OK: Reading source 1 - Politics of the Slasher movie
1. When, and in what way were women repositioned within the horror genre?
In the late 1970’s, American horror cinema underwent a profound change as directors such as George A. Romero, Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper and John Carpenter all responded to the politics of the time. Night of the Living Dead (1968), The Last House on the Left (1972), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Halloween (1974) were all preoccupied with ‘the horrors at home’ and slowly begin to reposition the female within the genre: no longer weak and unable to defend themselves, these ‘new women’ of horror would not only protect themselves but actively seek out the threat and destroy it.
2. What are the conventions of the 'Stalk and Slash' subgenre of horror?
All films of this sub-genre are American studio productions- Teenagers who travel to a remote location and indulge in sex, drugs and alcohol- Murders take place one by one using weapons other than guns- The killer is always masked to add to the mystery and tension- Ending of the film always involves the last survivor of the group to have a stand off with the masked killer, who he/she reveals themselves from behind the mask they've been wearing
3. Who originally watched these films and why?
Research into the slasher film genre shows that the core audiences are teenage boys and young men. Research shows that two key visual elements have helped to attract this audience - sustained scenes of female nudity and the graphic depiction of assault and murder. The promise of increased violence not only sustained audience interest but also made celebrities, out of their special make-up effects technicians. Slow torturous death scenes were included, resulting in the upper half of the body being the main target area for the murderers, increasing the amount of gore that is seen during each murder
LH - Reading source 2
1) Stories that aim to scare audiences are very popular because, cultures create and ascribe meaning to monsters, endowing them with characteristics derived from their most deep-seated fears and taboos
2) The insight the study of horror monsters can show the anxieties and concerns of contemporary culture, there are a few drawbacks like not everyone finds the same thing scary.
3) Nosferatu was one of the earliest horror films which used a vampire, showing him as an ‘invader’ as it is from ‘elsewhere’. It could be used as a sexual metaphor, this is because method of attack involves penetration and the exchange of bodily fluids. Also, it could be used as a metaphor for the German society, being ridden of illness and disease, the vampire is portrayed similarly to a rat.
- Great depression is used because of the great financial hardship across the whole of the western world. The film Frankenstein is used to show this in the Russian revolution and the power struggle.
- Many monsters in these horror films are made to represent something, many show the racial tension in the 1900s. These monsters are depicted as the Americans view on racial minorities (of the time).
- Horror movies reflected images of human cruelty, for example things like the holocaust and the nuclear bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, due to the sheer cruelty of the events.
- Films more recently show the modern day horrors, things like human trafficking is used due to the sheer terror behind it, it is what everyone fears.
5) The horror genre uses its cycles to adapt and change to each of the generation’s wants and needs when it comes to horror films, using their concerns and preoccupations. It uses a metaphorical approach which can link to current ideas and issues that appeal to the biggest audience possible across a range of audience groups.
FP: Reading
source 3 - Zombie Horror
- There is a very prevalent fear of faces that are ‘Near Human’
- The use of ‘dead eyes’ in the zombie genre is a very effective method for instilling fear in the audience because it signifies a lack of life in something that appears to be alive, which is disconcerting.
- This is why characters such as clowns and dummies are used very regularly throughout this genre.
- This fear could be caused by a sudden disruption in how the human mind perceives human faces.
- People are left with a sense of discomfort when they process a human or ‘near human’ face and are left with a different outcome to what they expected.
Uncanny valley- 1970’s research
- This is the process by which experts aimed to give robots more human-like features in the hope that people would find them easier to interact and work with
- This is the process by which experts aimed to give robots more human-like features in the hope that people would find them easier to interact and work with
- However, instead it revealed that when encountering a very human like being, except for one key feature which could be missing (i.e. eyes), it evokes a nervous and fearful reaction from people
Why do people love
the zombie apocalypse? (pop mythology)
- People are under the illusion that they love the idea of a zombie apocalypse, when they really don’t.
- Most people are aware that zombies are never really going to walk the Earth
- People believe they have the potential to survive the zombie apocalypse, so they look forward to it.
- However there are other types of zombie films, where the only way to survive is by having certain abilities or genetic traits
- Also there are ‘Rapture’ type films that are also selective in who survives and who doesn’t
- No one wants to fight zombies that aren’t easy to beat. This suggests an enjoyment that some people get from fighting and killing (if you can kill something that’s already supposedly dead)
- Zombies are generally slow with poor coordination and reflexes.
- Films in which zombies are perhaps faster or more able than regular humans, thus making it harder to survive, are less appealing to audiences as a post-apocalyptic fantasy.
- Zombie films are generally indiscriminative in who survives and who dies, appealing to minorities that are usually oppressed and treated insignificantly. This genre tends to provide equal opportunity for all groups in society. In fact, it is not uncommon for a fairly unlikely character to triumph and become significant despite hardships that faced them previous to the apocalypse. Zombie apocalypses exemplify an opportunity to apply knowledge and specific skills that one might not be able to utilise as often as they’d like in average everyday life.
- People tend to get excited about this type of situation without first considering the long-term effects and details.
- People also tend to fantasise about these potential situations with a view to all the freedom they would acquire due to the lack of authority that comes as a result of the breakdown of society. They envision all the things they would be able to do with this freedom.
- People also view this scenario as an opportunity to gain revenge on people that wronged them before said scenario
- Zombie scenarios attract audiences
because they appeal to the slightly more sinister character traits within
people
Why do we love zombies?
Night of the living dead - 'The Bible of zombie stories'
- 'Zombies are everywhere' (Videogames, cinema, television)
- Zombies have to be gory
- Scares aren't immediate, have to be earned through time and patience
LH - Task 4 - Thriller
Audiences often seek thrills vicariously because it
increases the tension in the film, it can often create visceral effect for the
audience making them more gripped and in the action. In this case they are
putting themselves in the situation of the character in the film
this increases the tension for the audience as they are put in the
situation in their heads.
Audience appeal is creating something that is attractive to
its audience, this means in the film scenario that the film is open to a big
audience, this could also mean that the film involves things like popular
actors to draw in an audience for themselves. films need to make sure that they
have audience appeal to bring in a big crowd. There are many different types of
thrills that can be presented for example it would be different in some
films to other s for example a slow moving thriller like la Femme Infidele
would create a different sort of thrill to a fast paced action like Z.
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