What slasher fans go for this idea?

i love your idea and i say go for it. it's all about seeing the trends of what has been done, and then bucking said trends.
if you are doing a slasher, obviously it's gonna be a retro throwback so have fun with it.
 
I believe it will work. Today's slashers do little to faze the audience. Horror fans, such as myself, are more interested in the style of murders or kills. The more creative the better. We seldom cheer for the virgin heroine because she's uninteresting. We cheer for Jason, or Michael, or Freddy, because they're larger than life and they kill the naughty kids that are mostly annoying.

If you flip it around and kill the pure of heart, the elderly, the children, the priests, the virgins, etc, it would be much more horrifying than watching a pothead, jock, bimbo, ex-convict, or token African-American get axed.
 
And make the audience be rooting for the killer the whole time.

I love this idea! Has that been done effectively before? Where the audience actually doesn't like the main character and are rooting the whole time for her/him to be stopped by the antagonist?
 
I was rooting for Leatherface in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre re-make because the "victims" were all super annoying (the original is still great though).
 
I still think flipping this particular table is to be done with great caution. Forum opinioneering is easy; making a quality, successful film that goes squarely against long-standing genre-convention very likely won't be. Caveat Emptor...
 
I still think flipping this particular table is to be done with great caution. Forum opinioneering is easy; making a quality, successful film that goes squarely against long-standing genre-convention very likely won't be. Caveat Emptor...

Fully agree with this.

Exhibit A: "Young Adult." Written by Oscar-winner Diablo Cody, directed by two-time Oscar nominee Jason Reitman, starring Oscar-winner Charlize Theron... and it's STILL getting a lot of flak for bucking conventions.

So tread carefully!
 
Okay thanks. What do you mean 'bucking' in this context?

Throwing off, going against, violating, subverting conventions that audiences are familiar with and often expect, desire and need in order to be satisfied with a film. The convention in your case being that the main character is morally good (in the historical context of American morality, anyways), and you throwing it off by having the typically immoral character take the place of the moral character as the one with which the audience is to identify, something that is very risky. And like all very risky things, it can pay off brilliantly, or... well, whatever the opposite of paying off brilliantly is. <grin>

-JMT
 
I think it all comes down to contrast in the story. Horror is basically good vs. evil and some sin that has set the monster loose. The more innocent pure or virginal the protagonist the more contrast you have... just kill a puppy and watch how the crowds react.
 
Back
Top