The three films that I have picked for this genre assignment are: Insidious, The Grudge and You're Next. As you can tell from the list of movies, the genre that I have decided to choose is horror films. I really enjoy discussing this genre because I do not find it scary and it does not give me creepy nightmares. To be honest, I find horror movies quite romantic. You might be wondering why romantic? I find horror movies cute because one finds their inner fears while watching them and especially if you are watching horror movies with a guy friend, it just makes things romantic, if you know what I mean. Anyways, back to the three movies I picked. I chose these movies because they are very enjoyable and they aren't super scary. I have analyzed each movie and there are many codes and conventions that the films follow. All of the movies have a very strong effect on the audience in many ways like, the sound track is slow and eerie using classical music or synthesizers making viewers tense. The music usually is playing at a low volume slowly increasing and getting louder which causes viewers to feel the mood of the scene.
The pictures above are long shots from the movies Insidious, The Grudge and You're Next. Long shots build up creepiness and isolated atmosphere kind of feeling to the audience because they are showing many things in the shot. For example the first picture above creates a scary sense due to the little boy sleeping calmly in a dark room with creepy white moonish lighting coming through the windows with the wooded back board walls. The long shot creates an isolated atmosphere because you know that something wrong will happen soon do to the eerie music and the shots.In the second picture you can see is from The Grudge, it shows how the house is located the corner where it is hard to find, making the scene terrifying because its isolated and dull looking. The final picture is from You're Next, making the viewers scared because its a big creepy old house in a wooded area. The reason for many long shots is to create a sense of terror towards the audience.
The three photos above also show a very dark creepy setting. An important feature that people see while watching horror movies is how the setting is portrayed. The setting is usually shown very dark and dull which also creates a scary terror vibe. This atmosphere makes the audience synthesis how little the characters can see, causing tense. Due to these dark creepy settings the viewers are consistently wondering what will happen or what will pop up and scare them. Not only does the dark and dullness of the picture scary the audience bu the weather of horror movies play a significant roll as well. Usually in scary movies the weather is eerie, chilly and windy making whistling noises causing a chill down the spin.
In the video above you can see how the vulnerable character is usually a females because they are stereo typically believed to be the weaker sex and makes an easy victim. In the scene above which is from the film The Grudge you can see how the female got attacked rather then a male because they are portrayed top be weak and less dominating. Adding to that, many horror films have a killer trade mark where the killer does something similar or leaves a mark behind after or before killing someone. In the movie The Grudge the killer has a trademark, where it leave and appears slowly and kills instantly. Another important device that all horror films use is screaming to show a reaction of the scary parts. Usually there is screaming, blood, and weapons used in the movie. those three things pretty much symbolize a horror film, without those things horror films wouldn't be scary.
All of the photo above are from the three films which show the three most important convection that all horror movies have. Screaming, blood and weapons. if the movie does not have all of these things then there will at least be one.
In class we have only done like two comics (thank god) which in my opinion were very bad. I do not like comics because they remind me of animation movies like Pokemon or Yugio and i absolutely disliked the why they looked on the television. The graphics, the speech bubbles and they way it looks bothers me a lot because it is confusing to read. I prefer novels where there are absolutely no pictures and I can make the movie in my head as i read along. Where as in a comic book there are lots and lots of pictures given to you. I pretty much sit there trying to figure out what the graphics are telling me and how each one relates to the speech bubbles. i just feel like there is to much work involved in reading a comic book. I simply find it difficult and annoying to read the comics for the reasons given above. (No offence Mr. Edwards)
Mini-Review #2: YouTube Viral Friday Videos
I thought that viral Fridays were the best (until we stopped doing them) because they got everyone's opinion on what they thought was funny. i liked how every Friday there were two different people who picked videos and the class had to vote on which one was the most liked by them. I thought by doing something like this the class can see on how people have different opinions on whats funny and whats sad. i remember watching a video where this guy broke his leg because he biked off of the ramp or something and the class was laughing but in reality that would have hurt so much. i feel if you showed an elderly person that video they're reaction would have been disgusted and our reactions were the total opposite. The videos showed me how the society is changing in what we find funny and sad. It was a great way to relate to them and talk about how people are changing and we don't really care as much for others.
In class we watched season eight episode 10 of Keeping up with the Kardashians. I really enjoyed watching the episode because the Kardashians are hilarious and I watch the show on a daily basis. That's not the only reason for why I enjoyed eating the show, I liked how we didn't just watch a random show but rather a popular show. Many people all around the world watch this show and the reason I think that it is really popular is because we can relate to it. Keeping up with the Kardashians is a famous reality TV show which most people watch due to their content of daily life and family bonding. Reality TV is a really popular part of the television area because the society prefers to flip on the TV when they have nothing to do and need to be entertained because they ate bored. Not only that but one can gain lots of positive values out of this specific show. In short I find the Kardashians amusing and fascinating, they'er family bondage is something that I love to see. How a family that huge be so close?
Mini-Review #4: Movies
Throughout the course we have watched many movies but my favorite movie was Cabin in the Woods because I enjoyed how it was a stereotypical movie making fun of other horror movies. The movie had the typical high school teenagers; the jock, the smart guy, the slut a and finally the virgin. The order of death and how they die were very similar as well as the scene where the go to the basement and look at all the creepy things. I liked the movie even though it included the same steps is a horror movie and you knew what was going to happens next. I thought the ending was really creative because the virgin presses the red button releasing all of the creatures trapped in the cubes which causes many deaths of the people who were betting in which creature will be featured in the "movie". I thought it was really creative that the movie makers incorporated the sacrifice part because it made the viewers wonder what their importance was until they reveal their purpose in the end. It was a really unique was of ending the film.
