Clayton George Wickham - final thesis

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and pushed beyond the limits of normality and acceptability.” (2010; 183) This, he
argues, is similar in effect to Grand Guignol stage shows, serving as essential
sequences in defining each genre. Considering the significance of these sequences to
the films, research on them is limited, leaving death sequences as a heretofore
ignored aspect of the slasher genre. Even Dika’s analysis centres on the stalking
element of the narrative. One exception is Jonathan Lake Crane, who writes detailed
analyses of death sequences, only to explain what they say about or fears as a culture
(1994). As death sequences are significant to the slasher film, they provide a rich
body of smaller sequences for an analysis of aesthetics and form.
I will do this to demonstrate how sound and editing design function to
individually communicate perspective, and an analysis of how these two elements
work together to create a rich understanding of perspective. Therefore, the death
sequences in Friday the 13 th are here explained in order to show how what is seen,
how it is edited, and what is heard, can, in different combinations impact on the
perspective experienced in a death sequence. This also demonstrates the complex
dynamic that occurs when a death blow is heard but not seen in one of these
sequences, as opposed to any other approach. It is for this reason that this chapter
will focus on occurrences of sound representing offscreen death blows combined
with uses of editing in the Friday the 13 th series. To do this, I will discuss the
specific perspectives that are developed during these sequences: victim, aggressor,
and omniscient/other. The sections on victim and aggressor perspective discuss
these very specific positionings, while the following section will address both
instances of omniscience and sequences in which the action is experienced from a
character within the film that is not directly involved with the action. Finally, the
chapter will end with a discussion of the way these elements developed in the series,