The movie I have chosen as my primary text is [REC] which is a Spanish horror movie which was released in 2007.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UcfV9oBQNM this 5 minute scene is the scene I have decided to analyse.
The way that is scene links in to my media coursework title, is the simple way it can scare the audience without using any blood and gore within the scene. They use simple lighting effects, the main light is black and the only light you get is the torch. The reason they do this is because you can only see what they want you to see. They also use this new technique which is the camera affect, this is when you can actually see through the camera and the shots are not still and it wobbles as the same as the camera. They also use get you when you least expect it, they do extremely well to build up the tension and they do the simplest thing you can do in a movie which is to shock the audience. If you compare this to a movie such as saw where they rely on the blood and gore to create shock tactics, but are clearly less effective as the community has become desensitised towards blood and gore due to other previous texts doing the same blood and gore affects as saw have done.
Issue and debate
There is one main issue and debate that is raised up in the scene which is a moral panic. The way this issue is raised is that in the scene you find out that the way this zombie attack started is through experimentation. Someone has done tests on this girl and now the entire building has become affective, so scientists have caused the problem. This is a moral panic because people believe that scientist play around too much in the real world, and in real life this could cause problems such as a new disease or virus which could destroy the world.
Theories
The main theory which fits into this is desensitisation and the movie cycle. The way in which desensitisation fits in this is that the public have got used to blood and gore, and the way in which people would get scared not is to introduce them to something new but old, this is how it links it links in movie cycle. In the past people got through stages of horror, so in certain years people will find blood and gore scary and in other year’s lack of blood and gore will be scarier. So the blood and gore stage has recently happened and because of this the audience have become desensitised and now something that has a lack of blood/violence would be scarier then something that has more blood.
Cultivation theory – this is from repeated exposure from a number of different texts will make the audience desensitised. This means people who watch horror movies or movie that contains violence will become normal, and they won’t question the text as it would become normal. But the problem occurs when groups of people such as the government thinks this leads to the person doing something violent as they think it is normal. This theory I agree to an extent as I have become desensitised to horror movies or violence, and does not scare of effect me.
SHEP-
Social – this is that people want their money worth these days, if they paying money for a movie they want the best effects out there such as ‘Avatar’. So directors using the lack of gore method could be risky as the audience could think they are getting ripped off. Also TV and internet have made movies they must watch movies and this encourages people to watch movies. Also people are desenstised towards certain scenes, so it takes something different to scare them.
Historical - The Technology has developed special effects are easier to do and looks realistic. Audiences got bored of watching the same thing over and over again, such as the same type of movie (slasher). (Media cycle). The media cycle means that some movies copy other movies from the past, or even because the same director. Such as George A Romero who made ‘night of the living dead’ and ‘dawn of the dead’ or Wes carven who made scream and nightmare on elm street. Some scenes such as the body bag scenes get copied. Audiences in the 1950-1970 didn’t see much blood/gory scenes. After some time they wanted to see more and when the technology increased they had to keep the audience interested. New types of technology have been introduced such as 3D movies (My Bloody Valentine), before just 2D and Black and White, people were happy to see colour movies. As the genre was relatively new in the 1940 there were many new ideas such as zombies, this kept audiences interested. Now ideas have been used so many times it becomes boring.
Economical - More money for the institutions which means they could spend more money of effects. (High concept films). Some special effects are cheap to make such as blood (Corn syrup + water + red colouring). Selling merchandise has increased for different types of horror movies, such as Saw or Freddy Kruger (the mask on this slide). Various products such as bed sheets aimed at many different ages’ groups’ even children. Masks and costumes sold, sales increase during the Halloween season. Some movies are easier to make due to the different styles and techniques such as Blair Witch Project cost $500,000 to make, and made $250m from sales. New technology such as 3D which means people will come and watch it to try it out, also remakes.
Political - Increased level of violence in the public, government/public link to horror movies. A few cases where movies have been linked to a murder or violence goes over the top and becomes too serious. Children watch 18+ movies at a young age through parents fault, or even cinemas as they don’t always check people’s ages. They become desensitised over the years, and nothing scares them.
Task 2-
Works Cited
Abrams, Nathan, Ian Bell, and Jan Udris. ".." Studying Film (Studying the Media). London: A Hodder Arnold Publication, 2001. 133,141,220. Print.
Abrams, Nathan, Ian Bell, and Jan Udris. "Mainstream and Alternative Film form." Studying Film (Studying the Media). London: A Hodder Arnold Publication, 2001. 136,137. Print.
Abrams, Nathan, Ian Bell, and Jan Udris. "Critical approach analysis." Studying Film (Studying the Media). London: A Hodder Arnold Publication, 2001. 182. Print.
"Best/Worst "Horror" Titles." The Internet Movie Database (IMDB). N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Jan. 2010.
Clover, Carol J... "...." Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. 36, 37, 38. Print.
"Halloween Horror Movies May Cause Emotional Problems In Young Children." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Jan. 2010.
Lister, Sam, and Health Correspondent. “Study links violence on TV to child aggression - Times Online." Times Online | News and Views from The Times and Sunday Times. N.p., 18 Feb. 2005. Web. 3 Jan. 2010.
Muir, John Kenneth. Horror Films of the 1980s. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, 2007. Print.
"[Rec] (2007)." The Internet Movie Database (IMDB). N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Jan. 2010.
Roberts, Graham, and Heather Wallis. Introducing Film. London: A Hodder Arnold Publication, 2001. Print.
Night of the Living Dead. Dir. George A. Romero. Perf. Marilyn Eastman, Karl Hardman, Rossie Harris. Weinstein Company, 1968. Film.
[Rec]. Dir. Jaume Balagueró. Perf. Manuela Velasco, Ferran Terraza, Jorge Serrano. Sony Pictures, 2007. DVD.
., sakura. "Do you think horror movies have become too gruesome?." Need Help - Ask a Question and Find Answers. N.p., 21 July 2007. Web. 3 Jan. 2010.
MLA formatting by BibMe.org.
Task 3 –
The two texts that I have decided to compare is [REC] which is my contemporary text, and my classic text is night of the living dead which came out in 1968. The reason I decided to pick this a classic text is because I wanted to stay in the infection/zombie genre. Also night of the living dead was the start of the new media cycle theory, and was one of the movies that focused of effects then storyline, while [REC] does the opposite.
Night of the living dead is a black and white movie, so this is extremely hard to do as they use effects blood and gore to their best of their abilities. Due to this was new technology and was previously never done before audience found it outstanding and extremely gory, also audiences were not desensitised at this point so seeing anything gory or bloody would be new to them.
Due to society changing over time the storylines and specific things within the movie have changes. The first thing is women increasing rights in the world as well as increasing rights within the movie industry. In night of the living dead the main character is a male and more surprising a black man. This is different for movies in the era because in this time black people were barley in movies, and it was increasingly hard to find a black person as a leading character. In the years black males and females have had an increasing role in the movie industry and made names for themselves such as Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington, but the zombie genre has not changed with this being the only zombie/infection movie that has had a black person as the leading character.
Also women rights in reality and movie industry has changed, as in night of the living dead the leading lady as a co star and in [REC] the leading lady is the main character, and has the most air time. Also the increased amount of worry over nuclear or experimenting tests over the years has changed the storyline of movies. In previous years they did not explain how the infection was released and how the outbreak happens, now a day’s movies clearly have at least 5 minutes explaining how the outbreak happen. Also the reason they give does seem plausible, as in real life technology and increased amount of scientist experimenting has increased all these reasons seem like they could happen in the future.
The two texts do have many similarities and difference throughout the texts. The more noticeable one if the main character as the classic is a black male, and [REC] Is a female, this shows women are getting more rights in the movie world, and in society. A big similarity is in both movies the females need a male to save them numerous times, and without them would struggle to survive over 5 minutes, and without them could not be the leading lady, so to an extent a female needs a male to survive. Another similarity is that all the characters somehow meet a harmful death, all characters within the genre and text die, and they tend to die when they least expect it. Also there one charter who has a life changing moment and become a villain to a hero within the movie.
These show mainly 2 things firstly that women still need men for help, and without men women would not be able to survive. Also the world is still run by men. Secondly it shows that people can change in society that people that are self concerened will pull together when humanity requires help everyone pulls together.
Task 4 -
Horror movies
http://www.imdb.com/Sections/Genres/Horror/average-vote
This is IMDB top 50 horror movies and it shows the rating of the top horror. 45/50 is before the year 2000, and the 5 that are in the top 50 and the 5 movies that are after the year 2000 tends to be mixed genre, such as zombieland which is a comedy horror.
Desensitised
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061031113446.htm
This site helps me with my theory of desensitised. It talks about repeated exposure to violence to children will cause problems with them as a children. This would eventually lead to emotional problems and this leads to images becoming normal, which leads to the desensitised theory, and from this people find gory movies less scary and that’s why they are not considered scary anymore.
http://askville.amazon.com/horror-movies gruesome/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=4579313
Opinions
This site is an online forum asking the question ‘do you think horror movies have become more gruesome?’ this site gives people to say there opinion, about the situation, and most agree with that movies have got more gruesome. This links in to my course title, as I also believe this.
http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/1210264-rec/Review
My main text is [REC] and in rotten tomatoes it got 95% and 20 fresh and 1 rotten, which basically means it a world class movie, also all the top critics have given it fresh as well. Also all the reviews call it a truly scary movie, and creepy none of the critics say the use cheap gimmicks and use blood as a main focal point, this movie is clearly based around the storyline and shock tactics.
http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/
This is a strong website which shows me articles from the past as well as new articles, for example they talk about Halloween and the director, and how the 3rd Halloween was pointless.
Task 5
Introduction
I will be discussing my topic which is ‘To what extent has audiences become desensitised to increasingly level of violence in horror movies? I would also introduce my primary text as well as my main historical text.
1st paragraph
In the first paragraph I will talk about the development of the horror genre, and see how times have changed in society and link it to why the genre has developed. I will also look at my primary text [REC] in detail and link all my theories that I will be using which are cultivation, hypodermic needle and desensitisation theory, as well as this I will introduce SHEP. I will also be looking at a more violent text such as ‘Saw’ to support my coursework title.
2nd paragraph
In this paragraph I will be looking at my main historical text which is ‘night of the living dead’ as well as making reference to my 2nd historical text ‘Rosemary’s baby’. I will taking about rosemary’s baby lack of violent and graphic scenes, but have yet become a cult classic. My reference to night of the living dead that it was the start of the graphic area, and people were shocked and scared about the new use of technology, and as it has been over done now that why the media cycle needs to restart into none graphic horror.
3rd paragraph
This paragraph is to compare my two/three/four texts and I will look at the similarities and difference, through the storyline and the techniques which are used. I will need to definitely need to mention saw as it is a gruesome movie and like into my investigation, and then link it to night of the living dead and talk about how technology developed. Then link [REC] with say and talk about how ones based on effects while the other is purely on the shock tactics, and then finally link rosemary’s baby which is the least graphic movie but has become a cult classic, I would mention my theories in this paragraph as well.
4th paragraph
This paragraph mostly talked about the media cycle, and why people want violence in horror movies, and why the less gory movies how now become the new thing. I will also be talking about society and refer to zeitgeist such as nuclear testing. I will also talk about how society has changed such as women rights, and how this has affected the genre. This would be consistently linked to my current and historical texts, mainly the cultivation theory and the media cycle theory.
5th paragraph
The last paragraph I will be talking about media institution and how they do the effects to make money. Also the moral panic as movies is being based on situations that could actually take place. Also I will be talking about the cultivation theory and how it could be people over reacting, as there is no evidence which says violence leads to movie. Then link it to new movies and how they are doing what they did in the past, and say this could be encouraged as people would not witness anything to graphic meaning they would not become desensitised to images and gory scenes.
Conclusion
the final part of the essay I will come to conclusion, so I will say if movies have become too violent just because they have the technology or if institutions do have the technology why not use it. Also if society is taking the issue of people getting influenced by horror movies is taken too far.
Media – Critical Investigation - Task 6
To what extent have audiences become desensitised to increasingly level of violence in horror movies?
Throughout the years horror movies are increasingly taking the centre stage but not for the best reasons, the use of new technology has taken the attention away from horror movie storylines and focused the movie on its ‘overpriced and overused effects’ [1]. The text I will be focusing on is a text which came out in 2007 called [REC], I will also have a second contemporary text which is ‘Saw 5 (2009), these movie are completely opposite the only similarity they contain is they come under the horror genre. My two primary texts is ‘night of the living dead (1968)’ and ‘Rosemary’s baby (1968)’ from these movies you can tell the horror genre has developed dramatically
The horror genre itself has had a big change from the past, storylines, characters and effects have been used to improve but at the same time ruin the genre. The storyline somehow uses real life situations and makes the unimaginable to it, for example the slasher genre they take the serial killer and make them into un-killable monsters. The characters have certainly helped the genre reach its full potential with characters such as ‘Freddy Kruger who society has fallen in love with’ [2], these characters may be violent but still their characters that have become cult heroes. The effects is the only aspect of the horror genre which could be considered of running the genre, the affects where extraordinary to start off with, but now ‘they have been over used, the thrill of horror movies has gone down the drain’[3]. Movies such as ‘Saw 6’ rely on the blood and gore and without the movie would be pathetic, while my primary text [REC] goes back to old fashion horror and uses lighting and camera skills to shock the audience.
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