Reeling in Audience Feedback
In order to get a wider variety of responses for our survey, we sent out a public tweet to our followers, saying the following:
Slasher Sub Genre
Films of the Slasher sub-genre typically involve a serial killer murdering several victims, and often focus more on the killings rather than the plot or character development. The term 'Slasher' can also be used as a generic term for any horror film involving murder. The genre's peak occurred with American films released during the 70s and 80s, such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween. Hitchcock's ''Psycho'' is often regarded as an early influential Slasher film, and the 1996 film ''Scream'' later revived public interest in the genre. According to Vera Dika, Slasher plots are always influenced by a past event in which a community, often made up of teenagers, commits a wrongful action towards the killer which causes them some sort of trauma. The film often begins with a commemoration of an important past event which reactivates the killer, and many films within the sub-genre all follow a similar formula.
A typical character to include in a Slasher is known as the ''final girl'', who escapes the killer's 
advances by the end of the film e.g. Laurie Strode in Halloween (1978). The film also often begins with the murder of a young woman. Another typical character is a psychopathic killer (often wearing a mask) who stalks and violently murders a series of victims, who are often young and attractive teenagers. There is often a backstory of how the killer got to this mental state, and the killer is usually male, although their identity is often concealed by something like a mask. Films of the Slasher genre use unconventional weapons such as blades, chainsaws, cleavers and blunt objects.The films are usually set in a quiet and peaceful town that is considered to be safe, but is usually isolated and hard to escape from, which creates a sense of dread from the audience as everything initially appears to be normal. They also usually have sequels in which the killer makes some sort of return or another character is inspired by the killer's previous actions.
From my research into the slasher sub-genre, our group decided that we liked the idea of the killer being a character who has been bullied or isolated from the community around them, which contributes to their mental state and motive to kill. We decided that our main character/killer would most likely be a female character, which subverts from the conventions of the sub-genre as the killer is typically male. In addition, we decided that the majority of our characters would be young and attractive teenagers, which follows the conventions of slasher and we would consider making one of our possible locations within a school environment to really emphasise the youth of the characters. Implementing a ''final girl'' character would be something we consider, however as the killer may be female in our trailer, we could switch the gender roles around for this character as well, or we could have the ''final girl'' character be the main bully or the one who initially provokes the killer to develop a motive to kill their peers.
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