Deconstruction - Actors

For my deconstruction, I wanted to look at the type of actors which were used in current psychological horrors. This would help me to decide on which actors we could use in our opening, in order to make it seem realistic and believable. As we are planning on using both male and female actors, I wanted to look at different examples of both genres for films, but ensuring that the female was the victim and the male, the killer.

The first film I looked at was Scream, as the main victim is a female. Her short blonde hair and fair complexion adds to her youthful look, and makes her look more vulnerable. She also has quite a petite figure, and again this makes her look defenceless. Her outfit also adds to her youthful look, as it does not sexualise her which also adds to the normalcy of the victim.

I then looked at the antagonist in The Purge, as he is presented as having a 'normal' look to him. He has dark hair which is generally the trend for killers and his appearance is presentable and well kept. This is effective because he comes across to the audience as a 'regular man', which again adds to the normalcy of the killers. His outfit of a suit also presents him to be well established and potentially well off regarding money.

The father which is possessed in Oculus also appears to be a regular man. Again, he has dark hair and has a light stubble on the lower part of his face. This makes him look more aggressive and enables the audience to see less emotion. It also increases intimidation that the audience feel, which is also aided by the low angle shot. His clothes are also 'normal' clothes which creates realism within the film, as the audience see him as a regular man rather than a killer.

The female character in Oculus also follows the trends and conforms to victims in a psychological horror being a 'regular family'. Although she has a dark hair, which generally isn't the trend for young victims, she also has a fair complexion. Again, she is not heavily made up which shows that she is not meant to be sexualised, and wants to be portrayed as innocent to the audience.

In Paranormal Activity, the victim conforms to having the general appearance of a victim in a psychological horror movie, as she is young and attractive with a fair complexion and blonde hair. This adds to her vulnerability and her age aids this further as she looks naive and unprotected from whats to come. Her clothes are regular pyjamas which again portrays her to be a regular teenager, rather than a victim.

Overall, the research which I completed into both the female victim and the male killer within the psychological horror genre, shows the normalcy within the characters. The specific films which I decided to look at characters from were chosen as I wanted it to be as relevant to our film opening idea as possible. In order for our characters to fit in with the trends, our male killer would need to be dark haired and potentially an older looking character, between mid twenties and late forties in order for it to be as believable as possible. For the female victim, she needs to look like a teenager, around 16 or 17, and to make her look as vulnerable as possible, have light coloured hair and a fair complexion.