making horror: learning the basic concepts of horror and slasher films

if you ask anybody, and i mean any one of my friends what my favorite movie is, they'll all say the same exact thing. Jurassic Park. Jurassic park is wonderful because of the beauty and the effect behind it that make the dinosaurs on the screen so realistic and beautiful, creating the childhoods of many children. you, who's reading this, probably has a favorite movie, but have you ever wondered what makes that movie so wonderful? what makes those characters the way they are? why those shots were chosen? well, even if you aren't a film buff like me, it can be a simple understanding of what the elements of filmmaking are and how the simplest of things can make you're favorite movie.

not everyone can watch horror films, but if you know me , you know that i know just about everything about any horror film you can come up with. the horror genre is one of the most complicated type of film to make. the director has to choose very carefully of the shots they put in the movie and very carefully of the lighting and the setting, which sets the mood very quickly and easily. one of my favorite sub-genre's of horror is slasher. slasher films have a very specific and natural way of playing out on screen. in slasher films, there are almost all the time the same set of 6 similar characters:

1) the jock
2) the flirty girl
3) the stoner
4) the scholar (nerdy type)
5) the adult
6) the virgin (aka: the final girl)

a big thing movies do is something called the "male gaze". according to Edward Ross, "in this situation, female characters become an indispensable element of spectacle, onscreen less as active agents and more as objects to be gazed upon or claimed as a prize" (Ross 20). slasher films like the laugh at this in the face. slasher films take this technique and use it against the killer. every slasher film has an ending where there's one person alive, and that person is always the virgin. deemed, the Final Girl. the final girl goes against the killer face to face. And instead of running, instead of being eye candy to be gazed upon, she is metaphorically attacking the "male gaze" and turning the tables. "a neat reversal of the male gaze, this move returns the narrative power to look, to the female hero, requiring audiences to adopt a point of female identification" (Ross 25). Learning more about this can help me develop my characters and to create a stronger atmosphere of the film when i start making slasher films and other films in the horror genre. I now can use this to know the basics of making horror films and will help me with my future career in filmmaking.

i made a film earlier this year using basic knowledge of characters and filmmaking, but with this new knowledge i can now make better films using better concepts and views of character from behind the camera. (by the way, i know the film isn't good).

what do you think the reason is to why slasher films like to go against the "male gaze"? and why is it always the virgin that's the final girl?
do you think horror films in general have to have a message behind them to make them scary?