Graphs for Questionnaire

How old are you?

This graph shows that the best audience to aim our product at are older teens and young adults, which is good because our opening is a teen horror so we have a good audience waiting.

Are you male or female?

Because this graph shows more males watch horror films compared to females we decided to include a female protagonist to appeal more to a male audience.

Which genre horror film do you prefer?

Due to the public preferring to watch slasher films rather than other genres of horror films we decided to fit the slasher theme into our teen horror opening to appeal to a wider audience.

Question 5 - How did you attract/ address your audience?

The audience of my media product would be teenagers the reason for this is because the protagonists in the film are all teenagers which the younger audience would be able to relate themselves too. As the film is set in a school every teenager watching it will be able to relate themselves too it especially for the hatred of a teacher which many students experience in their adolescence. The characters are also stereotypically youthful teenage characters which many teenagers try and relate themselves too.
In our opening we used intertextual references such as the names of the characters and the weapon of choice. We decided like the killer in scream our villain would use the same weapon for every death this was so people who enjoyed scream may be attracted to our film too. Other intertextual references we had included the names of our characters we decided to use names of other characters from different horror films such as Sydney from scream and Dr.Karloff the actor who plays Frankenstein.
We didn't really have any contemporary issues in our production however we did include the theme of power and anger, when Dr.Karloff see's the note ' I hate Dr.Karloff' his anger floods out and he kills Laura.
After a small group of people watched our opening we were able to receive feedback on it filled with both strengths and weaknesses however we couldnt do alot with the feedback as our film had not been finished and finally edited so we decided to focus on the weaknesses and tweak our film to make it more appealing to the audience, many of the strenths were similar for example 'shots are kept steady and clear' and 'it should be a good film once it's finished' the encouraged us to complete our work to a good quality to entice the audience with our opening.

We knew that our opening had to be interesting and capture the viewers attention this was so we could hook our target audience, we managed to do this by engaging with the audience with the conventions, and interesting characters such as Dr. Karloff.

Preliminary Task

Psych 1 Opening

Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our media product we aimed to represent teenagers throughout the whole of it as we created a teen horror. As we are representing teens in our opening we decided to almost copy similar aspects from other horror films for example we had the blonde girl Laura die first in the opening just like Casey from Scream. We also kept the darker haired girl named Jessica alive at the end as the final girl, as brown haired girls are stereotypically seen as smarter than blondes, strong, less ditzy and able to survive alone. We also had the only boy dressed in smart office wear to connote that he is more geeky than a strong jock which are usually stereotyped in teen horrors.
We also represented the only adult in our teen horror as a villain, the reason we chose to do this is because he is a teacher, we wanted him to be represented as a bit of a crazy man who students thought was weird, creepy and abnormal. A teacher who was unpopular with most students which is evident within the first few scenes when you see Laura writing 'I hate Dr. Karloff' on the sheet of paper she is supposed to be writing lines on. We decided to represent the adult as the villain to portray a negative image of adults to appeal more to the younger audience.

Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the process of creating my product i have come across many different technologies the main one being blogger, at first i didn't know how to use the site until i realized it was simple and organized my work clearly so it was easy to find and edit, i also learnt how to add and embed items into essays to give examples too, this gave me a chance to explain the mise-en-scene better as well as make my work my interesting. As well as blogger i also learnt how to use the editing software as i did not do this on my preliminary task so i learnt what to do from scratch. I learnt how to add transitions to shots such as fade in and out which i added to the first scene of our opening. As my main role in the production was filming i learnt how to use the HD cameras along with the tripod and keeping my hand steady on handheld shots and sticking to the 180 degree rule which is where the characters in the scene should have the same relationship to each other when it comes to left and right, we also used the rule of thirds in shooting making sure the characters stayed in the correct places for the viewer t notice first.. During this project i also became more equipped with the internet learning how to use the blog, presentation websites such as prezi, youtube and google.

Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

 In our audience research we found that most teenagers watch horror films between the ages of 16-18 this is most likely because of the age restriction of the film. We also found that the majority of people who watched horror films were male with most of the participants preferring a female protagonist this is due to the history of the slasher film with its long running criticism of exploitation of women in danger so the obvious response to this was to show a female protagonist (creating the male gaze) who could overcome all the events of the film and vanquish the killer. This is why we decided to include this in our opening. We also found that slasher films were more popular than werewolves and vampires for the main reason that they are more realistic and believable because of this we decided that our film would be a slasher horror, to appeal to a wider audience.
As well as this i found that there is also a large amount of people who enjoy watching horror films for the scare factor and shock value this is why films such as hostel and the human centipede are successful, also this success and hype around the shocking images you can expect to see in this film gather and even larger audience who just want to see what people are talking about.
A stereotypical model of my audience would be a male viewer who is a teenager and who has a keen interest in horror/ slasher movies, the reason for this is because the protagonist in the movie is a female, attracting the male audience more than the female audience. We also have a few intertextual references such as the names Freddie from The Nightmare On Elm Street and Sydney from Scream, two popular mainstream movies which were highly successful.

Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

Copy of Media institutions, distribution of my product. on Prezi

Location scouting and shots.

We took the photos of our location before we decided to change our story line so only a few of the photos we have fit our story line.

The first scene the audience see's is the school's corridor deserted and dark this is to show that it isn't during school time and to give the audience the feeling that it is all creepy and something may be going on.

In this scene the teens are running away from Dr.Karloff who the had seen stab Laura, the scene then continues with Dr.Karloff chasing after them. We decided to choose this location as it is close to the classroom as well as the woods and would give a good long shot of them running.

This is the scene where Sydne is caught by Dr.Karloff and stabbed in the stomach, we chose this hole in the fence as it shows that the school is a bit dodgy to have students escaping through holes and not out of the gate.

This is the scene when Freddie is murdered by Dr.Karloff and Jessica is left alone (the final girl) to fend herself against him you then see his hand place over the camera and the rest of the story is unknown until the audience watch the rest of the film. The reason we chose to film our horror in the woods is because we wanted to conform to many other horror films such as Friday the 13th and The Blair Witch Project, we decided to do this so we woulkd attract a wider audience.

Shooting Schedule

Smart Price Productions, Group 1
Date 18/2/2011	Weather Sunny with a few clouds.	Shots All of the shots.	Time 11:00 Duration 2 hours 30 minutes
Equipment Camera Knife Bunsen burners Costumes Tripod Batteries	Contacts Jade Harrington 079******** Tom Mitchell 079******** Jade Crome 079******** Ben Wesley 079********	Special Arrangements Transport-  Car/walk Lunch-  Not Needed Arrival Time- 10:45 Location-  Costessey High School

Health and Safety

Due to our props being dangerous such as the large kitchen knife and bunsen burners we had to take extra precautions with our crew to make sure nobody was harmed during filming up and setting up the scenes. We did this by making sure that only two people handled the bunsen burners lighting and putting them out carefully with bunsen lighters not matches or lighters. With the knife we made sure that whenever we weren't using it during filming it was wrapped in a think towel so nobody was harmed carrying it from scene to scene. We also did the murder/stabbing shots in slow motion and a fair distance behind and away from the body so none of the actors were harmed in the production we then sped this up in editing to make the death more dramatic and realistic. None of the actors or crew were harmed in the making of our production.

Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

There are a number of ways in which our media product conforms to real media products. We decided to include certain conventions of horror which we found in our research from other films. We decided to conform to conventions found in our mainstream  research because its clear that all these films are cheesy and repetitive while at the same time referencing other films. We wanted to include the conventions as they would make the product authentic and appeal to genre fans.

The first element we made sure we had in our opening is the “final girl” this convention is popular in many horror films. The main one which I decided to research was Prom Night in this film the final girl is the main character throughout the film, another film would be My Bloody Valentine where Sarah survives the entire film. We decided that not all of characters in our opening would get killed; all would apart from Jessica who will survive until the end of the film. We decided to keep the convention of the final girl in our product so that our product would conform to most media products. As we only had 2 minutes for our opening to a horror film we could not complete the final girl convention however it is clear in our synopsis that we would have a final girl but due to the time limit we wanted to push the convention so our product would fit into the genre better.

Another element we wanted to add in our product the “mad scientist” which is conventional in B-Movies made in the 1950’s however we didn’t want our movie to conform to these style of films as they look cheap, fake and  are poorly made they are also made on a low budget and generally have over exaggerated story lines such as “Aliens from Mars” and the “Attack of the 50ft Woman”  the reason for this is because they are outdated however they were terrifying in the 1950's whereas films today tend to play on real life fears which is why we decided to only use the mad scientist element. We added the man scientist element into our product to create a sense of realism between the teacher and stupid, the hate relationship between the student and teacher is extremely strong and probably over exaggerated just like the B-movies.


The third element we decided to include in our product is the weapon convention this is where the killer uses the same weapon throughout the film for every killing. We wanted to have Dr.Karloff as a creative killer who played with his victims so he would conform to slasher horror films such Halloween and Friday the 13th this would also create suspense. We chose his weapon to be a household item so that the student would believe that they were safe the whole time as it wasn't something abnormal such as a shotgun or chainsaw, this is the main reason we wanted to conform.


The final convention our media product conformed to was 'a safe place to die'  this is where the victims all get killed in the environment's that they believe they are safe whether it be a high school in Prom Night or a mine in My Bloody Valentine it was clear they needed to be in that place to be killed this is also reminiscent of the 'home invasion movie' such as Maniac. 

Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Since i produced my Preliminary task i have learnt a lot about the performing, shooting and editing. the preliminary task helped me realize what was needed to be done for the production of my media product. We didn't have a lot of time to plan and shoot our Preliminary task so our story boards were rushed and not precise enough, so when it came to the performance the actor wasn't quite sure what to do. It was also our first time with the cameras so we weren't 100% confident with filming. Our group in the preliminary task didn't work too constructively together so when it came it the film production i made sure that each person in the group had an equal amount of work and contribution to the product. In essence i took the role of the producer.
The preliminary task taught me that we needed to be more organized with our film, and to take more care with the filming. For our filming we decided to each take on different roles, we all took part in the planning however when it came to editing and filming we all did different things. Jade and I filmed the opening of the film which was then edited by Tom, we all took part in the decisions that were made about the film, which caused some conflict now and then but was soon resolved after more ideas  were put forward. When it came to the planning of our film Tom had the main plot idea which we decided to take on however each group member added their own ideas into it for example my idea was to have the bunsen burners on flickering in the science room to give it a more eery and creepy feeling. As our Prelim didn't have any conventions to meet it was a lot easier to plan however for our opening we had to research many films so it would meet the generic conventions of a typical teen horror.
When it came to the editing of the product we all gave each other constructive criticism on what we thought would look better and more effect on the film for example fading out of the first scene of the corridor into the second scene in the classroom, because we added the fading effect the title of the film looks a lot more effective with the viewer seeing nothing but the title they are more likely to remember the name of the film (Psych 1). Our Prelim did not have any titles so it wasn't memorable or even identifiable by the audience.
The Preliminary task taught me many things such as continuity, the 180 degree rule and the fact that you need actors who can actually act and not mess around. It also taught me that whilst filming i also so need to lead in and lead out for a couple of seconds to get a decent shot as well as taking several shots of the same scene so that when it comes to editing i will have a couple of decent shots instead of having to go out and re-film certain shots. The difference between my prelim and film is that the prelim was filmed on the same day within a couple of hours so we didn't have to worry about continuity or cast/crew being able to make it whereas for the film we had to work around everyone else's lives which meant there weren't many times we could actually work and film. We also had the trouble of continuity when everyone was at school and we were able to film cast members were wearing different clothes so we were unable to film them and only take location shots. The film was also a lot more interesting to shoot as it was entertaining unlike the prelim which was a simple task of filming a character open a door and start a conversation. As there was no genre or criteria for the prelim we also found it harder and less interesting as we didn't have any objectives to hit.
After we filmed our prelim we realized that the script was highly unbelievable with the Norfolk accent not helping either, for this reason we decided not too add any dialogue to our horror opening. As we had no dialogue in our opening we decided to build up suspense within the plot by adding music with different beats and from different genres at the correct points for example the heavy rock music while the chase takes place.

The Rules Of Horror Films

This clip is a perfect example of "The Rules Of Horror Films" many horror films do follow these rules as well as scream the film Friday the 13th is a good example of this when Trent cheats on his girlfriend and sleeps with Bree later on these two characters are murdered by Jason.
The general link in horror films are if you do something bad you are more than likely going to be killed or you do a 'deed' or wrong doing which then triggers a chain of unfortunate events. An example of this would be in Scream when you find out that Billy is the killer and then Sidney kills him.

Conventions of Teen Horror's

The Final Girl - One convention of Teen Horrors is "The Final Girl" an example of this would be in Scream where Sidney is left until the end of the film and endures  the death of her friends.

Villain - Every Teen Horror film has a Villain wether their identity is hidden or not you always know there is one. A lot of the time the Villain can be show to be on the protagonist's side for example in house of wax the hillbilly helps the teenagers out by taking them to town to get their car fixed when he is actually involved with the two twins who turn the towns inhabiters and visitors into wax figure, the main twin Bo (who plays both Bo and Vincent) acts friendly towards the teens so they don't know what's going on however once the viewer and the characters realize that he is being over-friendly you know that something is going on, which is another point to villains. Some villains hide their identities such as Jason from friday the 13th who wears a mask this builds the viewers fear as you don't know who the killer is.

Other villains can be disfigured such as Freddy cruger from The Nightmare On Elm Street. Freddy's facial disfigurement (which was caused by the parents burning him after her sexually abused their kids, due to the fact he was a known pedophile) makes him look a lot scarier than just a man who kills teenagers in their dreams.

Other conventions of Teen Horror are:

- Fear 

- Suspense

- Atmospheric music and sound effects - in many horror films you can tell when a character is going to die as the music will slowly build up and speed up getting louder and louder and eventually stopping as the character is killed. You can see in this clip of sorority row the music builds as it leads up to the death of clare and stops as soon as the flare is shot at her killing her.

B Movies - Attack of the 50ft woman

B Movies were mainly made in the 91950's the film Attack of the 50 ft woman was an American Sci-fi feature film produced by Bernard Woolner (Woolner Brothers) in 1958.
The film was a take on other films in which humans changed size such as The Amazing Colossal Man and The Incredible Shrinking Man however with a female protagonist rather than a male.
B Movies are famous for their low budget commercial films and generally so bad there good.
This film is different as it is more common to have a male protagonist rather than a female however it follows the revenge plot as she seeks revenge on her husband and his mistress, which is probably where the writer and director bernard rose got his idea from with Helen lyle also seeking revenge on her husband and his mistress.

The ending to Psych 1 continued

This then paralyzes her so she is then stuck with her hands holding onto the bars of the gate with her face between then connoting that she is trapped. she then slowly dies with the Dr walking off in the background.
The film ends 2 weeks later when the police find a diary in her bedroom explaining what happened and find the knife in the back of Dr.Karloffs car. However he has completely disappeared...

The ending to Psych 1

Here is my idea on what i think would happen in the rest of Psych 1.

- Jessica is the only survivor from the opening of Psych 1 - I decided to use her in the rest of the film unlike scream where they start with different characters who knew the opening characters, i did this as i want her to be the final girl in my film to conform to the typical horror films.
-Dr Karloff knows that she has seen the death of Laura and now the rest of her friends. The film will follow a scream style story line with the closest friends and family around her being brutally murdered in similar ways to her friends for example having their throat slit and chest stabbed. These deaths are Dr.Karloff's signs that its going to be her soon. As the doctor is trusted at the school nobody believes her when she tries to tell the police that it is him.
As the story builds the loss of her friends and family and the feeling of being alone (as nobody believes her) turns her slightly insane. She knows Dr.Karloff is coming for her but now when or where which adds to her insanity.
The film ends with her staying behind after school for a detention, she is left to walk home alone as she has been outcasted by the rest of her year, what she doesn't know is that Dr.Karloff is following her out of the building, as chase scene begins until she realizes that the main gates are locked. Tension builds as she tries to open it or climb over it when Dr.Karloff comes up behind her and stabs her with the kitchen knife in the back.
....

Re- arranged shooting schedual

Due to cast not being free at the time we wanted to film we had to change when we filmed our film.

NEED TO ADD GRAPH

Film Title

After researching film titles I found that there was a film released in 2010 called Psych:9.

This film was directed by Andrew Shortell with a mixture of known and unknown actors such as Sarah Foster and Cary Elwes. After researching the film I found that its more of a psychological horror than a teen horror. So we have decided to call ours Psych - 1 due to the murderer ( Dr. Karloff) being a psychopath, this means we are not copying the film Psych: 9 as it is a psychological  film and based in a hostpital whereas ours is based in a school.











We also like the name of the film, and thought it would be a good idea as there is a classroom in our school named "Psychology"

Here is a photo of the classroom.

Representaion of gender in Doctor Who - School Reunion

There are many different representations presented in the Tv Series Doctor Who. I am going to focus on the Representation of Gender. I have looked at elements such as which gender holds the most screen time, if one gender is presented as more superior to the other and masculinity and femininity of malend females within the fictional world of the program.

From the start the name Doctor Who indicates that the show will be about a man despite the fact he always has a female companion/sidekick, she is only the Robin to his Batman, the show always focuses on him not her. Despite the fact that she is a female she has been masculinised which has stripped away most of her feminitity, this can been percieved as a good or bad thing depending on which way you look at it. For example it could present a sterotypical damsel in distress who can save herself and doesnt need her "prince charming" or it could present a woman who has to behave this way in order to survive in the world of Doctor Who. When they enter the school Doctor Who is given the role of a teacher whereas Rose is given the role of a Dinner lady, this immediately focuses our attenion back onto Doctor Who as being smart enough to teach children whereas Rose is only capable of serving food and cleaning up after the children which follow the sterotypical roles of the woman cooking and cleaning at home.
The head teacher of the school is also a male denoting they have more power over woman, he also takes a young female student away and supposedly kills/eats her denoting again that woman cannot defend themselves and also present the idea that there is constant conflict between males and females.

The dinnerladies are wearing all white clothing connoting their purity, however later on we are decieved and find out that they are scheming something bad for the students, which challenges our precseptions. The men in the episode are prodominantly wearing black which relates to the conflict between black and white. They are also shown as more important as in most of the shots men are always first in shot followed by the women.
The different job roles connotes that the men are a higher class than the woman as they have better jobs that have better pay.

Cinema Listings - Odeon, Vue and Cinema City - Continued

Odeon and Vue are big commercial cinemas which cater to the general public. They offer a wide range of different genres of films to attract more viewers. These cinemas show more mainstream successful films with a higher budget, well known actors and directors they also rarely re-release films they have already shown however if a film does become popluar they may re- release it for example the film Avatar 3D released in 2009 was directed by James Cameron and was re- released with six minutes of extra footage the next year. This was one of the first big 3D films to hit the cinema and with its incredible storyline it won many awards and drew in many viewers to the cinema to gain the "pandora experience" in 3D. On the other hand Cinema City still promotes big films such as The Kings Speech however not as many as they are aiming for a more mature audience, who make their trip to the cinema a memorable experience. Cinema City also shows more low budget Indie films and films from all over the world to suite the more educated audience who may enjoy watching these. Unlike Odeon and Vue they do not re-release films however they do have themed weeks where they will shohw films of a similar genre to appeal to a certain audience they also show older films which many people today may not have seen due to their availabilty, these can go back to as early as the 1950's.  Odeon and Vue both cater for the same target audience which is the general public of all ages (the average cinema goer) However Cinema Citys target audience is aimed towards adults from 25 years and upwards.

Due to my film being a teen horror i think it would be more successful in cinemas like Odeon and Vue as it is aimed at a younger audience who enjoy watching horror films, it also has the element of education in it which the younger people can relate to. If i were to show my film in a cinema such as Cinema City i do not think the profit would be to high as the whole cinema experience is suited to more higher class people.
Despite our film being more of an indie film with a low budget, and less money spent on marketing it would fit in better at Odeon and Vue however i think it would still become more successful in a more popular cinema due to the storyline and genre.

Cinema Listings - Odeon, Vue and Cinema City

Title Research

After watching a few horror openings our group has decided to run the opening credits of our movie over the running film to save time as we only have a maximum of 2 minutes filming.

Our working title is called : Smart Price Productions
Director: Jade Harrington
Producer: Ben Wesley
Editor: Tom Mitchell and Jade Crome
Cast: Ben Wesley, Holly Gowler, Kyle McCabe, Jade Crome and Jade Harrington
Director of photography: Jade Crome, Jade Harrington and Ben Wesley sound lighting and camera work.


We were going to use the rule of three in our opening however the rule works and looks better in trailers rather than openings i also think that if we used the rule of three in our opening viewers may not understand the storyline or whats going on.
In the trailer 7 the rule of thirds is very promonant, beginnging with 3 bangs, the metronome ticking side from side three times, showing three different shots of Morgan Freeman before moving onto Brad Pitt for three different shots too, three gun shots from the villian, Morgan Freeman holding three fingers up whilst explaining the 7 deadly sins, and the seven deadly sins flashing on the screen within 3 seconds. This rule of 3 is good because it entices the audience and makes them want to watch it more. It is said we want to watch it more as the rule of 3 effects us psychologically making us remember more.

We have chosen the name Smart Price Productions for our working title as our teen horror will be an indie film

Questionnaire results

Questionnaire results

Questionnaires

Story Boards

Here are our original Story Boards for our opening.

  We have changed out plan and now these stor boards are the ones we are using.

Shooting Schedule

Date: Wednesday 2nd february 2011
Weather: Rain. Otherwise any weather will have to do.
Shots: All of them.
Time: 4:30 until finished shooting.
Equipment: Camera; tripod, lab coat, fake knife, torch (on a phone) and burnsen burners.
Contacts: Each others mobile phone number.
Special arragements: Location - School corridor, class and woods
Props and costumes: Casual clothing, fake knife and lab coat, bunsen burners.

Walk Through Of Our Opening

Starts near room 35 using a long shot for the corridor.

Boy holding a camera with the camera in a satchel.

At student services and a blackout happens.

Clearly spoken dialogue and shrieks from girls.

Freddie says "oh don't worry, I have a light on the camera" there'll be background chat from the girls, e.g. 'I'm so glad he has a light'

Cut to where Laura is. Meanwhile the rest of the pupils are walking up the science corridor. And there will be chat when the camera comes back to them, saying 'What room is she in?'

At room 90. They will say 'this must be the room she's in' and decide who is going to look in the window.

 Teacher comes up behind Laura, slits her throat.

We see her head hit the table and the teacher looks round to the pupils.

They run to get away using a typical convention of heading towards woods.

They climb through a hole in the fence.

As the 3rd person is through they see the Dr is behind the 4th person who hasn't made it through the hole yet and that person gets stabbed.

They run though the woods and stop at the hill because they see a shirt in blood.

As they look up they see the Dr the other side of the hill.

They all start to run, the boy trips and as the camera pans round when he gets himself up and the Dr is right behind him. The whole thing cuts to the title

Shooting schedule

Shooting schedule

Monday
After school  around 5.30
5.30-5.35 set up equipment
5.35-5.40-breif cast on storyline
5.45-6.30start shooting

wednesday
after school around 5.30
5,30-5.35 set up equipment
5.35-5.50 start shooting
5.50-6.05 review footage

We have created this shooting schedule as we think our film will look more effective if we film from dusk to darkness, however in our film it will be around 4 so it fits the detention storyline.

Eden Lake 2008

Eden Lake Is a British horror film written and directed by James Watkins.
The films location is unknown but the director states it is set somewhere in the midlands.
This is not a typical teen horror movie. James Watkins has said he thought of the idea for Eden Lake a couple of years before the knife crimes and london youth scares, however this film does touch quite predominately on this subject and feels like a reaction to the moral panic in the press. Also highlighted in this film is a common theme of the clash between the city and the country. In other films such as The Hills Have Eyes, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Wrong Turn the main characters are people from the city who are alienated by being in the country. The town within eden lake also challenges this as well as thew town is undergoing construction and urbanization. They feel powerless as they are out of their comfort zone and are easily picked off by the threat of the country dwellers. The other theme is a generational gap between adults and teenagers/ youths. Drawing from the the 'slasher' genre it is established that one of the scariest threats is another human being who has gone beyond reasoning.
This sets up a rich tapestry for the plot of Eden Lake to revolve around. Eden Lake challenges our expectations so far as to make the teenagers the killers within the film. It tries to offer some reasoning behind there actions, this is basically revenge for the accidental killing of one of the youths (brett) dog by one of the 2 main protagonists Steve. It is also established towards the end of the film that peer pressure is also relevant and the quite disturbing idea of child abuse and the parents being partly to blame, this is a problem that is very much embedded in reality which is why it is so scary. Watching this film you could believe this could really happen. We the audience are not removed from this, we are not in the realms of fantasy or make believe. This  film does not feel like a typical genre piece, it could easily sit alongside films such as kidulthood and would not look out of place.

Props

Knife - used for when Dr Karloff kills Laura.

Camera - for when they are messing about in detention.

White lab coat - part of costume too. Worn by the insane Dr.

Bunsen burners - to create a better setting in the science lab.

Dummies - used so we don't have to get more people to be in the Movie.

Blood and pump - to be used to create the blood effect.