Research in to stock characters

The wanderer: The wanderer is always a person who is killed by the serial killer, this often happens whilst they're drunk or under some other kind of influence. Examples: The wanderer in Freddy vs Jason is the very drunk girl who wanders in to the field and is then killed by Jason. Another example is from the movie Friday the 13th (2009), one of the guys goes to the shed, but before this he was under the influence of alcohol, he is also killed by Jason. These characters both adhere to the wanderer stereotype.



The popular girl: The popular girl is usually killed for being promiscuous, quite often they are killed before, during or after having sex, all serial killers seem to hate 'sluts'. Examples: The popular girl in Halloween (2007) is killed just after she has sex with her boyfriend, another girl in this movie is killed just before she has sex. In this movie the girls both adhere to the stereotype of the popular girl, this is not only portrayed by how they act, dress etc, but also by how they are killed.

Jock: The jock is nearly the male version of the popular girl, however the jock is portrayed as being the tough guy, which is ironic as they are always killed. Examples: In the film A nightmare on elm street the jock is one of the first people killed, in the movie he acts like a tough guy by trying to pretend that the dreams weren't real. This again, adheres to the stereotype of a Jock as a stock character in horror movies.

The final girl: the sole surviving member of a group of girls killed by a manical serial killer who, quite often, either does not like women or tries to collect them. Examples: The surviving girl in Scream and Julie James in I know what you did last summer. One girl who breaks the archetypal final girl stereotype is Amanda from Saw 2/3 who becomes the killer in the following movies.

The pervert: The pervert is usually very weird, for example, they would talk a lot about sex but never actually experience it. Quite a lot of the time they tend to be geeks. Example: In friday the 13th the pervert is also the wanderer, he makes a lot of weird jokes. He is also the first to die in this movie. In this movie he adheres to the stereotype as he does not survive, which is also the case in most horror movies.

In horror movies, stock characters are almost always the same. These are the stock characters that are found in almost all horror movies. They all contrast with each other in one way. All these characters are known as "sinners" and therefore killed by the serial killer.