Coursework 5: Technological and Societal Changes To The Horror Genre

Horror is a genre of film that has been around since before 1900 and has terrified and fascinated audiences through storytelling about monsters and playing on nightmares and social fears at the time. For example Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) had Communism and the Cold War at the heart of its thematic content. The thing about horror is that it has changed like no other genre to keep up with what makes people tick, and what makes people scared socially and economically.
We’ve also seen the splitting of the genre to produce different ways to scare and entertain an audience in horror from monster movies like Frankenstein (1931), to the 1960’s where psychological horror was born Psycho (1960) to ridiculous gore fests such as the Evil Dead (1981). Zombie films such as The Dawn of The Dead (1978) vampires, werewolves, aliens and even comedy horror have all dominated the market at some point. Many things have changed to adapt to modern audiences. But one thing has remained constant, even more than 80 years after Nosferatu (1922) reached audiences, films are still being made to scare audiences and have their fear and gore tolerance threshold tested.
Technology is a big part of the way in which horror movies have changed. For a start, in old horror films the scenes would have to be shot on stage, meaning greater risk to the actors instead of just using computer technology to make the danger and edit the scene afterwards. The latter wouldn’t seem as scary because the actors won’t really be scared. Take for example Faust (1926). Actress Camilla Horn has a number of intense close-ups due to being close to immolation in a scene where she is burnt alive. As fine an actress as she was it’s the fear of real danger that creates the tension and fear in a way that is impossible nowadays due to health and safety standards. Similarly the director of The Exorcist (1973) William Friedkin fired a gun before yelling ‘action!’ to give his actors that extra edge in scenes where they were supposed to be frightened. This industry change and technological advance often leaves us with computer edited scenes from environments that were shot in comfort and therefore do not seem as sincere as the real thing.
In some ways the horror genre has suffered from technology. When films were shot in black and white it took more effort from script-writing to construct a compelling and thrilling horror story. Since the introduction of colour and special effects the scripting seems to have taken the backseat, in favour of audience figures. We can note the start of this trend in horror by Halloween (1978) becoming a massive blockbuster hit, where before, films of its nature were often dismissed as b-movies. This film is quite a basic film about a heartless serial killer hunting down teenagers on Halloween.

Halloween also added an explicit sexual dimension to a genre that already offered copious sexual issues (Shary 2002 p.139).Carpenter’s film introduces a kind of “suburban gothic,” in which “the horror of a gothic bogeyman comes to haunt the remarkably familiar streets of the American youth” (Phillips 2005 p.141).

Although Halloween does this in a very tense way, marketing executives saw this as a great opportunity. Seeing the teenager’s sexual promiscuity and the heavy gore was an ideal way to make money from young people who paid to see these movies. It was a case of dollar signs in the eyes to produce imitation slasher movies and by the 80’s this formula had become an archetype of the horror genre.

Indeed, the copious sex and violence offered up by the slasher film results in an organised system of film production that is based on sameness rather than innovation, and produces entertainment rather than art. For these reasons it has been strongly argued by critics that the American teen horror film is fit only for teenagers who have not developed the critical faculties to appreciate more refined forms of entertainment (Cherry 2009 p.33).

These films were heavy on blood effects and low on artistic merit showing a shift in the interests of the average horror viewer from films based on literary greats such as Edgar Allan Poe and Mary Shelley to films about psychotic families slashing up intruders in a low brow manner such as The Hills Have Eyes (1977). This is something the audience still yearns for with The Hills Have Eyes being remade in 2006. Even The Evil Dead (1982) was remade and released last week. This section of easily consumable horror for the masses isn’t usually artistic and usually has no merit in scripting but is there to give a scare and show some guts. However, as referred to earlier technology has changed so even the remakes of these films effects look different. With crews dedicated to costume and special effects such as The Evil Dead (1982) and The Thing (1982) where the preparation and acting had to be done with the effect after hours of preparation rather than just edited in afterwards, these films seem much more horrifying than some of the sterility that has come with computer enhancement and CGI effects of the last 15 years.
Another way in which technology has changed horror films is the modernisation of the cellular phone and the internet. Nearly every horror film since Scream (1996) has had to write into the script an explanation for people not merely using their phone to call for help. This may seem like a tiny change to the industry but it has seen many write-ins of spirits controlling technology, erratic computer functioning and supernatural spirits coming to life through technology. This in itself has helped boost the supernatural/demon sub-genre of horror of the past ten years. It also combines with the modern idea of life being over dependant on technology to create fear within an audience who relate to this.
The Ring (2002) is a film which characters contract a curse by modern media which kills them in seven days unless they pass the curse onto someone else by using media. Since this Japanese remake there have been countless films using technology as a theme for fear, usually in a supernatural way. A huge example of this is Paranormal Activity (2007) where technology is the tool of the demon inhabiting the house. This is a new type of psychological thriller which has become very commonplace in popular horror in the last few years. Paranormal Activity was shot; borrowing heavily from The Blair Witch Project (1999) and it shows the influence of technology on the horror genre. Both franchises are recognisable as they are both seen by the audience through what the characters themselves record. In Blair Witch Project it was handheld cameras used as a POV shot of what the characters were seeing. In Paranormal Activity it was the same as well as through home security cameras. Both of these franchises have been very successful and that is largely down to this unconventional way of storytelling/scene shooting. This would have not been possible in the past as the technology wasn’t there for people to own their own cameras, let alone ones light enough to be able to run around in the woods with. This also plays on the audience’s fear of technology and helps them to relate by the characters through owning the same technologies as them. The film itself becomes very personal for the viewer and there are now so many films using these techniques that it is debatably a sub-genre of horror in itself.
The Blair Witch Project also showed a paradigm shift in the marketing of movies in general, but horror in this instance. Through viral marketing and campaigns the hype of the film was bigger than the film itself, all to get the audience to believe the ‘footage’ was real. This added to the hysteria and intrigue surrounding the film. In fact the film itself initially cost $35,000 to produce but when Artisan studios bought the rights for $1.1million, a whopping $25million was spent on marketing it into this true story idea.

Online ad promoting the story of the Blair Witch.

This shows the first time when the internet was used massively to promote a film and generate hype and also gives insight into modern movie marketing. Many horror films these days have continued the trend of using the ‘true story’ label and it has been a modern hallmark of the horror/thriller genre ever since. Though it was The Exorcist that was the original ‘true story’
The role of females has also been a big change in contemporary horror. This is down to societal attitudes changing but also because many more women than before have their own disposable income and enjoy being scared/intrigued in the cinema just as much as their male counterparts. We are less likely to find the damsel in distress portrayed in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) or King Kong (1933) and are more likely to find a woman more capable of defending herself and being the protagonist. With Alien (1977) this was a refreshing change to have a female protagonist who wasn’t just in the movie to run around screaming and then be killed off (or in the case of Jaws (1975) swim around a bit first). But in Alien Sigourney Weaver’s portrayal of Ellen Ripley paved the way for the female audience

Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in Aliens

everywhere to immerse themselves in the role of the protagonist who could defeat evil instead of merely being saved by some man. It has gotten to the stage where The Thing prequel has a female protagonist in place of a male protagonist like in the original. The Evil Dead remake has a main character that is female (and for anyone familiar with the franchise it is her that picks up the chainsaw!). So it is the development of horror to see women as a very important audience to cater for in modern day cinema and this changed from when it was young males who needed to be gratified most. In The book “Men, Women and Chainsaws” Carol J Clover supports this “The functions of monster and hero are far more frequently represented by males and the function of the victim far more garishly by females. The fact that female monsters and female heroes, when they do appear are masculine in dress and behaviour and often in name and that male victims are shown in feminine postures at the moment of their extremity…” (Clover,1992,p 12.)
This quote showed that within the horror genre there were defined roles for men and women and while in some instances this is still the case there have been many post-modern throwbacks and in the cinema of today it isn’t credible to have this dumb blonde character type as the leading female. It is believed now that women in horror films will have better survival reactions and mental strength to fight off evil rather than simply make a lot of noise until someone saves them or they meet their demise. The last character like this that was in a successful movie (though a suspected parody of the horror genre up to this point) was in Scream (1996).

So in summary, technology has changed the ways in which horror films are made, distributed and marketed. Societal trends have changed so that gender roles have blurred and films are more accessible to a wider range of people than in the past. Horror is also one of the most changing genres due to trends and fear evolving and changing over time.
One point to make also is that horror has largely and regularly used pastiche to come up with new films, rather than make original ideas like the pioneers of the genre did. There are almost countless re-imagining’s of classic 70’s and 80’s movies. Many of these are nothing like the lauded originals. But this is what audiences want as most prove to be very popular at the box office. Also many new films like Insidious (2011) and Mama (2013) rely on loud noises and jumps rather than suspense and intrigue to scare modern audiences. This is a trend many film critics have berated as unimaginative, but is it any different from those that declared slasher movies as crude and unimaginative compared to the post-modern and silent era horror films before them? The horror genre is always changing to keep up with young trends and to keep finding new ways (sometimes basic) to keep us entertained on the edge of our seats. It is a genre that still survives and moves onto something new each time it seems like countless copycat films have spoilt it.

Word count: 2106

References:
CHERRY, B., 2009. Horror (Routledge Film Guidebooks). 1st edition. Routledge.
CLOVER,C,1992. Men, Women and Chainsaws. P12 Princeton University Press
PHILLIPS, K.R., 2005. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture. 1st edition. Praeger.
SHARY, T., 2002. Generation Multiplex: The Image of Youth in Contemporary American Cinema. 1st edition. University of Texas Press.

Coursework 4: Implicit and Explicit expressions of Ideology

In order to establish whether a film has implicit ideologies or explicit ideologies we must first define the term ideology. An ideology is a system of ideals and ideas, especially when it comes to economics and politics. It was argued by Comolli and Narboni (1969) that because every film is part of the economic system, it is also part of the ideological system ‘for cinema and art are branches of ideology.’

In Marxian tradition, Marx and Engels initially characterized ideology as the ideas of the ruling class. But later Althusser defined ideologies as ‘perceived-accepted-suffered cultural objects which work fundamentally on people by a process they do not understand.’

Each film is political whether it means to be or not. The equipment used, the script, the way it is shot falls under one ideology or another. All of the rules and traditions of filmmaking come from ideological discourse and so too any references in films. But some films deliberately show their ideologies in two different expressive styles, implicitly and explicitly.

Now, implicitly expressing an ideology would be subtle and left down to interpretation, often with nuances and hints. Whereas explicitly expressing an ideology would be stating it outright so the audience knows exactly what the message of the film is.

Two films that express ideology in these two different ways are The Dark Knight and Les Miserables.

In the Dark Knight Ideology is expressed implicitly. We have a debate which is set by the urban backdrop, in the crooked underbelly of Gotham City. Both sides of the political ideologies we have in society today are exemplified through the goings on in The Dark Knight and Batman is the character that has to deal with his own version of fairness in amongst this. The ideologies at play here are Conservatism and Liberalism. The Conservatives believe human nature is flawed and Liberals believe that humans are good but society is flawed. This film was released in 2009 when the recession started so through character and plot devices implicitly shows us the shortcomings of both of the main political mind-sets we have in our system today. In doing this we are shown an ambiguous form of political ideologies that can be interpreted in different ways by the audience.

In Les Miserables the Christian ideology is explicitly expressed throughout. The ex-convict Jean Valjean has been forgiven by Jesus due to a priest who shows him grace.  As a result to that forgiveness, Valjean lives a life only serving others.  His good works are directly from the bible. The songs and dialogue refer to God, Jesus and salvation throughout. This is an obvious example of ideologies being forthright and in the faces of the audiences. There is no ambiguity here just explicitly expressed ideologies, with one of the oldest ideologies our society has had, the theistic religion of Christianity.

These two examples clearly show us the definition and difference between implicit and explicit expressions of Ideology.

Word count 502

References

COMOLLI, J.L. and Narboni, J., 1969. Cinema/Ideology/Criticism in BRAUDY, L. and COHEN, M., 2004. Film Theory and criticism. 6th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

http://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/essays/culturalmarxism.pdf

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1964/marxism-humanism.htm

Coursework 5: Prometheus Review

The idea of an Alien prequel with the guidance of original director Ridley Scott was one of great promise. Of course this had to be accompanied by the moviegoers wise decision to keep expectations down at ground level. This will never be Alien and it doesn’t try to be. What I was expecting was solid, entertaining filmmaking in a franchise I hold dear. But I left the cinema confused more than anything, by what I saw on the screen.

Prometheus is about a group of scientific explorers that travel to a planet said to hold the secrets to the origins of man. It is there that things go horribly wrong and humanity itself must be saved. The specially chosen crew embark on a three year voyage in order to find the answers to the secrets of the universe but run into genetic relatives of the Aliens we loved and feared on LV-426. The film has a lot of potential when we learn that perhaps human DNA came from aliens, a theory that can be found in classics such as ‘The Pit and the Pendulum’ but hasn’t surfaced much in popular culture.

Visually the film is stunning. Ridley Scott delivers when it comes to creating an aesthetic world which is both beautiful and mysterious. The aliens design too is meticulous. Sadly these are almost the only good things I can say about Prometheus.

Michael Fassbender as David.

The other positive part of Prometheus was the wasted performance of the wonderful Michael Fassbender playing the synthetic human, David. Fassbender adds the films only top-notch performance and David the only appealing character. He is a realistic robot who works upon the ship with the other characters, though his motives are never explained in the film, Fassbender does a job much better than Prometheus deserves. The other characters in Prometheus seemed like they were only in the movie to die at certain plot points, certainly not what we got from the crew of the Nostromo in the original Alien film and certainly not going to make us care when they meet their demise.

The build-up in suspense when the ship is in orbit all the way to when the characters find their first clues of the puzzle is quite effective, Though with the lack of care for any of the characters it’s hard to stay engaged when things happen to them.

Another problem with the characters in the script was that they did things that were never explained and not in synch with what was going on in the movie. One example is when two of the crew members were trapped outside the ship overnight the only available security member on board the ship decided to leave his post and have sex instead of either doing his job properly or getting someone else to cover the post for him. Surely with carefully selected staff on a $3 billion mission there’d be someone to take over the reins or they’d pick a ship captain with some sense of responsibility.  Another part that really irked me in this way was when our main character Elizabeth Shaw played by Noomi Rapace is chased by David and other crew members in one scene. She then has an abortion made for male anatomy which is stitched up by staples and then receives no reaction when she bursts into a room full of her adversaries bloody andpanting. There are so many things I have a problem with in that sequence I wouldn’t know where to start. There are many otherexamples too, unfortunately of similar things that make you scratch your head.

Noomi Rapace as Dr. Elizabeth Shaw.

But surely I’m being too harsh on Prometheus? No. From a philosophical point of view the films lazy attempts to construct an air of religious mystery turns out to be as basic as the first class in religious studies at school.  It’s as if the film tries to recreate some of the clever intrigue found in Inception but doesn’t quite know how to.

The film is perhaps intended for a newer audience. As with many films that make it big at the box office these days it doesn’t necessarily have to make sense to be considered good. Prometheus is one of the better examples of the modern day trend to make the audience have to suspend their disbelief in order for the script to work. If you can do this then you should enjoy an action romp that takes itself seriously. If however, you’re like me then you will only leave the cinema frustrated at what was a promising prospect.

Word count: 760

References

IMDB.com

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=137119

Coursework 3: Conforming/Subverting to Mainstream Standards

World War II and the years afterwards saw Hollywood take a stranglehold on world cinema. With European countries counting the cost of the war, America would produce much of the world’s films and export them all over the world. More importantly it saw Hollywood establish the conventional norms of film making and attitudes on-screen. This is why mainstream and Hollywood go hand in hand both in terms of philosophy and financial clout. This is still seen today and here are two examples of films, one which conforms to Hollywood norms and one which subverts mainstream conventions.

The Avengers (2012) is a film which sticks almost painfully to mainstream conventions. It makes us laugh, enjoy the on-screen action and takes us away from our lives and into the world of these superheroes, and everyone goes home happy without having to think of anything deeply meaningful.

The basic Hollywood superhero story formula is:  the dysfunctional character gets a positive super power, overcomes adversity and defeats an evil nemesis. It’s easy to see in any superhero movie of the last 20 years and the Avengers is no different. It does not offer any new insight into social or political concepts (at least the Dark Knight attempts to) but relies on CGI and one-liners from a group of the audience’s favourite Marvel heroes. This old, linear, safe Hollywood plot and character device clearly still works as Avengers  grossed $1.51 billion worldwide, making it the third highest grossing film of all time. The film also received very favourable reviews and so is a massive Hollywood success: It’s shallow, doesn’t take the viewer out of their comfort zone, gave most people some light entertainment in a ‘safe’ way (in scripting, technical methods and directing) and perhaps most importantly made a lot of money. Those are the hallmarks of a successful mainstream/Hollywood movie.

A film that subverts these norms and places viewers in an unfamiliar position is Donnie Darko. Although this film is now ironically mainstream (as some people deliberately look for non-mainstream films) it was almost a straight to video release and The way in which Donnie Darko subverts mainstream norms is by confusing the viewer and making us feel uncomfortable at not knowing the truth of the movie. We feel alienated at the end of the movie by not knowing exactly what happened and why. This does not tend to happen in big Hollywood productions (Inception aside). The film also moves into different, alternate realities and dream (diegesis) sequences that makes the masses question the way they perceive time. Also Donnie Darko falls under the thriller/horror/comedy/romance/sci-fi genres and is hard to place in an exact category, whereas mainstream movies more than likely do fall under one genre. This is the reason why it made a poor return at the box office, a lack of a safe genre identity and so the production company didn’t know exactly which audience to sell the movie to.

Many do not like the sort of film that will make them question things because they’re not used to Hollywood producing those sorts of films and so big companies tend to not produce them, which perpetuates the cycle.

Most of the time, foreign cinema and low budget films are where to go to escape the comfort and convention of Hollywood and mainstream cinema.

Bibliography

http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/

Coursework 2: Auteur- Quentin Tarantino

An auteur is generally regarded as:

“a concept that holds the director, who oversees all audio and visual elements of the motion picture, is more to be considered the ‘author’ of the movie than is the writer of the screenplay.” Britannica.com

Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock and Akira Kurosawa are known as auteurs but perhaps one could stake the claim that Quentin Tarantino too is a film auteur in a more modern way. Some may say his own influences are too derivative for him to be considered an auteur but this does not mean a director has to be classically good or original to be an auteur and for this reason Quentin Tarantino has to be considered an auteur. We may not feel good about it but Tarantino fits the criteria as he has almost total control over what he directs and has a trademark style people can identify in his work. It has been debated whether this can be the case but whether a director produces great artistic films with socio-political depth or more obvious, and entertainment based ones all it takes to really be an auteur is to watch a film and think “That is so Bergman” or, in this case “That is so Tarantino”.

In terms of camera angles there are certain shots Tarantino uses throughout his films that aren’t a cliché in American cinema. One of these is the “from below” shot which is used (usually from the boot of a car) in at least eight movies he has directed and even in the one-off episode of CSI that Tarantino directed. Here is a clip that depicts exactly what is meant by his “from below” shots.

We can see in this simple way that Tarantino is someone who is given artistic freedom to shoot films in the way he wants to.

In particular there are three films that are strongly linked to give Tarantino a good claim for being an auteur. These are: Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill Vol 1. (All of the following clips are from these and show his use of music throughout his films to affect both audience and characters)

Tarantino is known for his soundtracks. In fact he says that the scenes he writes for his movies come from songs when he’s listening to them. The soundtracks he creates in his films are a massive part of theme and character device in themselves. In Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill the soundtracks each contain a rich blend of mainly obscure 60’s and 70’s music as well as country and western tracks. These add to the feel of ‘This is a Tarantino movie’.

Tarantino is involved in casting, writing, acting and sometimes does the cinematography (Deathproof) as well as directing his movies which gives him an even greater amount of control. He even places fake brands he made up in more than one of his movies . in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction the cigarette brand ‘Red Apple’ is mentioned, and in Kill Bill this style is continued by showing a billboard for them.

He also reuses actors, settings and even his foot fetish to stamp his reputation as an auteur.

Bibliography

Britannica.com

Quentin Tarantino: The Cinema of Cool

Coursework 1- Defining Moments of Pre-1930’s Cinema

L’arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat (1895) is a  Lumiére brothers short film that mystified and in some accounts even terrified audiences as they tried to get out of the way of the train that was coming towards them. For the first time, a diagonal frame was used to give a sense of realism, which helped its effect on the audience as well as showed what films could do to audiences through technique.

The Lumiére brothers created the Cinematographe and were the first to show films to a paying audience, something that is second nature to us now.

http://www.precinemahistory.net/1895.htm

http://www.earlycinema.com/pioneers/lumiere_bio.html

D.W.Griffith wrote and directed The Birth of a Nation (1915), a film which is regarded as so significant it was ranked #44 in the ‘Top 100 American films’ (1998) by the AFI.

In nine weeks, with only one camera and two lenses Griffith changed moviemaking techniques and storytelling within American filmmaking. The switch from cinema as mere entertainment to an art form was established in America from this film.

It’s uncomfortable to watch as its racist content would make Nick Griffin blush and it was also used as KKK propaganda material until the 1970’s. Surely though this makes its high status in filmmaking all the more remarkable after nearly 100 years.

http://www.afi.com/100years/movies.aspx

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/1999/nov/25/3

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) by Robert Wiene is seen as one of the best German expressionist films, one of the earliest horror movies, a big influence on film noir, Hollywood horror and can be seen in amongst almost any Tim Burton movie.

This film propelled the career of actor Conrad Veidt. His status was so grand that when he fled Germany, Joseph Goebbels continued to phone him in England to star in Nazi propaganda movies. When Veidt refused and made anti-Nazi movies, Hitler declared all of Veidt’s films banned. The film and its star are still affecting movie lovers worldwide to this day.

http://www.theartsdesk.com/tv/horror-europa-mark-gatiss-bbc-four

The Good German: The Life and Legacy of Conrad Veidt

The Jazz Singer (1927) directed by Alan Crosland is recognised as the first feature length film with synchronised dialogue sequences. This saw the beginning of the ascendancy of the ‘talkies’ that spelt the gradual extinction of silent film.

Consequently this affected film-making so much that a movie such as ‘The Artist’ with no dialogue is viewed as a strange masterpiece, with many cinema-goers today not being able to adapt themselves to its style, that is why The Jazz Singer finds itself on this list.

The film was so advanced it was ineligible to win awards at the Oscars due to it being ‘unfair’ on the other (silent) films.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/oscars–cinemas-golden-night-the-ultimate-bluffers-guide-to-hollywoods-big-night-8508244.html

Metropolis (1927) Was directed by Fritz Lang, Metropolis is one of the most renowned silent films and its plot and social commentary have only become more relevant in 21^st century society. With eerily relevant themes and examples this film is defining in pre 1930’s cinema for its influence on political, social, and sci-fi media. Even the imagery can be compared to the appearance of popstars today such as Lady Gaga and Beyoncé.

Beyoncé has outfit inspired by Metropolis imagery.

It was one of the first sci-fi films ever made and the most expensive ever produced at the time, costing what would have been 20+ conventional feature movies at the time and nearly bankrupting the German studio, UFA.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/sep/09/metropolis-restored-film-review

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1013775-metropolis/