CharactersRuby – Roma Nair

Frankie – Alex Kelly LambertTrey – Harry Adebayo

Amy – Mia Kelly LambertChelsea – Rosie Jacobs

Jason – Dilan PatelAlex – Henry DavineJay – Nitin KapoorMum – Ms Malins

Auditioned Characters

Alex (Henry Davine)Henry’s physical appearance can be associated with gang connotations and interpretations of social issues. His shaved head and over-sized black hooded jacket emphasises the dominant hegemony of teenage apparel. It provides a deep wide analysis of ‘The Return’ as it focuses on the pressing social and soci-historic context that the film was made in. in addition, performance wise Henry could verbally fulfil the typical teenage role with the use of colloquialism or slang which the audience can relate to hence satisfying the audience and catering to their wants and needs due to ‘The Return’ having many relatable aspects for the teenage demographic it is aimed for.

Frankie (Alex Kelly Lambert)Frankie who is played by Alex Kelly Lambert plays the role of our final girl. We felt she was perfect for the role as she is perceived as not wearing too much makeup which reinforced her innocence. She could also utilise her facial expressions well, imitating effective confused or overwhelmed expressions which would work well in scenes where Frankie is being attacked. She is perceived as attractive and good looking, yet does not display an overly flirty demeanour which reinforces our protagonist. We can see that she also has long dark hair, which is also a convention for a final girl as it reinforces hegemonic values. This was perfect for the conventional aspects of the role of the final girl in a formulaic manner. Also the role required a sister, and due to Mia Kelly Lambert being her identical twin, this allowed a realistic portrayal of a biological sister in our film. Her sister provided an area to apply to Claude Levi Strauss’s theory of binary opposites as Mia (who plays Amy) could display everything Frankie is not, making good consumption of narrative theory.

Jay (Nitin Kapoor)Nitin provides further reinforcement for the dominant hegemonic values of the general reckless teenage lifestyle. He provides an outgoing, bubbly and ultra-lively performance which implies a drunken state when juxtaposed in a party scene with surrounding entailed alcohol and music. Through the slight humour displayed in his performance, he could provide an entry point for the audience to relate to. The role of Jay is close to Frankie, who can be seen as ‘more than friends’, although due to Frankie’s role of the final girl and being ‘virginal’, this is as far as their friendship goes. Therefore, viewers will be rooting for his survival and expect him to live, and shares a similar amount of empathy with the final girl. These qualities further enhance and boost audience engrossment with the character and provide a richer viewing experience. Nitin provided these qualities which as a result obtained him the role of jay.

Jason (Dilan Patel)Sharing similar characteristics with male friends Jay, Alex and Trey, Dilan provides in his performance qualities that collectively, when accumulated with in particular on-screen best friend Alex, reinforces typical teenage behaviour. Dilan maintains a driver’s license which allows consumption of a vehicle which creates a more realistic verisimilitude for the audience to become engaged with. His clothing worn during the audition provided the reinforcement of dominant ideology of the generic teenage materialism via the Nike branded product he is wearing. This idea of materialism shown in his performance displays a desire to be identified with a group or gang which targets pressing social issues seen today such as gang conflict which demonstrated soci-historic context and commentary in ‘The Return’. This also may be provided in focal point of relation for the teenage demographic this film is targeted for. The name Jason also provides a direct intertextuality reference to Jason from Friday 13th, and this provides viewers gratification as slasher fans will be pleased to identify the link catering to the wants and needs of the audience obtained through my audience research.

Chelsea (Rosie Jacobs)Rosie plays our character Chelsea who characterises the role of a conventional formulaic sexually active girl. Similar to Mia’s (who plays Amy) performance, she provides a flirty and sexually accessible performance in her audition which suited the conventional role. She also has blonde hair which is codified for the role of the sexually active girl as it reinforces hegemonic values. This is useful as when analysing ‘The Return’ genre wise in a wider meaning, Chelsea is punished for her sexual activity. She is attractive and wears a reasonable amount of makeup to be deemed or identified as sexually active by the viewers. She also provided a realistic ‘drunk’ performance for the party scene which reinforces dominant hegemonic ideology of teenagers living recklessly. She and Harry (who plays Trey) represent the wider meaning of ‘The Return’ hence why she and Harry were chosen to play the on screen couple.

Trey (Harry Adebayo)Harry plays the role of Trey, who demonstrates a typical generic representation of the conventional black character within slasher films. It is conventional for this character to die first as ethnic minorities are formulaically displayed this way. Harry suited the role with a good build and in the audition displayed a sexually active appearance which reinforces the reason for him dying first. This is useful as Trey engages in sexual activity with his on screen girlfriend Chelsea. We felt this sexually active appearance can be used as an area for relation in terms of the teenage demographic ‘The Return’ is aimed at, who may relate to his behaviour which thus provides a more immersive and gripping viewing experience for the audience. In addition, Trey is quite aggressive towards his peers and when being hunted down by Ruby, this was a quality prominent in Harry’s audition hence our selection of him for the role.

Amy (Mia Kelly Lambert)Mia provided the role of the final girl Frankie’s sister which opened up an opportunity of usage of binary opposites. She could display a flirty, playful and a sexually accessible demeanour in her acting which subverted Frankie’s behaviour of being the formulaic innocent and virginal girl. Her blonde hair reinforced dominant hegemonic values of blondes being sexually active which fitted into her role as her character is killed with the wider meaning implying punishment because of this. In addition to these attributes displayed she also bears Frankie’s likeliness which creates a more realistic representation of a biological sister on screen. The vast personality differences allowed the main character Frankie (the final girl) to be clearly displayed and easily identifiable in comparison to Amy, otherwise the likeliness between the two actors would have been a hindrance however the binary opposites application gets rid of this possible complication.

Ruby (Roma Nair)We chose Roma as Ruby to perform the main role of the villain for various reasons. Firstly her eyes were sharp and large similar to a child’s eyes but also when her eyes were made wide it created an unnerving look. Also her long black hair provided a perfect ‘mask’ to abide by the codes conventions of a masked killer in the slasher genre, yet catering to a female killer role. We felt that having a female killer yet masked abided yet subverted the conventions of the slasher genre in a healthy and interesting way. Roma is also perceived as petite which implies dominance with elements of a smaller childish nature. Acting wise, Roma displayed strange stared and sluggish scary movements which fell into the role of a villain hence her selection for the role of Ruby.

Ruby, Amy and Frankie’s mother (Sharon (Ms) Malins)Ms Malins performed the mother of Ruby, Amy and Frankie. Her performance was very sincere, calm and collected. These factors fit perfectly into the role of an older benefactor who is wise or beholds a greater level of intelligence to the teenage characters which may be regarded as a ‘gift’ (Vladimir Propp narrative theory). With the utilisation of Ms Malins as the mother, she can fulfil the formulaic aspects of the wiser older character which are a conventional aspect in slasher films.