In which ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Horror can be defined as a macabre genre inspired by the literary work of romantic era poets such as Edgar Allen Poe and Bram Stoker, these classical works are exemplified in horror films possessing distinct characteristics applied in fiction. Various traits of these include isolated locations, frightful weather, human revulsions,illustrated in the works of the primogenital French horror Le Manoir Du Diable (1896), in which the devil is embodied as a bat. This work also exposes the constant theme of sub genres in horror which, in this case is religion. Other conventions include the five type ensemble in relation to characters that can be stereotyped as; the slut the jock, the brain, the doofus and the virgin, whom typically survives. These are excellently highlighted in the 2011 film “The Cabin in the Woods”.
My short film conforms to these codes of the horror genre in the style ofcinematography utilised, for example there is a night vision point of view shot by our antagonist stalking its victims. This approach can be observed in other classic cult horror films such as “Silence of The Lambs” (1991) where, we witness Buffalo Bill pursuing our protagonist using similar goggles. This conjures fear in the audience as viewers recognise it as a predator stalking its prey by consequently making the victim appear minute and powerless. In “Vengeance” there is further reference to “Silence of The Lambs”, as dramatic irony is employed in this scene, as we know the victims are being hunted whilst they are unaware.
Source: (http://pyxurz.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/silence-of-lambs-page-7-of-7.html)
Furthermore the movie complies to horror conventions as the villain can be observed wearing a mask identical to Jason Voorhees; the antagonist from the renowned “Friday the 13th” franchise. Completing my research I deducted masks are a recurring motif in horror, being employed by a number of prototypal horror films such as “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974) to contemporary horror films such as the independent horror Film “Your Next” (2011). In which the antiheroes are presented as wearing animal masks. The use of masks are designed to play on our inherit psychological fear of the unknown as through visualising people's faces it provides us with information such as gender age and financial status.
Alike the previous “Friday the 13th” reference the title of my plot “Vengeance” holds similarities to other classic horror films such as “Drag me to Hell” 2009; in which a gypsy hexes a young accountant to be dragged to hell by a demonic force for not aiding the women with her financial issues. This is a convention of horror as vengeance is often seen as a likely killer motif which is often paired with vengeance for crimes such as rape displayed in multiple horror films, such as the “I Spit on Your Grave” franchise and “Hard Candy” (2005).
Many horror films apply decaying isolated sets as a critical part of the plot/mise-en-scene to ensure the audience and characters feel detached and helpless. This is concurrent in multiple horror motion pictures such as “The Evil Dead” (1981). In which a group of friends holiday in a dilapidated shack in the woods and inadvertently summon demons ultimately leading to their peril. As illustrated below my setting has took heavy influence from “The Evil Dead” location.
Source: (http://2020iscoming.info/else/evil-dead-2017-tree-rape-scene.coming)
My horror film contradicts certain horror stereotypes for example using weather to conjure fear, as rain automatically creates a loss of visibility which naturally unsettles the audience and also aids, in the composition of jump scares when paired with non-diegetic sound. this has been illustrated in multiple lucrative films such as The Conjuring 2 (2016) as demonstrated in the scene below. I felt this convention was unnecessary to my film as I did not feel the need for jump scares as I aimed to build tension slowly, hence it was not a climactic scene like the scene below which is a final pivotal moment.
My film also challenges the portrayal of women in horror, who are presented as hyper-sexual helpless maidens as displayed in the German expressionistic film “Nostferatu” (1922) where it defines the female character as a “women who is pure of heart”. My film accomplishes this by portraying males as the victims defying archetypal gender roles, my reasoning for this was to counterbalance the negative gender labelling in horror tailoring the film to a liberal 21st century audience.
In conclusion by conforming to certain horror conventions and challenging others, I was able to construct my film in a way that I felt was respective of the genre whilst developing and modifying the tropes of horror to improve the classification.
