Character Analysis - The Victim

The roles of the victims are very significant in horror films. The main characters usually play the victims in the films where they will be tortured both mentally and physically and many of them even die in the end. They are usually introduced at the start of the film and in many cases the story follows through their points of view as if they are telling the story. The main victim is always connected to the killer personally which is left a mystery as they don't want to reveal the full story as that usually explains why they become murderers. This is shown in the film Scream 4 where the killer turns out the main character's cousin and kills because she wants to have the same fame that her cousin receives as a victim who has survived many killings.

There are quite a few films where they don't reveal who the real victims are until they are killed off. They do this to cause panic and mystery within the film which brings suspense and creates tension for the audience, This technique keeps the audience guessing at all times and they again also try to figure out who they think is innocent and who is the killer. A perfect example of this is shown in the film Devil where all the characters are stuck in a elevator and when the lights go down, someone is killing the others. All the characters are portrayed as victims and the audience mentally tries to figure who they think is the killer amongst them. This keeps the audience entertained throughout.