, they can slow them down by fighting back to an inevitable
death, or just suffering from an agonizingly slow death, or an over the top one, either way,
these characters are only placed within the film, just to suffer and slow down the killer, or are
just thrown into the film for a basic kill to engage audiences, such as Barry at the start of the
first Friday The 13th

The Skeptic - this is a character who acts like the cannon fodder who usually has one of two
things that happen, they die pretty quickly within the film as they do not believe in
supernatural entities or killers within the area they are in, either until they see a friend die
and are driven insane and proceed to be killed off, or they believe the killer or entity is just
their friends pranking them, and are then killed off. For example within the film Hellfest, The
character Taylor does not believe the killer is there until she is face to face with him, as he
tries to kill her, but she luckily escapes before he can.
The Expositioners - They are typically a character who is not part of the initial victim group,
they tend to come across the main cast, heeding warnings, or seeming paranoid, the group
tend to either ignore them, listen and just call them crazy, or just blatantly ignore them, this
leads to that character either continuing to wander away, kill themselves, or then be killed off
screen with their corpse found later on. The texas chainsaw massacre is a good example of
this kind of character as they are in a large amount of the films, for example the 2003 reboot
where the hitchhiker covered in blood, shoots herself through the mouth after clearly
seeming paranoid and warning the characters. And with the first film we have Nubbins
Sawyer, who is the deranged hitchhiker who cuts himself and another in the car before being
ditched and still warning them about what lies ahead

The Antagonist - The antagonist within the horror film is the key part to making this film
scary, depending on sub genre will affect who your antagonist is, slasher will make it a
psychotic deranged killer, Mystery could make it a clever murderer, Sci Fi would be an alien,
Psychological could just be an imagination and the killer could possibly have been the main
character all along, zombie would be zombies, Supernatural would be a ghost or a demon,
and found footage could be any of those, it all depends on genre, and slasher has given us
some of the most iconic horror names in history.
Conventional Narratives - Within most horror films the narrative stays the same, no matter
the Sub-Genre, your base premis is some form of antagonist, be it a supernatural entity, a
slasher, zombies, etc. is killing off or tormenting people within a specific area. It is down to
our main group of survivors, typically consisting of one or multiple of the conventional
characters, to figure out who or what is committing the murders and many will die on, i.e. For
a slasher such as Halloween we have a psychotic murderer going around and killing or
tormenting many people, and within a supernatural film such as truth or dare, most people
die due to the effects caused by a demon, it shows how the Sub-Genres affect the ways
people die, and how the base narrative turns out, but the base normally always stays the
same, group of survivors affected by some entity be it mortal or supernatural and is killing
them off one by one or tormenting them until they leave, the base always stays the same.

Realism vs Fake - Majority of Horror films are unrealistic as they are made to scare, many
writers find it much easier to write a story which is completely made up as it can take you
down numerous pathways and different storylines until the writer is happy with their final
product, whereas with a film based on true events, many writers will find it harder to go about
actually producing a script for it as there is no creative freedom with it, because you already
have a set storyline, with a beginning, middle and end, not much can be changed about said
story in order to maintain the realism. Many horror films based on true events have been
good, for example Silence Of The Lambs, or The Conjuring 2 were both very successful
films. Having a film based off a real event can produce many great films, some of which
could win awards, but due to the lack of creativity you can have with it due to it having a set
story already, it can be a lot harder to write about, despite providing audiences with a more
nerve racking time because what they are seeing is a visual representation of a real life
horror, but is not done as often as it could be due to it being hard to write around.

Sub-Genres

Slasher - Slasher films are probably the easiest to talk about as they tend to follow the base
narrative much more obviously than other Sub-Genres. The main plot is some form of
psychotic killer is hunting down a group of survivors, killing each one off one by one until a
select few or only one remain, some slashers do this in different ways, getting more creative
such as saw utilising innovative devices to torture his victims unless they can be saved in
time which they tend to not be, they are usually killed well before they can be saved and
done so in terrifying innovative ways. But other slashers, such as Child's Play, Halloween,
Friday the 13th, are all, blatantly follow the base narrative, we have iconic psychotic killers
with their iconic weapons and soundtracks, in iconic locations, all hunting down a select few
survivors before battling the final survivor, more conventionally a girl giving us the “Final Girl”
convention for the slasher genre, and losing until being brought back within another sequel.
For examples of iconic pieces of slasher films we have, Jason's Machete, Mike Myers piano
soundtrack, Chucky’s knife etc. Slashers consist of nearly every single conventional
character for the genres.

Supernatural - Supernatural horror films are very similar to horror, rather than having specific
iconic locations will have iconic designs for said entities and demons, Supernatural horrors
tend to deal with a different entity in each film, especially within sequels since said entities
tend to be “Banished” within the previous one, Said entities are usually evil spirits, or
demons, their designs are usually hidden unless said entity reveals themselves in the film,
for example within the film paranormal activity we never actually see the entity, we just watch
it torment this family through its security system, driving them out of the house, or within The
Exorcist where the demon Pazuzu reveals itself and as it torments this poor girl taking over
her body and making her do unnatural and terrifying things, such as her head spinning
around. Supernatural horror films are very similar to slashers in many ways and will also
typically utilise ach conventional horror character.

Psychological horror - Psychological horrors are made to mess with your mind, they tend to
follow the base narrative but with a large amount more torment, throughout the film you are
made to be on edge and placed within your own fears, they try and convince you to be afraid
rather than just throwing it jumpscares they actively immerse you within the films universe
and evoke a real response within audiences by scaring them. Most psychological films tend
to have very iconic characters and tend to be standalone films using a vast amount of artistic
imagery to further confuse and immerse audiences to bring them more fear as they mess
with the audience's mind. They tend to account for a very select few of characters, it could
be a couple who are the protagonists, and they tend to have a skeptic to further the
psychological aspect making the characters and us believe its all in our heads furthering that
psychological fear.

Found Footage - Found footage films are usually made to be the most fear inducing for a
number of reasons, films such as “The Blair Witch Project” were originally marketed as
actual found footage, and marketed as very real, which made more audiences curious and
scared building a heavier hype for the films release. They are also shot from a POV shot,
which makes it seem more real, as we witness our characters lost in the woods slowly going
more and more insane, to their possible death in the end where the “Blair Witch” attacks
them at the end. This Sub-Genre follows the base narrative like all sub genres do as we
witness our characters scared and confused as they try and figure out stuff and slowly go
insane to their inevitable demise. They tend to have a smaller cast so will have a very small
amount of the conventional characters, more likely consisting of The protagonist and
antagonist, accompanied by The Couple, or some cannon fodder, and occasionally an
expositioner.
Zombie - Zombie films are a Sub-Genre of horror, as well as Sci-Fi, Like the other
Sub-Genres their base narrative is following a group of survivors until a select few are left,
and we are left with our final main protagonist fighting off hordes of zombies until they are
rescued. Unlike other genres they tend to be standalone films, some occasionally getting a
sequel and also tend to be hybrid films, some do have iconic character design such as
Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead, which are both hybrid genres, but each character has
an iconic design and is very recognisable. They do tend to have many of the conventional
characters, and usually lack a skeptic.

Sci-fi Horror - Now may argue this is not a subgenre of horror but rather a hybrid, but I beg to
differ, as Sci-Fi films and horror are very different and when you combine the two you come
much closer to producing a horror film rather than a sci fi, most sci fi films tend to have large
casts, and large settings, yet sci fi horror films very rarely have large casts, they tend to
consist of a small circle of characters like a traditional horror, all of whom are suffering at the
hands of an antagonist, usually a single sci-fi entity, such as the Xenomorphs from Alien, or
the Predators from Predator. Or the film is set in space and the antagonist has been bought
aboard unknowingly, like within Jason X.

Disaster horror - Disaster horror films are films which revolve around natural or man made
disasters, such as plagues, viruses, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes etc. they use these
natural disasters to portray a very realistic horror, usually basing themselves off real natural
disasters, such as Pompeii and other natural disasters. The films that are produced dont
always revolve around actual natural disasters which have occurred, but utilises imagery and
real person stories to influence how they are made, and deaths and the overall setting.

Film World
The film world is something that is very effective within the horror genre, and within all sub
genres. The film world is key to understanding the films narrative as well as evoking the fear
in audiences, the world is usually in very familiar locations, locations in which you are
supposed to feel safe, and then turn those places into their own deathtraps. These worlds
revolve around areas from the killers backstories so people are more able to understand the
films narratives, be it Haddonfield from Halloween, which is a suburban neighbourhood, a
very nice one at that, places like suburbs are where you are supposed to feel safe, and yet
Halloween makes it into an area where, you cannot, as it shows how easily one can trap
themselves within their own home, and be murdered, as well as how easy it actually is to
break into a house, and how little you would have to defend yourself, your home is supposed
to be an area where you feel safe, yet Halloween makes you feel like you cannot, and it ties
in with the backstory of Michael Myers as it was the area in which he grew up. Along with
that, we have Friday the 13th’s Camp Crystal Lake, the setting of a camp makes it very
uneasy, as a camp is a place you send children for summer, to be happy and have a good
time, and is seen to be a safe place to send off your children yet, Friday the 13th makes it
into a terrifying place where many murders occur of the numerous camp counselors, this
iconic location like Haddonfield, is done so for two reasons, it provides a location which is
supposed to be safe and turns it back on its head to insight fear showing audiences how little
you have to defend yourself out there, and how easily you could be killed. And also like
Haddonfield, it ties in with the backstory, Jason Voorhees the more iconic of the two Friday
the 13th Killers (The first being his mother) it is where pamela had thought her son had
drowned and therefore took her revenge there, and where Jason watched his mother be
beheaded, and therefore takes his revenge, it ties in with his backstory, as well as his
mothers, and their reasoning for killing people.

Within this paragraph i specified for films of the slasher genre, but this kind of thing applies
to all sub-genres, it takes place in familiar locations that would usually be seen as safe,
typically suburban neighbourhoods, or camps, or big houses, or schools, areas where you
are supposed to feel safe. It turns them on their head to show how unsafe it can be within
these scenarios, it heightens the fear bought on by these films, as it seems more realistic to
have a location such as these.

For example, a film such as Get out, is a psychological horror, its opening shows a man
kidnapped in a suburban neighbourhood, and a majority takes place in the armitage family
house, this is done to make the audience more comfortable in a nice house, a familiar safe
location, and is done so to show how a familiar place such as this, can hide such dark
secrets, and further evoke a fear within the audience. Utilising a familiar safe location and
turning it on its head.