How does a comparison of these two 'slasher' texts demonstrate how genre changes over time? Why is this so and what other media issues and debates do they raise?
The first text is an extract from the movie Psycho (1960), ‘the granddaddy of the slasher genre’. Its function is to create horror for the audience as a woman is being killed. The second text is the ending of the film Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and its function is to create suspense for the audience as it is making us as the audience think whether the girl will escape from the killer.
Both texts make use of phallic weapons (Sigmund Freud), however, Texas Chainsaw Massacre uses a wider range of these as there are a number of killers using different weapons, one of the main weapons is the chainsaw itself which can obviously be seen as a phallic weapon due to its shape. This weapon would horrify the audience as it can be clearly seen how much blood and gore can be shed with the use of this weapon before it is even used. On the other hand, in Psycho, only the knife is used by the killer which can also be seen as a phallic weapon. This shows how both of these films use weapons to clearly outline that it is a slasher movie and after seeing such weapons being used for brutal murders, we immediately know that the movie is aimed at older teenagers over the age of 18 and adults.
In the film psycho, the director Alfred Hitchcock decided to make it black and white even though the option of the movie being colour was available. This had been done in order to enhance its authenticity and to make it look more original. Furthermore, the fact that the movie was black and white makes the violence less horrific as the blood can not clearly be seen as its thick red colour. However, in Texas Chainsaw Massacre the option of black and white is available as well as colour but the movie was created in colour. Due to this, a lot more violent scenes appear more horrific to the target audience as they can clearly see the blood as the victim is killed, for example, close ups are used to show the killing scenes at certain points, whilst the victim is being killed close ups are shown of there body in order to scare the audience as they can clearly see in colour how much blood is coming out of the victims body, whereas if this scene was to be shown in psycho, due to the black and white effect, the audience would not be horrified as much as they would be for Texas Chainsaw Massacre due to the lack of colour.
In the extract of Texas Chainsaw massacre, long shots are used to show her being chased by two men, this is done in order to show the audience that she is outnumbered, and in the past, women were always seen inferior to men, therefore the audience clearly would think that the woman will not be able to escape and men are too powerful and superior. However, this is not the case in psycho, as the extract shows that there is only one villain, and that the woman is killed when she is most vulnerable – when she is naked. This is a typical slasher convention which is used when a victim is being killed and adds to the theme of the movie being a slasher film due to the violence in the scene. This shows how the slasher movie psycho follows typical conventions of the slasher genre. Another typical convention is the final girl which is used in Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The idea of the final girl shows how Texas Chainsaw Massacre also follows conventions of the slasher genre. This idea is not used in psycho as the girl is killed in the middle of the film.
Another typical convention which is used in Texas Chainsaw Massacre is the fact that the villain is wearing a mask, this is done so that the villains face is not shown either because it’s a mystery, or their face has been burnt of or ruined. The use of a mask creates enigma as the audience would want to know why the killer is wearing a mask and who the killer really is. This further shows the film as a slasher movie. However, in Psycho a mask is not worn by the killer as he is not openly killing victims, therefore no enigma is created in psycho in terms of wearing a mask. A wig is worn by the killer in Psycho which is the closest the movie comes in terms of the killer hiding their identity.
In conclusion, due to the fact that one of the movies is in black and white and the other is in colour, shows how the expectations of the audience has changed over time as the audience now want to see more violent scenes full of blood and gore therefore most movies are made in colour in order to show detail and therefore further horrifying the audience. The two texts clearly show how the audience’s expectations are changing over time as it now takes more then a knife to shock the audience.
