Stereotypes in horror films

Female Victim:

·         There is almost no horror film without a female victim, as they are portrayed as being vulnerable and in need of protection. This representation dates back to earlier horror films that were made in a more sexist era, and the idea continued. Usually young, blonde and attractive, will help to attract and hook a definite proportion of male viewers. The woman character can often be portrayed to be stupid and annoying (going back to the sexiest era when they were just meant to be house wife’s and not able to work) the stupid annoying ladies would be one of the only characters the audience sometimes will be to be killed. Although she is shown to be dumb, she isn’t typically the first to be killed because she is some sort of key to the narrative and will be needed throughout the movie. It will also give the hero someone to have some charm with. When she is unfortunately killed it is usually gruesome or graphic. The woman character helps to build up some suspense in the audience throughout the production, as her behaviour often puts them on the edge, and whenever she gets scared/frightened or possibly even jump, even when its unnecessary it will often make the audience feel the same.

  
When it comes to male characters you can really see the instinctive stereotypical look of eachother. For example Dracula is one of the biggest American made films to current date with many different copies of the original with most played complete different actors, but when you are to look at them in the movie they both really look the same. This is because big productions/studios do not want to un-attract the media or public away from the film because something is different. With the public it is hard to convince them to watch something different when the originals where just so fantastic, so they have to keep the stereotypical look of Count Dracula the same. The Stereotypes are listed:

He always has something related to a Bat
He can not be seen in a mirror
Every Dracula has some sort of Cape
They can fly

All Dracula's actors have been usually 6 foot ish white men.

If you were to change the height or definitely the colour (race) of Dracula i think it would be really hard to hook the viewers because they want/like the original story so much it will be hard for the viewer to hook to the movie. You just couldn't have a black Dracula as it has been going on for so many generations i believe it would shock people if some studio/production changed the race of Dracula (It's like you couldn't have a black 007)