There are many reasons as to why people go to the cinema, however in the last few years the industrial companies have played it relatively safe, in creating films with common denominators in order to keep the revenue streams flowing. However the aim of cinema is to create an immersive 'experience' for the audience to experience with friends. In order to this the director will have to evoke some sort of emotions in order to connect to the audience, one of which is the able to scare the audience, in an experience which in some cases is visceral. One could say this is one if the reasons why the aim to scare the audience in motives such as sudden jumps in order to keep the audience 'on the edge of their seats' and wanting to watch more.
What insight can the study of horror monsters give?
The ways that the producers of a film are able to scare their audiences are mostly done through the use of the antagonist, the antagonist can be in many different forms such as:
- aliens
- ghosts
- the possessed
- zombies
- dolls
- the devil
with a further understanding of the antagonist the producers will understand what makes the audience tick, in terms of the scare factor, in order to capture a wider range of viewers through better ratings. Through word of mouth or buzz the film will be talked about causing more people to go and watch the film, resulting in more revenue, which, at the end of the day is the main motive for the production of the film.
What did Nosferatu (1922), one of the earliest horror films use the vampire as a metaphor for?
What did Nosferatu (1922), one of the earliest horror films use the vampire as a metaphor for?
Nosferatu (1922) was a film shot in 1921 which was subsequently released in 1922, it was an 'unauthorised' adaptation of a very similar film 'Dracula', this caused some real controversy as Bram Stroker sued over the production of the adaptation, which resulted in all of the copies of the films having to be destroyed. However one survived and is now regarded as one of the most influential pieces of early cinema. They referred the vampire as an invader that comes from elsewhere which can be interpreted sexually but since Germany was just recovering from the aftermath of World War 1 and with Nosferatu's rat like appearance, it would seem that he was a metaphor for a disease or a presence that isn't wanted there.
Read to the end of the article. Make notes on how there are different readings of horror based on socio/cultural contexts of the decade?
A lot like Nosferatu, Frankenstein (Whale, 1932) was based a lot around the occurrences of that time. For example, Frankenstein was made during the great depression during which the Russian revolution occurred, in Frankenstein the anger is directed at the monster rather than the ruling class which reflects what was happening at the time. There were different interpretations of the context such as how we sympathise the monster represents the racial tensions which were currently rising in American culture and the monsters death showed how one cannot integrate into another society. During the 1960s; as the social times changed it was reflected in the horror monsters. The first film of the decade was Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960) in which the monster is a normal man who goes crazy similarly to Peeping tom (Powell, 1960) These type of horror films create an unsettling amount of realism. By the end of the decade a lot of racial tension was occurring in society, during this time no one would ever think that a main character would ever be a black male but Night of the Living Dead (Romero, 1968) challenged this, which made it well known as a emergent ideology production. As horror moved into the late 1970s, the films became increasingly violent with The last house on the left (Craven, 1972) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Hooper, 1974)
In the final paragraph, why according to Hendry is horror still relevant to audiences?
Hendry tells of how horror is a very dynamic genre being able to be shaped to each and every situation allowing it to be very popular with a wide range of audiences and tastes.
Read to the end of the article. Make notes on how there are different readings of horror based on socio/cultural contexts of the decade?
A lot like Nosferatu, Frankenstein (Whale, 1932) was based a lot around the occurrences of that time. For example, Frankenstein was made during the great depression during which the Russian revolution occurred, in Frankenstein the anger is directed at the monster rather than the ruling class which reflects what was happening at the time. There were different interpretations of the context such as how we sympathise the monster represents the racial tensions which were currently rising in American culture and the monsters death showed how one cannot integrate into another society. During the 1960s; as the social times changed it was reflected in the horror monsters. The first film of the decade was Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960) in which the monster is a normal man who goes crazy similarly to Peeping tom (Powell, 1960) These type of horror films create an unsettling amount of realism. By the end of the decade a lot of racial tension was occurring in society, during this time no one would ever think that a main character would ever be a black male but Night of the Living Dead (Romero, 1968) challenged this, which made it well known as a emergent ideology production. As horror moved into the late 1970s, the films became increasingly violent with The last house on the left (Craven, 1972) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Hooper, 1974)
In the final paragraph, why according to Hendry is horror still relevant to audiences?
Hendry tells of how horror is a very dynamic genre being able to be shaped to each and every situation allowing it to be very popular with a wide range of audiences and tastes.
good content, but the post needs reorganising
ReplyDelete