Designs

The main concept of my film trailer is that a person is stalking our main character. And because my trailer is a horror/thriller the design of our antagonist has to be scary and provocative in order to capture the imaginations of our target audience. So I decided to look at some previous horror movies in order to get some ideas, and ultimately to look at what makes these villains so appealing and distinct.

Halloween

One of the most iconic movie villains of all time is Mike Myers who was the surreal killer in the movie Halloween(1978). What probably makes his mask so iconic is its simplicity. It covers his who face and the only color on it is white. And that's what makes it so scary. I think if the mask had been overly complicated it wouldn't of taken some of the ambiguity away from the character. Another thing to add is that the mask does not necessarily fit his head properly. Its as if the mask is trying to peel away from his skin. This possible alludes to the fractured mental stability of the character. Finally the beauty of this mask is that its simple to produce, and so therefore if I were to use the concept in my film trailer it shouldn't be to difficult to replicate some of the elements of the mask.


Friday the 13th

Another classic horror villain is Jason from the Friday the 13th film franchise. Although Jason is wearing a hockey mask, the concept is similar to that of Halloween. The predominant color is white, and some bits in red. And it has several holes ripped into the mask. What is clear to identify here is that the simpler the mask the more scary and striking the villain is. Its not like the film makers are trying to go over the top to frighten the audience, its as if to say the lack of decoration makes the audience more interested in what exactly the motives of the killer is. The lack of effort from the villain to look intimidating implies that something has happened to them in there lives to make them so dispondent, consequently the audience when watching the trailer will be eager to see what has led to the formation of the murderer.

Saw

The last film I looked at to investigate the designs of the villain is the first  saw film. I did this because saw is very modern and so it would be interesting to see whether in contemporary films, film makers feel the need to change the design ethos in order to appeal to cinema goers of today. The Mask is once again similar to the previous masks I have already analysed. The use of white as the main color. And red on the side to symbolize blood etc. However the addition of a wig makes the villain seem even more disturbing, and probably is the main reason that the character of jigsaw has become a part of pop culture, just like other notable horror villains,  Freddy Kruger, Jason, Mike Myers etc.