This post is sponsored by Little Tiger.
We’re absolutely delighted to have Scarlett Dunmore, author of How To Survive a Horror Movie – the first in a new series of YA comedy-horrors tell us more about her debut release and the tropes involved in traditional horrors.
Crisp autumn days, a steady stream of pumpkin decorations and a wonderful display of ‘spooky reads’ in our favourite bookshops. Halloween is almost here, and I couldn’t be more delighted. This is the perfect time of year to dive into some scary reads about witches, demons, unruly fae, and murder sprees in small towns.
The increase in horror books on the shelves and slasher flicks on our TVs has us all desperate for a good jump-scare, a device that often relies on tropes. And as a horror fan myself, I expect some adherence to these tropes to pay homage to the great film directors that popularised them, like Wes Craven and John Carpenter.
First, location. In fact, location is everything. To create the right atmosphere, an abandoned or haunted setting can be ideal for crafting the perfect jump scare. In my novel, How to Survive a Horror Movie, I chose to add a twist to this. Rather than ‘abandoned’, Harrogate Boarding School for Girls is on an isolated island, plagued regularly with heavy storms and turbulent seas. And the ‘haunted’ part doesn’t come from the setting like the trope implies, it comes from the characters, many of whom become ghosts. Some unable to talk.
Speaking of communication, a lack of it is essential for the formula. How can the victim call for help if the phonelines are down? How can the police apprehend the killer if the victims are secluded on an island during a storm? And consider numbers too. While it is beneficial to increase the population for a zombie film, (the more the merrier!) it is better to scale back for a slasher flick. The tighter the cast, the more suspenseful it becomes because every cast member counts.
As Charley and Olive point out in my book, stereotypical casting choices are also needed to stay true to the cause. Every high school slasher flick has the four standard roles of Prom Queen, Jock, Misfit/Loner, New Girl. There can be some overlapping, with cast members taking on dual roles; like the New Girl can also be the Misfit.
Once the cast is assembled, what should they not do?
Split up.
But they always do, because they have to in a horror to make it nice and easy for the killer to pick off the victims one by one. Rack up the body count without any witnesses. Genius. But in my novel, the bodies return as ghosts, who then go on to provide information to Charley. We learn a lot about the masked Halloween killer in my book from the cast of spirits that return to haunt Charley. Even in the bathroom, which is quite unfortunate.
Most horror films and novels rely on the formula to whittle down the crew until the last one is standing.
Ah, the Final Girl trope. No horror film or book would be complete without a surviving cast member. The Final Girl is usually the person who hasn’t got it all figured out in the beginning, but in the end finds courage within to make their final escape from the killer. It’s the character, typically the main protagonist, who battles the antagonist in the final sequence. And survives to tell their story as a cautionary tale (Thank you Laurie Strode).
While the rest of the cast tries and fails, it’s the Final Girl who survives. Not by physical strength. But by brainpower. The Final Girl always outsmarts the killer. Charley knows this rule well, but what she doesn’t account for is the killer also knowing this. Therefore, the final stand-off doesn’t follow the formula exactly. The ending sequence has quite a shocking twist.
Other tropes feature heavily in my novel in the form of survival rules that Charley follows, not subverts, in an effort to prove the formula works. Because, like me, Charley is a huge horror fan. These survival rules, like ‘Don’t Investigate Strange Noises’ and ‘Wear Footwear You Can Run In’, become part of the chapter headings. However, in the sequel Charley will desperately try to follow the rules while accidentally breaking each one, narrowing her chances of keeping the title of Final Girl.
Assuming she gets it in the first book…
And on that note, if you want to see how much I stayed true to the tropes in How to Survive a Horror Movie and how far I strayed from the formula, you’ll just have to read it to find out!
You can grab a copy of How to Survive a Horror Movie by Scarlett Dunmore, here.