Horror from the late 70s and early 80s changed quite a lot with films such as Halloween and Friday the 13th hit cinemas, this Slasher Horror genre was very popular, with characters like Mike Myers and Jason being some of the most popular and recognisable characters to this day. The slasher horror genre has been around a lot longer than the 70s and 80s however, the act of enjoying fictionalised accounts of violence can lead back to the late 19th century plays produced at the Grand Guignol theatre, which often produced naturalistic horror plays, the film The Bat (1926) based on the novel The Circular Staircase (1908) by Mary Roberts Rineheart, the success of the film lead to a string of 'Old Dark House' films. Other early influences are Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), which was considered too violent and sexual so was deemed unacceptable to most movie studios, and Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960). The slasher horror craze happened during the raise in known serial killers in America during the 70s and 80s and them becoming celebrities
The mise-en-scene
Props
To keep each serial killer unique, such as Leather Face from Texas Chainsaw Massacre wielding a chainsaw, Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street with his claws, and Cropsy using hedge clippers. This was due to 'making a name for yourself' like the American serial killers of the time.
lighting and setting
The villain was less likely to be super natural so their was a lot more realistic settings, for example in Maniac (Video below), the killer was just a regular man, the lighting became a mixture of low key and high key, making a more realistic feeling to the world. The aesthetic is designed to hide figures.
Costume
Similar to props, costume was also more creative but still realistic, the most typical use of costume was a masked or deformed face, like Jason and Michael Myers, or Cropsy in terms of the deformity. They were designed to be unique to each villain,
Setting
Settings were every day locations, usually due to budget, but film makers tried to hit a primal fear with the audience, the chance of it being in the real world, with people living or going to such ordinary places, for example, Camp Crystal Lake, is just like any other camping resort which people went to at the time, it is designed to scare you if you ever go to these places.
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