Thursday 2 April 2009

Haloween

Iconography:Halloween has many iconic visual images. Firstly one aspect that is very iconic is the fact that it is a bunch of teenagers who the whole film is based upon.Secondly their is a psycho killer who wears a mask so that he is not identified and caarries a big knife around with him, which he uses to kill all his victims with.Thirdly the characters who make out got jilled first.Last of all i thought it was iconic about the psycho killer going after a lonely babysitter.Style:Setting:*The suspicious and murder scenes are always set at night time*The murder scenes always take place in a house where the parents are away and a group of teenagers are together or someone is babysitting the parents kids.Narrative:Characters:*Final Girl*Group of teenage friends*Masked psycho killerThemes:Psycho killer v Final GirlSane v InsaneAudience Response:Audience is frightened yet excited and looks forward to somebody getting killed. They take sadistic and voyeuristic pleasures.

Friday 13th

*The film was first released in 1980, with many sequels that followed on from their, ending in the remake of the first one in 2009*The film focused and revolved around the character Jason,who only makes an appearance at the end of the film*The franchise of Friday the 13th was sold to new line cinema, who then came out with the concept of Freddy vs Jason*The directors and producers of the original Friday the 13th had nothing to do and took no part in the rest of the sequels*The film was made into a novel and also comic books

Nightmare On Elm Street

The film was written and directed by Wes Craven, who was also responsible for the film "Scream"*The American Horror franchise consisted of eight slasher films, a television show, novels and lastly comic books.*The series of the sequels of the film were produced by the independent film company, New Line Cinema*Nightmare on Elm Street is the third highest grossing franchise*The film series has been a financial success at the box office*In 1988, a film series was produced and had Freddy as the host*The original film was released in 1984, with sequels that followed in 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1994 and finally in 2003*Micheal Bay and his production team are looking to reboot the Nightmare on Elm Street *Franchise, the film is scheduled to be released on 16th April, 2010

Scary Movie

The Scary Movie series is a series of films which mainly specialize in spoofing current, popular horror films, which have collectively grossed over $817 million at the box-office worldwide. The two main recurring actors of the series are Anna Faris and Regina Hall, as Cindy Campbell and Brenda Meeks, respectively. They are joined by new or recurring actors and characters.They were distributed by Dimension Films through two different studios: Miramax Films, as it was originally the studio's genre film label during executive producers Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein's run and produced the first three films, and The Weinstein Company, the brothers' newly formed studio, which currently produces the rest of the series' release after departing from Miramax and taking the Dimension Films label with them. Miramax/Disney retains international distribution rights.Scary Movie (July 7, 2000) is the first film in the series. The film is the only in the series to feature exposed male genitalia. Scary Movie was the highest grossing film of the series, grossing around $278,019,771 worldwide. The movie is based on other scary movies made before but some of the details are made into jokes (Scream)Scary movie Franchise:Scary movie 1Director: Keenen Ivory WayansWriters:Shawn Wayans (written by) &Marlon Wayans(written by) ...Release Date:8 September 2000 (UK)Genre: ComedyA group of teenagers including Cindy Campbell and Bobby Prinze, accidentally hit a man when driving, and dispose of the body, but now they are being stalked by a very recognisable masked killer. The victim count increases, whilst Cindy must survive the carnage that has she has seen in so many films before. Six friends - Cindy Campbell, Bobby Prinze, Buffy Gilmore, Greg Phillipe, Ray Wilkins, and Brenda Meeks - are being stalked by a serial killer. A serial killer that is after them because of an accident that they caused last Halloween. A serial killer that seems to have come out of every other scary movie. The body count has already started with Drew Decker, the local town slut, and it's starting to build up. The friends are going to have to escape from both the killer's clutches and annoying news reporter Gail Hailstorm if they plan on livingScary movie 27 September 2001 (UK)A group of teens including Cindy Campbell and Brenda Meeks are invited to spend a night in Hell House. Professor Oldman has convinced them it for a school project, but the night won't go past quietly. Master Kane is long dead, but still plans on enjoying himself, especially with Alex Monday. When things really start getting bad, the gang must work together to find a way to capture this ghostly menace.Megan Voorhees is possessed and two priests, Father McFeely and Father Harris, must drive the demon out, but the exorcism doesn't go as planned. A year later, survivors Cindy Campbell, Ray Wilkins, and Shorty and Brenda Meeks, are at college, trying to forget the incidents that occurred last Halloween. Cindy is falling for Buddy, who loves to give wedgies, and Ray is still confused about his sexuality. Professor Oldman and his paralyzed assistant, Dwight, have decided to do a research study at Hell House, the house where the bad exorcism took place, and disguise it as a sleep disorder study. Chaos starts as soon as Cindy arrives and meets the creepy caretaker with the funny hand. But the house has some deep dark secrets that the group has to solve, even if they are scary or disgusting.Scary movie 323 January 2004 (UK)A mysterious killer video tape is circulating around. One look at this tape and you have seven days left to live. News Reporter Cindy Campbell (Faris) witnesses this video tape and tries to work out a way to prevent her death. But this is not the only mystery to appear. Crop circles have been appearing in the local farm of Tom (Sheen) and George (Rex). With help from Aunt Shaneequa (Latifah), Cindy suspects that the aliens may be linked with the killer tape and must now work out both mysteries before it's the end of the world.Scary movie 413 April 2006 (UK)Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back as the lovable, dim-witted Cindy Campbell and her self-serving, sex-crazed pal Brenda respectively. They are joined this time around by Craig Bierko as the cute, but utterly clueless, Tom Ryan. Together, they battle to save the world from a ruthless alien invasion. Cindy Campbell moves in next to Tom Ryan because she's taking care of an old lady. She finds out the house is haunted by a little boy and goes on a quest in the village to find out who killed him and why. Also, Alien "Tr-iPods" are invading the world and Cindy has to uncover the secret in order to stop them.Post-modern-Pastiche-A media text made up from other media text pieces or of imitations of other stylesIrony- Irony is when humour is based on using words to suggest the opposite of their literal meaningIntertextuality- The practice of purposely including a reference of one text in the narrative of another, it can generate levels of meaning for the viewer.Parody: A parody is in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work, its subject, or author, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitationSpoof: a composition that imitates or misrepresents some body's style, usually in a humorous wayOther movies in scary movie:ScreamI know what you did last summerThe sixth senseHalloweenThe Blair Witch Project The Usual Suspects Titanic and AmistadThe Matrix

Tcm Comparison

"Compare the two versions of TCM. HOW and WHY are they similar or different, paying close attention to ideas/theories about the ways genres repeat themselves and the wider contextual factors that have influenced any changes."

‘Texas Chainsaw massacre’, belonging to the slasher film genre was first made in 1974, and then remade 2003. Both are remarkably stunning films. The killer in the film, which was based on Ed Gein, otherwise known as leather face brings forth the notion of gore and bloody violence; however he indirectly raises the issues that would be brought up in a typical slasher film.
Both versions contain the typical elements of characters, these being: the final girl, who is typically blonde; the killer, who has a mask, made of others skin/features; along with a group of friends in which they have a couple along with a single, geeky guy. There is a representation of Binary Oppositions within two of the characters, the final girl (sally) and the other girl, who is more slutty and open to a sexual relationship, linking to the idea of the Madonna vs. The whore. However it is arguable that Sally has changed within the second film, she has become more open to a sexual relationship, as she is now seen kissing her boyfriend. The other change from these characters from the old film to the new film is that the geek no longer has a wheelchair, other than that all the characters have been, almost identically reflected. The usual downfall for most of these couples are that they engage in sexual intercourse, a reoccurring theme within many slasher films, for example in scary movie, a parody of the slasher film genre, we hear one of the characters talking about the typical conventions within the characters, one in particular, ‘You may not survive the movie if you have sex.’ This can also be linked with the idea of Eros vs. Thanatos, which is the theme of sex & life vs. Death. In both cases of the two films the audience is able to identify with the final girl as well as the killer, which are the audience’s voyeuristic pleasure as well as the audience’s sadistic pleasure.

Naturally the first film is a reflection of the zeitgeist, as at the time of the release of the first film the Vietnam War was going on, on the other hand the new ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ was reflecting the audience’s sadistic and voyeuristic pleasure in watching slasher genre films. However the second film is more a film that reflects our pleasures in watching slasher films, however these issues may be because of censorship, that is why the first film was able to show more gruesome and horrific scene’s, where as the second film was introduced with the censorship, disallowing the showing of many such scenes. Both of the films are set within the times of the industrial revolution, as machinery was taking over most of the industries there was less need for human workers, in particularly for the slaughter industry, which is one of the motives for the killings of all leather face’s victims. Another reflection of the zeitgeist would be the medium shot of the van pulling up into the gas station, the group of friends had to wait for the gasoline because of a decline in industry, and people were no longer getting oil, because of recession and worries over international affairs. Another issue that is raised through leather-face is the Oedipus theory, which his relationship with his psychotic is symbolised through the apron he is wearing.