onscreen , then on the participating audiences for whom they are actually intended .
Whereas the assaultive camerawork of slasher films invites the viewer to identify with the killer , these subjective interludes are offset in Until Dawn by the presence of eight playable characters , with whom the viewer can form alliances . While visually the archetypal roles of the traditional slasher roles fit the actors , their initial characteristics are in conflict with audience expectations . For example , Chris ( Noah Fleiss ) initially fulfils the role of the immature practical joker , whose tricks provide the first false scare , yet his character is definably protective and methodical . Likewise , Matt ( Jordan Fisher ) appears superficially to be a jock character typical to the genre , at once the object of desire for women , and the object of envy for men . However , he only ever demonstrates prudence and his exploitative girlfriend Emily ( Nichole Bloom ) makes his position far from enviable . This narrative element plays with Andrew Tudor ’ s observation that horror movies routinely function by placing stereotypical characters into cumulatively eventful situations . 16 Until Dawn instead takes non-stereotypical characters and pushes them into typical roles to enable them to seemingly provide familiar kinds of actions and purposes within the story . This subversion of genre convention requires audiences to recognize these character archetypes and identify that in-game as being atypical of the slasher film .
As observed by Daniel Barnes , characterization in the slasher genre typically follows a four-movement structure common to urban legends : Interdiction , Violation , 16
Andrew Tudor , Monsters and Mad Scientists : A Cultural History of the Horror Movie ( Oxon : Basil Blackwell , 1989 ), p . 112 .
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