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'.