Representation in Horror/Thriller films

Certain representations have now become stereotypes- a widely held but fixed and over simplified image of a particular type of person or thing.

Archetype- a very typical example of a certain person or thing.

HORROR:

Male representation:

Horrors are one of the main genres and also the most popular. The genre, Horror originated by european stories being brought over by immigration. These stories such as Dracula by Bram Stoker created stereotypes in this genre.  The first ever version of Dracula was made in 1922 however one of the most popular versions is the 1931 staring Bela Lugosi. The conventions that do not change in this movie is that Count Dracula is always male, rich, white and usually around 40-50 years old. The Count also seems to have a eastern european accent, as its set in Transylvania, Romania. These non-changing conventions have made this movie extremely recognisable. As Dracula is a classic gothic victorian horror movie, now, in the twenty-first century you can see that stereotypical antagonists in horror movies are white, middle aged men. This could be developed because of Dracula. This is called dominant representations.

Stereotypes are- Freddy Kruger, Jason Voorhees, Norman Bates.

Female representation:

Women in horrors are usually represented as the victims. However roles that women play have evolved and in some cases go from victim to aggressor. Examples of this are Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, and Underworld.
Femme fatal is a stereotype that is in hollywood. Women who are young, attractive are used in movies for a 'distraction' to the main male character. These women usually end up being killed in horror movies but this stereotype occurs in most if not all genres.

Representation of gender and ethnicity in Thrillers:

There is a cultural bias in hollywood. All lead actors, directors have always been white, male whereas different ethnicity's are only playing minor roles.
Celebrities that have changed this bias such as Will Smith and Morgan Freeman in movies. Detectives are usually white males, but in thriller 'Seven' Morgan Freeman played one of the detectives along with Brad Pitt.
There is also a heterosexual bias in the film industry as Hollywood is very liberal, therefore having a homosexual or bisexual protagonist is unusual. However antagonists always seem to have a different sexual orientation, such as Hannibal Lector, who had a homosexual background.
Gender bias is also occurring in hollywood, females are playing the victims (femme fatal) for example 'silence of the lambs' in 1990.