Research into stock characters

Stock characters is a recognizable though minor character, this differs depending on the film. A slasher film is a type of horror film involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims. In this sub-genre there is a set of popular stock characters which below I have defined and provided examples across different movies.

The Wanderer: The character which stupidly puts themselves in risky situations which turn out to be fatal or in which they narrowly escape death. The Wanderer is often the week link within the characters. 

Examples: Andy in Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003, American independent horror film) and Kia in Freddy vs Jason (2003, Amercian horror). One character which challenges the wanderer is the film 

The Popular Girl: pro-dominantly hated but have a lot of respect because of their wealth, usually smart, stuck up and extremely two faced. An example of a popular girl are the cheerleaders in Jeepers Creepers II (2003)

The Jock: often the popular male in the movie, he is often known for his image which appeals to many, predominantly the regular target for murder in the slasher horror genre, as his chances of survival tend to be slim.

The Final Girl: the sole surviving member of a group of girls killed by a maniacal serial killer who, quite often, either does not like women or tries to collect them. 

Examples: The surviving girl in Scream (1990) and Julie James in I Know What You Did Last Summer (2001), Laurie Strode in Halloween (2009). However, one girl who breaks the archetypal final girl stereotype is Amanda from Saw 2/3 who becomes the Killer in following movies.

Pandora: part of the film where something important gets discovered/something mysterious happens. Every horror has this because it exposes us to the killer, or the reason behind why the killer kills.

The Pervert: the male character who puts himself in fatal situations in order to sleep with a girl, often killed early on during the film as not aware of the mysterious killings because of the desire to sleep with girls. 

Through identifying the popular stock characters in slasher horror sub-genre I have widened my knowledge into how characters are used as individuals to build a plot/synopsis and attract an enthusiastic target audience. Elements of these popular stock characters I will use in the making of my production as I feel they are beneficial and work extremely well in defining and recognizing the genre. I have noticed that these characters are repeated throughout the genre, however not all films adhere to this, using variation to differ from the norm in horror.