Conspiracy Thriller Films

• Salt
• Bourne Identity
• JFK
• From Hell
• Enemy of the State 

Convention - Always a mystery to solve but protagonist always face problems and scandals in order to solve the mystery.

Bourne Identity - In the 'Bourne Identity', the mystery is that a man is trying to find out about his identity, all he knows is that his name is Jason Bourne, however whilst discovering about his identity, he finds out that someone is tracking him done and is not happy that he is alive. This tells us that whilst trying to discover his identity, he is facing problems and that is someone wants to kill him.

From Hell - In 'From Hell', two men are investigating on a serial killer who targets prostitutes. Fred Abberline and his partner Peter Godley try to solve this mystery, as to why this man is killing prostitutes however whilst solving it before Abberline's love Mary, he comes across many problems and more difficulties towards the investigation.

JFK - In 'JFK', Jim Garrison re-opens the files of the assassination of President Kennedy and takes a close look at it. He then starts investigating which he shouldn't be doing as a lot of authoritative figures are involved and because of this, it may cause a problem in his investigation.

Convention - Based on historical events and real life people 

Salt - In 'Salt', the conflict shown is between Russia and the U.S. As because the Russian president was killed, the Russians send an agent to get back at the U.S. However the CIA believe that one of their agent is working for the Russians and then gets track down. This shows that it is based on historical events.

JFK - This is based on the assassination of President Kennedy who is an authoritative figure. Jim Garrison tries to investigate the reasons for the assassination as it was someone with a lot of power. This shows that it is based real life people because people in power or in a high status often get killed.

Enemy of the State - In the 'Enemy of the State', a lawyer Robert Dean runs into his old pal who secretly slips in a disc without him knowing. After his pals death, everyone wants to get to that disc as it contains footage of a political assassination but Robert does not know what it contains. This shows that it is based on real life people as authoritative figures often get assassinated.

Convention - Authorities involved in the mystery 

Bourne Identity -  In this the CIA are involved in the assassinations as they don't want anyone to know about their plans. Also because of the assassinations which is planned by the masterminds, the CIA, Jason gets trapped between it and is hard for him to escape.

Salt - The CIA agents that are involved in the conflict are trying to hunt down the Russian spy but they do not know  that Ted Winter who is supporting Evelyn is actually the Russian spy but in disguise. This is shown when he sets off missiles into Mecca so that people turn against the U.S as that's what Russia wants.

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Successful Horror Films - Part Two

Successful Films From 1960-2005

1. The Exorcist 
2. Scream
3. The Evil Dead
4. Night Of The Living Dead
5. Shutter

Primal Fears 

Conventional Fears - Fear on being preyed upon

The Exorcist - Fear of being preyed upon is being shown in this film and this is because the little girl Regan, who is possessed and if anyone comes near her she attacks them violently as to which people don't stay in contact with her as they don't want to be harmed.

Scream - The same fear goes for this film too and that is the fear of being preyed upon. This is shown in this film because a teenage girl who has been stalked and whose class mate that has been killed feels that she is the next target and she is. This means that the serial killer will go after her and now she knows, she will try to escape.

Characters 

Conventional Characters - Child/children often involved 

Scream - A child who is someone's classmate gets killed by a serial killer, the character which is conventional shown here is the child and it shows that in horror films, a child or children are often shown or included as it reflects the social fears.

The Exorcist - The main character in here is a little girl who is Regan, the reason why she is a conventional character is because she is a possessed child. In horror films there are possessed child/children's and this is because it reflects on today's society and the socio-economic society.

Plot Events 

Conventional Plot Event - Someone is always attacked by a stranger, ghosts or demons or anyone linked to the past.

Scream - One main event is that a person is always targeted or is being stalked. This is often shown in films that strangers, ghosts and zombies always have preys and they always have someone to chase after and when they get to them, they kill them. This is one of the typical conventions shown in horror films.

The Evil Dead - The main event in this film is that the group of friends go to an abandoned and isolated area and demons come after them and start to target them by starting off with a girl who gets raped by trees.

Night of the Living Dead - A couple pays a visit to their fathers grave, but then one of them gets attacked by stranger and after they are attacked, it starts leading to other unexpected things.

Shutter - This film also has a typical plot event which is that someone always finds something related to the past and to find out about it, they would always get attacked in some way or another as they would want to be kept away from the truth. This is often shown in lots of horror films maybe because the past plays a big role in the present.

Successful Horror Films - Part One

Successful Film From The Past Decade 

• The Devils Backbone
• Antichrist
• The Descent 
• Session 9 
• [Rec]

Primal Fears

Conventional Fears - Fear of being preyed upon and fear of paralysis

The Devils Backbone - Fear of being preyed on is shown, as a person from the orphanage tells Carlos that the ghost decides who to kill and when to kill them. This creates fear as Carlos does not know who the ghost is after and so is scared that he might be the ghosts next prey.

Antichrist - Fear of paralysis and loss of control, this is shown in the horror film because after the couple lose their son, they stay in a cabin in the woods where there is a darker side of nature and as the wife is already in depression due to her sons death, she loses control when nature takes its course and things go bad to worse.

The Descent - Fear of being preyed upon, shown because the group that were in the cave were being chased by zombies and demons as to which they were scared if they might get preyed upon. Fear of paralysis was shown too, as it was a very defined cave they couldn't move much and escape.

Characters

Conventional Character - Mentally disturbed characters 

[Rec] - Another character is someone who is shown mentally disturbed and distressed, this is shown when a young TV reporter and her cameraman go and found out about it as the thought it would be a trapped lady but turned out to be a mentally disturbed woman. Often shown in horror films that someone is psychologically unwell.

Antichrist - The mother, after losing her son, turns mentally unwell and goes into depression, this is a typical character as in horror movies, people who are mentally unwell have disturbing things happening to them or making things happen similarly to [Rec].

Conventional Characters - Characters who often are involved with the past/ history

Session 9 - The characters that are shown are that a persons files are opened and then their past is reopened too and to discover that people find ancient coins but then disappear. There's always characters that have their past involved in the disturbing things that are happening as to which it becomes a convention of the horror films.
The Devils Backbone - A person from the orphanage tells  Carlos about the past incidents that has happened in the orphanage and how the ghost kills targeted people. Similar to Session 9, a character is involved who is linked to the past or knows about it and tells the main characters about it.

Plot Events

Conventional Plot Events - Couple, family or a group of people go to an abandoned house or forest and characters get trapped and not able to escape.

The Descent - The typical plot is that the group of friends go to an isolated and abandoned cave where unexpected things starts happening which is also similar to Antichrist as the couple goes to the abandoned forest. Another plot is that people often get trapped and here the group of friends get trapped in the cave and cannot get out.

[Rec] - Another typical plot is when the TV reporter and her cameraman are trapped in a building with a mentally disturbed woman and then things started going weird and freaky. This is typical in horror films as many people do get trapped and that starts to make them panic and then disturbing things happen. 
Antichrist - After the couples son dies, they move into the woods which is isolated and abandoned and they have been hearing weird and disturbing things about it and this is when nature unfolds everything. A typical event that happens in horror films which is that a family or a couple always move into a haunted,isolated or abandoned area.

Differences

The Devils Backbone is a Gothic horror film which means that there are more different ranges of conventions as the other films have different sub genres within it just like this film. One convention would be to include the goth language or culture within the horror itself.
Session 9 is a psychological horror film which means that there would always be a character involved that is mentally disturbed and that would be one of the main conventions compared to a Gothic horror film.
The Descent is a British horror film which means that within the horror film there would be British norms and values embedded to it and this would show British history. For example when the group went to a historical cave, that would link to Britain as it is associated with the history.
[Rec] is a Spanish horror film which means that all the background of the characters would be quite similar as the main culture of the film is the Spanish culture. Which means within the horror film there would be Spanish traditions and guidelines which maybe portrayed differently in the horror film.

Horror Genre Research

Orphan (More film examples shown below)

The Trailer

Plot Summary

An American Psychological Horror Thriller Film.

John and Kate Coleman are trying to rebuild their troubled relationship. The couple decides to adopt a child. When they meet the 9-year old Russian girl, Esther, at the St. Marina Orphanage, they fall in love with the well-educated orphan. However the couples young son, Daniel is less welcoming towards her. But the couples deaf-mute daughter Max embraces her more than her brother. Eventually, Kate begins to feel that Esther may be psychologically disturbed. However John refuses to listen to his wife and therefore their relationship is then having problems again. Kate then calls Sister Abigail ( Head of the Orphanage ), and the nun informs her that Esther has a troubled and mysterious history. As Kate dives into Esther's past, she discovers she is not what she pretends to be.

Conventional Characters 

Esther - Possessed Child - A little girl who is psychologically disturbed and is violent which leads her to being a murderer, Esther is actually a 33-year old woman named Leena Klammer. She has hypopitutarism, a hormone disorder that stunted her physical growth and has spent almost her entire life posing as a little girl. Being extremely violent she has murdered at least seven people. Among her victims were a family that adopted her in Estonia, whom she killed because the father rejected her sexual advances. A child is often involved in a horror film whether he/she is possessed or an adult is often trapped in a child's body.

Kate - Mother who saves her family -  A lady who adopts Esther due to problems in her marriage life, hoping her relationship will go back to normal. However she then starts investigating about Esther's past and her disorder which is leading to people being killed. As she tries to solve this problem, she faces a lot of struggles, which could lead to her whole family being killed.

Sister Abigail - Family helper -  A nun who works at the Orphanage where Esther was currently staying before she was adopted. She helped Kate gather information about Esther's past and her hormone disorder. She looks in deeper into Esther's past and finds out reasons as to why Esther acts in a certain way. A person always helps in finding the truth along with a leading actor/actress.

Conventional Locations 

Isolated House - John and Kate Coleman's House, an isolatedl house which is often shown in horror films as within the house lots of unsettling scenes take place which can be very shocking and disturbing. Which is shown in the 'Orphan', Esther goes in the Coleman's house and then very disturbed things start to happen.

Isolated Forest - This was when Esther had murdered Sister Abigail as she knew the truth about her. This scene has taken place in a field when it was winter and no one was around. This is a conventional location because many scenes often happen in the winter as it looks more dangerous due to the trees and the day of times.

Abandoned Woods/ Forest - This is the family's tree house where Daniel and Max often go to. This scene was when Esther had set the tree house on fire in order to kill Daniel as he knew everything about her and didn't even want to accept her. This is a typical location because it seems very isolated and dull. Even though the tree house is on fire there's no one there besides Esther and Daniel.

Conventional Narrative Events 

• One typical event was when Esther had used a hammer to murder Sister Abigail, this is a typical event because in horror films they don't often use guns as a weapon but more sharp things such as knifes, scissors and hammers. This is probably because gun represents more of action whereas knifes and scissors represents more of horror and thriller. it also makes the character look disturbed as it makes the scenes more disgusting using those weapons.
• A new family member, Esther who is now an adopted child comes into the Coleman's family 
• Another event was when we saw Esther was trying to seduce John, which was very awkward as she is only 9 years old however the audience knows that she is actually a 33 year old woman. This is a typical event because odd things often happen in a horror movie such as this.
• Lastly another typical event was when Kate was breaking Esther's neck and threw her in the pond. This was a typical event because in horror films there is often extreme and explicit violence which takes place in the 'Orphan' quite a few times.

Sub-Genre within the Horror

The Orphan is a Psychological Horror film. The reason for this is because Esther is shown as a mentally disturbed character in the film and this is because a 33 year old woman is inside a child s body. As to which is relates to psychology too. The fact that she has a hormone disorder relates to the sub genre of the film. Also because of this disorder she acts really violent which leads her to becoming a murderer and that only occurs if the father of the family agrees to a sexual relationship with her. 

Films with Similar Conventions 

Paranormal Activity 4 - Supernatural Horror

Characters

• Innocent Family, Alex (Older sister), Wyatt (Younger brother) and Ben (Alex's boyfriend). A convention which is shown in almost  every horror film, the movie is based around families, couple or a child/children.
• Demon in a child's form, Robbie who has an imaginary friend Toby

Locations 

• House which within many shocking and disturbed things happen
• Isolated and abandoned house, Robbie's house, which looks quite mysterious as it is very dark and abandoned

Narrative Events 

• Robbie goes to Alex's room in the middle of the night and sleeps next to her similarly to Orphan when Esther tried to seduce John. 
•  A new member is being introduced to the family who is Robbie and his imaginary friend Toby which everyone finds a bit weird as he always talks to him

Silent Hill - Psychological Horror  

Characters  

• Innocent couple Rose and Christopher are worried about their adopted child Sharon who has been sleepwalking and been speaking about a town called 'Silent Hill'.
• Demons - When a humanoid creature shoots Cybil (Police officer)
• Cybil - Police officer who is helping Rose find her daughter similarly to Orphan when sister Abigail helps Kate

Locations

• Abandoned area/forest - Shown when Sharon goes missing, Rose looks for her in Silent Hill which is an unknown area only Sharon knows about
• A place filled with darkness - Shown when Rose entered it was completely dark and there was cobwebs everywhere, quite similar to Orphan as the house was set in a dark lighting

Narrative Events

• When Rose entered Silent Hill, mysterious child came out of nowhere, Rose swerves her car causing a crash similarly in Orphan when Esther comes up behind sister Abigail and hits her with a hammer
• New person being introduced, Sharon turns out to be Alessa, who is being abused by the town people.

Insidious - Supernatural Horror

 

Characters

• Innocent family - Renai and Josh with their two sons Dalton and Foster with their baby daughter Cali
• Possessed child - Dalton has the ability to astral project: the ability to leave your body and to travel to different places but in astral form but he has travelled too far and has become lost in a spirit called 'The Further' (A place for tortured souls of the dead)

Locations

• Dark Attic - Shown when Dalton is in the attic he hears mysterious creaking noises and the door is opening by itself
• Haunted house - In which many disturbed and mysterious things are happening, such as Dalton being attacked violently in his room

Narrative Events

• Innocent family moves into a haunted house - Often shown in horror films that disturbing and freaky things happen in a new/haunted house such as shown in insidious.
• New person/stranger is involved - Shown when Renai when Cali's and Dalton's room, there was a man standing in front of them and then when he stood in front of her, he attacked he and then the family moved to a second house.

The Purge

Reviews 

"A brute icy little shocker, The Purge is a thriller willing to engage blood as well as tension, with just a little politics."

"That old horror movie standard, a homestead besieged by psychos, gets remixed with a bit of occupy-era class-conflict satire in the disappointing future-set thriller The Purge." 

Agree? Disagree?
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_purge/

The Trailer 


Plot Summary 

In 2002, the United States of America introduces a day where once a year "The Purge", a 12 hour period where any crime committed is allowed including murder. The reason for this is because of the 1% unemployment and low rate crimes. James Sandin, a successful salesman that sells security systems for the houses, lives with his wife Mary and his teenage son Charlie and daughter Zoey. During the purge, James seals his house with a security system and the family continues their daily life routine. However, Charlie sees a stranger outside who is crying for help as people are hunting him down. Feeling sorry for the stranger, Charlie disarms the security device and lets the man in. But the leader of the group who is hunting down that stranger gives James a choice. James could either surrender the stranger and let him die or let his whole family be killed. Now its James has to find where the stranger is hidden and decide his fate.

Picture One - The first picture gives us the representation of the left wing that crimes aren't committed by 'evil' people, there are good reasons. This involves socio-economic context, it tells us that the unemployment is at 1% which means most of the people living in America are not jobless. With the purge, the unemployment rate will increase because many businesses will be destroyed through vandalism and robbery.
Picture Two - The second picture gives the representation of the left wing that we should respect the difference. The fact that all crime is legal fulfills the representation because everyone has to accept that all crimes are legal and are acceptable in that 12 hour period.
Picture Three - The third picture gives us the representation that there is a change in society. Because of the purge people have now installed a security system in their house to keep themselves safe. As police cannot be involved in this issue and people will now have to protect themselves.
Picture Four - This picture tells us that crime breaking isn't an individuals decision but instead is society's responsibility as it is being shown on TV, this shows that everybody has accepted the change and are going to take part in it.
Picture Five - This picture tells us how people are living in fear in their own community and it is all society's fault as they have chosen to do this. However they have no choice but to accept the difference.
Picture Six - Similar to picture four, this picture tells us that everything that is going to take place is society's responsibility and that everyone is taking part and this is shown when a group of people try to hunt down a stranger to kill.
Picture Seven - This picture shows that people are supporting the new idea of the purge. By supporting it, people are taking part in committing crimes even though it is against all the rules and values.
Picture Eight - This picture shows that the crimes committed by the people aren't 'evil', for example the lady holding a gun, she is only taking part to protect herself and her family which tells us that some people are being compelled to be involved in crime.
Picture Nine - Lastly this picture tells us that children are also in danger and that their protection is the most important thing than anything else even before freedom. However because of the purge lots of children's lives could be in danger too.

Summary of Left Wing Beliefs and Right Wing Beliefs 
This film targets a Left Wing because one of the beliefs was that people who break the law aren't evil, they are a victim of bad circumstances and need our help. This is fulfilled in this film because the whole society contributes to a crime which wasn't by choice but was a law which was only for 12 hours. Because of the purge, many people committed a crime which they didn't want but due to the circumstances it happened. Another belief it targeted was that criminals are created by inequality of opportunity, poverty and a lack of social care. It is society's fault and responsibility. The fact that everyone agreed to the purge shows that it will be society's fault if someone dies as they took part in it. However it fulfills the target of some Right Wing beliefs as it says children are the most vulnerable people in society and the law should protect them. The fact that in the film the government and society didn't care about the children shows how stone-hearted they are, as children are the future and if they are in danger then the future is in danger. Also it challenges the belief in which civil liberties and personal freedoms are secondary to protecting the public from criminals. The fact that in this film they are encouraging people to commit crime challenges the right wing belief.

             

Slumdog Millionaire

Award Winning of 8 Oscars and 7 BAFTA Awards Including Best Film !!

Reviews

"There are no surprises in this movie, and most people will be able to predict, within the first ten minutes, roughly how the last ten will pan out."

"Slumdog Millionaire is a giddy, breathtaking experience, kind of like winning a million bucks."

Agree? Disagree?
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/slumdog_millionaire/

Trailer

 Directed by - Danny Boyle
 Produced by - Christian Colson 
 Screenplay - Simon Beaufoy 
 Starring - Dev Patel
                 Freida Pinto 
                 Madhur Mittal 
                 Anil Kapoor
                 Irrfan Khan 
 Music by - A.R Rahman 






Summary of the plot

The story is about a boy named Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. While the whole country watching, he is just one question away from winning  20 million rupees on India's Who Want's To Be a Millionaire?  But when the show breaks up for the night, the police arrest him on suspecting he's cheating. To prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up together and fought struggles along with a girl who Jamal loved but somehow disappeared.

Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show's questions. Each chapter of Jamal's story reveals where he learned the answers to the show's questions. But one question remains a mystery. The inspector begins to wonder why would a boy from the slums come to a game show with no desire for money? The next day Jamal returns to the show and one more right answer from him would get him 20 million rupees, the inspector and 60 million viewers are about to find out.

Why would Audience Sub-Groups like it ?

One audience sub-group that would like this film is 13-15 year olds. This genre is aimed at teenagers and the audience can empathise with adult characters in soaps and sitcoms. An example is, when in the movie it showed that they deal with young love which teenagers can also relate to. Another reason is that at this age teenagers often go through a lot of struggles which also happens to Jamal in the film.Another audience sub-group that would like this film are social viewers. This is because they enjoy watching blockbusters and they would also enjoys songs which everyone would listen to. An example was when Boyle and his team had used an iconic song 'Jai Ho', this was used at the end of the film. Lastly another audience sub group it could link to is an extreme audience. Which means it would be an audience that would watch very explicit violence and drug use, an example was when Maman (A man who children see as a saint but isn't really one) pulls out a child's eye. This is an example of what an extreme audience would watch.

Summary of the Reviews 

"There are no surprises in this movie, and most people will be able to predict, within the first ten minutes, roughly how the last ten will pan out."

I disagree with this point because the first ten minutes of the film was very depressing and sad as Jamal had been arrested buy the police as they suspected he had been cheating. Also the fact that his mother dies within the first ten minutes wouldn't make people predict that the last ten minutes of the film will be about Jamal finding his love. However some people may predict that his brother dies towards the end but that would be highly unlikely as the storyline changes throughout the whole film. Because of the interesting storyline it had won the Best Film BAFTA award. 

"Slumdog Millionaire is a giddy, breathtaking experience, kind of like winning a million bucks."

I agree with this point because it was a complete unique storyline and you also see different serious issues that take place in India. Through this people also discover labour, homelessness, enslavement and poverty which leads to crime. This is how it makes people feel likes its a breathtaking experience because it explores real life issues. This is why 94% people gave it a rating of 4 1/2 stars on rottentomatoes.com.

My Own Opinion 

I think that the film was incredibly amazing, it had completely grabbed the audience attention and this is what people want. Danny Boyle has hit a sixer! The movie was a complete original and it is worthy of a classic status. By the time you get to the end you literally forget about all the violence and crime that was involved. This mixed work of Danny Boyle has hit a jackpot. There was everything, drama, emotions and romance. I would totally agree with the review that it is 'kind of like winning a million bucks'.