'It's all been done. No true originality, only intertextuality and bricolage'
Nearly any horror film we see nowadays is in some way or another similar to an earlier film whether it be the suspenceful music, helpless pretty girl being slashed to death, point of veiw angles or the typical storyline where the innocent character turns out to be the raging serial killer. Is it true? Has everything been done before? To a certain extent yes, as intertextuality is used constantly; recycled ideas used in a different context and different, more famous actors to produce an entirely new film and therefore making more money in the film industry.
For example, the Hitchcock's iconic thriller Psycho (1960) is a classic example. It uses the main horror conventions used in the majority of popular horror films nowadays; it involves the famous screeching stacatto strings (suspenceful music), shadowed figure of killer, the particular shots such as the fading shot from the drain to the dead face and many more. This film sparked the horror genre into something completely different and hasn't stopped developing since. Films that followed such as Homicidal (1961), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Halloween (1978), Motel Hell (1980) and DePalma's Dressed to Kill(1980) all contained intertexuality from Psycho. All of this intertextuality and bricolage is simply done as writers use it as a stimulus and use development and variation to make a new film which could result in a new convention being produced so intertextuality does not necessarily end at early horror films, newer ones with smaller but great ideas can add to this.
For my own coursework, in year 12, our film was completely and utterly intertexuatlity. From the lingering whispers to the masked killer in a black cloak (Developed from Scream) was previously own and then borrowed from previous films. This was done as we wanted to stick to the conventions as closely as possible due to the fack that we wanted to 'please' our target audience. As it was a simple, conventional beginning to a 'slasher', it clearly would please the typical gore loving audience. But how controversial can horror films take it? How different is too different in an aspect of ending or predictablity?
Our first ideas were to have a person/a particular 'trapped' in a building due to a certain something luriking in the darkness, but if we are more keen to push against the conventions we may change this as films such as Quarentine and No Vacancy have demonstrated this before.
As so much has been done before, it is really quite challenging to begin to think of an idea so new and different without going completely off the rails. So we're hoping we are feeling creative enough to come up with an idea that is pleasing and makes everyone enjoy it...only time will tell.
