FO'C - Sub genre: Stalker/slasher

The stalker sub-genre has been around for decades, influenced by films by films like Nosferatu (Murnau-1922) and Hitchcock's 'Psycho' (1960) which in turn influenced more modern interpretations of the genre such as Scream (Craven-1996) and You're Next (Wingard-2011).
Stalker films usually go hand in hand with the slasher sub genre as the stalker is often a crazed psychotic 'male' murderer such as Freddie Kruger or Jason. With this conventional villain goes the conventional protagonist; the young & beautiful woman. We as the audience are positioned with her as she is seen as vulnerable, transferring this feeling of vulnerability and insecurity to the viewers. Therefore the director keeps the viewers on the edge of their seats by isolating this character from external help and contact through a verity of ways:

• Killing off her friends in the woods
• Having her home alone
• Cutting phone wires
• Have her take care of a young child or infant
• Separate her temporarily from a crowded place (carnival/party)

However this cannot be the case through the entirety of the film otherwise the intense moments will lose their intensity. That's why directors introduce safety characters and locations such as:

• Policemen
• A male
• A person in a position of power and authority
• A child with the ability of concious thought and speech (older than 4 but younger than 10)
• Police station
• Crowded place

When these characters and locations dissapear or get killed off, the audience is plunged into an accentuated feeling of chaos and helplessness once again. A common example of this is a lone policeman being killed off before calling backup. F.O