Choices for costumes and props

Costume choice is essential in representing the character to the audience appropriately, setting mise en scene and reflecting the genre of the piece. Costumes can be very extreme, expensive and detailed in some films, for example the creation of a ‘monster’. However, most ‘normal’ characters in horror films wear every day clothing, although it may be manipulated to carry different signifiers.

Costumes for my trailer
The main two characters that feature in my film are Emily and Alex (the killer). Emily had two costumes. I chose the woolly jumper and jeans because this is still a modern, fashionable outfit which also suggests a softness and sense of innocence to her. Having not much skin on show is important as the ‘final girl’ in slasher movies always seem to dress modestly. Her second outfit was a dark blue jumpsuit, which I chose to represent the ‘fighter’ side in the final girl. This character always seem to evade the villain and carry an innate toughness of character, which the jumpsuit signifies.

Alex’s costume could not be too detailed or extravagant due to financial issues and a lack of specialist knowledge in this area. Therefore, I simple chose an outfit of a black fleece, trousers and boots, as most Slasher villains were plain black clothing to suggest evil and mystery. I used white baby powder on Alex’s face as I could not find a suitable mask to use! This still fits conventions as his facial features are covered up and the difference in his face makes him appear inhuman and therefore invincible.

Everyone else in my trailer simple have been asked to attend in their every day clothes as I asked, because I wanted a sense of British realism to my twist of the traditional slasher film. This will work well as the teenagers look like modern day teenagers and Emily’s parents will be dressed as the average British working/middle class parents. The father will wear jeans and a t-shirt while the mother will wear a skirt, vest top and cardigan which represents normalcy and emphasises how equilibrium is balanced and the plot is happy at the very beginning of the film, where they appear.


Props in my trailer

The main prop that I will use in my trailer is the Gurkha knife. I chose this because it is common in the horror genre to use attention grabbing, brutal weapons that spark fear and alarm in the audience as soon as they seen it. This knife is a traditional knife which is huge and very sharp. It is conventional of the Slasher film as these villains always carry a hand held weapon.





The second prop I will use is the phone. This is also a very common feature of horror films, when the victim recieves a phone call from the villain and Emily will play this scene. This is probabl a common feature because of the mystery of how the killer knows who the victim is, what her phone number is and where she lives. It puts her in a vulnerable position. Also, the killer's voice is often very deep and frightening, heightening the representation that the person on the phone is dangerous.



Another prop I will use is candles. I will use these in the scene of the teenagers in a dark room to amplify the dark and mysterious mise en scene and also the fire will signify danger and fear.


I will also use fake blood. This is a very important prop for the horror genre as it is not possible to use real blood and gore is a huge part of the horror industry.