Final Girl: A Feminist Horror Movie Database
Application + UI Concept, Scale Development
FINAL GIRL is a feminist horror movie database designed for the discerning (or squeamish!) horror fan. Presenting traditional film stats alongside five different user metrics, the app serves as a companion to those who are curious about horror, but may be reluctant to dive headfirst into a film that’s more than they bargained for.
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
Horror as a genre spans across many different subcategories, be it Slasher or Serial Killer, Suspense or Psychological Thriller.
In my humble opinion, there is a horror movie for everyone—even those who do not traditionally like the genre. But it can be a minefield to sift through dozens of genre films trying to find something that won’t fuel your nightmares for weeks on end.
Final Girl seeks to streamline this process as much as possible, so that viewers know what they are getting into before they find themselves inside a movie they would prefer not to watch.
“What scares me is what scares you. We're all afraid of the same things. That's why horror is such a powerful genre.”
John Carpenter
BENCHMARKING
I conceived of FINAL GIRL as a combination of IMDb, Letterboxd, Shudder, and DoesTheDogDie.com.
TVTropes.com: Horror subgenres
Netflix: Adjective tags
DoesTheDogDie.com: Triggers
RottenTomatoes/Metacritic: Ratings systems
IMDb/Letterboxd: Structure, user flow
Shudder: Horror-specific aesthetics, categorization, subject matter
THE METRICS
To start developing my horror movie metrics, I brainstormed the different ways audiences might distinguish certain subgenres of horror from others.
The initial five factors I came up with were FEAR FACTOR, JUMP SCARES, REALISM, BLOOD + GUTS, and EMOTIONALISM.
Eventually, I adjusted REALISM to SURREALITY, so it would have the same valence as the rest of the factors.
I also changed EMOTIONALISM to MIND-BENDING after hearing my friend talk about how unprepared she was for the psychological content of a horror show she and her partner were watching.
FEAR FACTOR
JUMP SCARES
SURREALITY
BLOOD + GUTS
MIND-BENDING
USER FLOW
NOTES + SKETCHES
FINAL FLOW
STYLE GUIDE
All colors, besides the main Final Girl Red (C61717), are in grayscale. To create a moody atmosphere, I designed the app to be inherently in dark mode.
For type, I stuck to the native iOS font SF Pro, save for the app wordmark/logo, which I set in TotallyGothic OT.
I created a set of custom icons to represent the rating system and the five metrics, as well as the five options in the bottom bar menu.
I used the Ghostface icon as shorthand for the Final Girl User Metrics, so the user would associate it with the rating system.
