Legal and Ethical Issues of The Conjuring

Ethics are “the moral principles, as of an individual" (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/ethics) an ethical issues The Conjuring may have is through its portrayal of women as 100% of the thirty men and women I asked in my questionnaire replied to the question "how do you think the clip portrays women and men" all stated a positive opinion of men for example 50% of the participants said strong and 20% said being protective. This is because in the clip Ed prioritizes his wife over his job insisting they do not get involved in the case in order to protect her from the evil in The Perron house. The subjects of the questionnaires opinions differed greatly however, in the way they felt women were portrayed, which 30% said they were exhibited as "damsels in distress" and they other 70% thought the film made them appear as “weak”. This characterization of women is an ethical issue as it reflects stereotypes which are “a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing” (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/stereotype) most women would not be happy being represented in this way as it does not mirror as large percentage of women in society. The Conjuring also portrays women as being very talkative in the opening scene of the film whilst the male is sat back not talking at all which is a cliche but not accurate of reality, in this scene the women can be described as being very frightened which also reinforces the idea that women are weak because of their intense terrified reaction of the demonic activity going on in their home opposed to the male friend in the opening scene who is a lot calmer, we can tell the women are in fear in this clip  as it is exhibited in their tone of voice. Another way women are represented as weak in the clip is the two females are desperate for help because of the paranormal activity going on in their house therefore it gives the impression to the viewer that they are incapable of fixing their problems, which gives the reader the idea of fairy tales and as women being damsels in distress who need to be saved.

A moral panic could be classed as an ethical issue as it is term coined by Stanley Cohen its definition is “An instance of public anxiety or alarm in response to a problem regarded as threatening the moral standards of society”. An example of a moral panic is the Mods and rockers riots 1961. The Conjuring did not create a moral panic therefore this is not an ethical issue as none of the character were represented as bad or dangerous.


An ethical issue of The Conjuring is in the clip and throughout the film the only ethnicity portrayed is Caucasian therefore it gives the idea all Americans are white and because of the locations used in the clip it additionally makes us think they are all from middle class backgrounds (E.g The Perron farmhouse) as the only person of an ethnic minority in the film is Ed and Lorraine's assistant Drew played by Shannon Cook, this could be an ethical issue as he is presented very stereotypical of the Asian community for example he is very nerdy which could offend Asian viewers as it is labeling them, the character also has a minor role in the film therefore The Conjuring has only reflected a very small part of society in the movie being middle class Caucasian individuals. The subjects of the questionnaire picked up on this too as 50% of them said the characters were represented as white/Caucasian and the other 50% said they were either middle class/ upper class.

Furthermore an ethical issue of The Conjuring is it states at the beginning of the film, “based on a true story’ however as it is a horror film things will be sensationalized (presenting stories in a way to give a scarier more sinister effect an example of “The Conjuring doing this is though its use of music for example in a scene where one of the family members witnesses a demonic presence the song “In The Room Were You Sleep is playing by dead Mans Bones, this is sensationalism as it is an intense sinister piece of music, so it makes the audience feel more uneasy and scared than if the music wasn’t in the film. Therefore it is unethical as it is suggesting to the viewer that everything in the film is real even though they could be changing parts to keep it suspenseful they could also change the characters to make them more interesting for the film. This is also the case in the New Line 2005 film “ The New World” as this is a film based on the Virginia settlement however people have criticized its historical accuracy; for example Professor Cathy Schultz, Powhatan's people "were far from the innocent, childlike creatures we see in the film."

The MPAA (American Film Regulatory Body) was founded in 1992 in order “to promote and defend http://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/130/590x/17f32mods1-476488.jpgthe First Amendment and artists’ right to free expression.” New Line Cinema that is the production company that made The Conjuring is a member of the MPAA therefore they have to conform to the MPAAs rules and regulations for example in 1922 the MPAA was create to “ensure absence of offensive material” (http://www.mpaa.org/our-story/).  This is an ethical issue as The Conjuring has material, which is offensive to certain groups in society for example there are moments of blasphemy for example when the demon is mocking the trinity by banging on the walls at night in threes.
The conjuring is the film has content, which is highly inappropriate for children, for example the possession scene towards the end of the movie. Regulators like the BBFC which is a is  “a trusted guide to media content. Working as an independent, self-financing and not-for-profit media content regulator, the BBFC operates transparent, consistent and trusted co-regulatory and self-regulatory classification and labeling systems in the UK”; will take issue with this as one of their issues is to protect the public from inappropriate content with children being in particular they also have a role to give power to parent to decide what their child can or cant watch. This can be considered an ethical issue as the conjuring has explicit language adult topics (e.g. demonic entities) this makes it not appropriate to children but in order to stop children watching the film, which will protect them, it got given an R rating for sequences of disturbing violence and terror, other agencies such as The Advisory Panel on Children's Viewing also protect children from this content.

Also The Conjuring’s content is not an ethical issue because if the film breaks some of the BBFC regulations such as “to protect vulnerable adults from potentially harmful or otherwise unsuitable content” (http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/guidelines);the BBFC can ban films such as Freaks (1932) The British Board of Film which was set up in 1912 can overrule the BBFC and pass films it has rejected or banning films that BBCF has allowed.An ethical issue that should be considered is if The Conjuring was ever to be broadcast on UK television, it would have to be televised past 9 o'clock at night. This is because this is past the watershed which is a time used to broadcast things so children will not see them, so they are protected from harmful materials. Broadcasting inappropriate material past the watershed is one of Ofcoms most important duty; which is a regulatory body in the UK that "regulates the TV, radio and video on demand sectors, fixed line telecoms, mobiles, postal services, plus the airwaves over which wireless devices operate". Also if The Conjuring were to be broadcast on UK TV it could not be broadcast on any channel as if it were broadcast on a channel such as CBBC which is a children's channel which has a "core audience is primary school children aged six to 12-years-old "(http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/articles/cbbc-channel) it breaches its certificate which is rated R and does not protect children from harmful content which Ofcom states is anything violent, sexual graphic distressing or contains explicit language. A suggestion of a channel that would not cause any ethical issues if it were broadcast on is The Horror Channel as youngsters are not exposed to this channel and the name gives people a clear understanding of the content that will be broadcast on that channel.A legal issue The Conjuring my face is in its representation of characters, as the characters in the movie are real people, therefore if they feel like they have been represented in a negative way that is not true to their character they can sue The Conjuring for defamation of character.

Another legal issue the Conjuring faced was in order to portray Ed and Lorraine Warren the renowned paranormal investigators. New Line Cinema first had to get the rights to the case files of Ed and Lorraine's work, which had already been bought by Tony DeRosa Grunds Media Group. This media group also had the right to the title " The Conjuring". Therefore in order to obtain the files in late 2009 New Line Cinema made an agreement with the Tony DeRosa Grunds company to use 25 of the 8,000 case files of the Warrens work; two of these cases were the 'Perron Farmhouse" case and the "Annabelle" case. However since then Warner Bros have been sued by Evergreen Productions, for withholding production credit to DeRosa Grund. In the case the plaintiff demands an injunction while Warner Bros, is attempting arbitration and mediation to settle the case.