How typical are your chosen texts of their genre?

Fish Tank (2009) is very typical of the social realism genre.

Fish Tank was filmed in Tilbury, in Essex, in a run down estate called Mardyke. This area was renowned for its high crime rate and anti-social behaviour, as it is an underprivileged estate. Since Fish Tank was made, the estate it was filmed in has been renamed to Orchard Village and it has been given funding for re-generation. With the knowledge of where the film was made and the type of reputation the area has, helps Fish Tank to be successful in the social realism genre.

In the scene where Connor gives Mia the video camera, Mia fiddles with the camera and learns how to turn it on and work it. This is followed by Mia filming Connor getting dressed, and smelling Connors aftershave - giving him her opinion of it. Subsequently, Connor pulls Mia over his knee and playfully slaps her on the bum. This is foreshadowing what will happen later on in the film, when Mia and Connor end up having sex. This is typical of social realism because it is all filmed with a hand held camera, and it is all very raw and natural. Flirting between a teenager and her mothers boyfriend are not something that is seen in mainstream happy-ever-after films, and so this means that it is a gritty, social realism film as it is very real life.

Fish Tank is not a film that fits into the Propps theory of narrative as there are no clear heroes or villains. Mia is the protagonist who wants to get away from a dysfunctional, down-ward spiralling world of anti-social behaviour and no future. Mia is constantly walking very fast, as if she is trying to get away, but is going nowhere. In the opening scene where she confronts a group of girls that are dancing in a park with some bare-chested boys looking on, she is filmed on her own, isolated away from everyone else.

Discuss the audience appeal of your three main texts. [30] LOST

Lost appeals to it's target audience by using common conventions such as music. The non-diegetic music in Lost is used as an indicator for when the audience should feel certain things. For example, the music in the scene where the group that go on a hike to get signal for the radio come across a threat, that turns out to be a polar bear, in the jungle that is running towards them, the music indicates when the audience should react in which ways. The music gets gradually louder as the conflict between Sayid and Sawyer builds as they are arguing over whether they should turn the radio on or not. As the argument develops, the music starts to focus on shots of the polar bear when it is charging towards them. As the shots from the polar bear cuts to shots of the group, who are running away in opposite directions, the music is quieter when the group are in the shot. The music builds up as the group are running away, with the assistance from screams from the group. Alongside the quick cuts and the fast editing of the scene, the music builds a considerable amount of tension and fear within the scene as it progresses.

There is never a full shot of the polar bear on its own, the audience only ever see quick shots of small parts of the polar bears body - this appeals to its audience as an enigma code because as there is a shot of the polar bears head, it is left to Kate to confirm that it is in fact a polar bear. As soon as Kate confirms what the audience already knows, there is a straight cut to adverts, which will make the audience feel a need to know more. This will mean that the audience appeal is successful in the way of keeping their audience interested.

Tracking shots of the mise en scene while the group are walking through the jungle will make the audience aware of where they are and the degree of which they are lost and in the middle of nowhere. The crane shots allow us to get a high view of the location, and also allow us to get a sweeping view of the group and the order in which they are positioned - with Kate being a clear leader. The camera works makes the characters a prominent part of the programme, with it highlighting their fear when the polar bear comes charging towards them. The characters fear is made clear as the camera switches from smooth, tracking crane shots, to a hand held camera, which appeals to the audience in the way that they are likely to feel in the scene. The hand held camera builds tension as it allows us to get a feel for the scene as if we were there, or as if it is from a characters point of view. This appeals as it indicates that the camera work allows many different interpretations of the programme, with different points of view, which allows depth and involvement for the audience.

Sawyer is the character who stands aware of the bear and shoots it point blank. Before Sawyer does this, he is portrayed as a bad guy, an antagonist, which makes the action very important and changes our opinions of Sawyer. This part of the scene will appeal to the audience in many different ways. Sawyer will appeal to females as he is a strong, attractive man who is brave and fearless and stands up to the polar bear and saves the group. He will appeal to a male audience because they may want to be like Sawyer, attractive, brave, fearless, and so they will watch this in admiration.

Discuss the audience appeal of your three main texts. [30] MADMEN

Mad Men is a cable programmed made by AMC in America, which is showed on Sky Atlantic in England, which is a paid for view satellite channel. Mad Men does not get billions of viewers for every episode, it gets around 2 million viewers per episode, compared to the 20 million viewers that watch American Idol for example. Although it does not get the most viewers, Mad Men has won numerous Emmy Awards, including the Best Drama 4 years in a row. John Hamm, Elizabeth Moss and Christina Hendricks (Don Draper, Peggy and Joan) all submitted Episode 11 of Season 5, 'The Other Woman', for the Emmy Awards, with the intention of winning Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. The Advertising for Mad Men included a line saying 'the four time Emmy winner is back', which shows that although the programme doesn't get the most views when compared to its competitors, it has won awards and has a strong fan base behind it that appreciate the programme for it's representations of the 60's, its nostalgia and its stylish approach.
Mad Men appeals to its audience by being sophisticated and stylish. With it being set in the 60s, Mad Men will attract an audience that may have been from that era or are interested in history for example. The 60s has been very influential in television, with the 60s being iconic. It was also the time that women rose up, and started fighting for equal rights, and it was also the time of great change, with Martin Luther King fighting for 'black rights' and feminism, as well as JFK and many other things. Mad Mens audience will also be interested in the style of the 60s, as the style is coming back into fashion.
Mad Men could also be critically analysed along the lines of Propps theory. Propp theorised that there are certain roles in films and programmes - there's the hero, the villain, the femme fatale etc. Don Draper, portrayed by John Hamm, is certainly the hero majority of the time. Especially in the episode i am referring to - episode 11, season 5, The Other Woman. Draper is portrayed as chivalrous and heroic when he tried to persuade Joan not to go through with her plans with the Jaguar dealership. By trying to stop Joan from selling herself, Draper comes across as respectable and a gentleman. But when his wife, Megan, goes for an acting job that involved travelling for long periods of time, he becomes very much a dominant male, and tries to throw his weight around. Draper also comes across as respectable when he trusts Peggy to land a deal with a company for him. Although Peggy is a very important part of Drapers company and his life, he takes her for granted and treats her terribly. When Peggy stands up for herself about the campaign she landed, and why she can't help with the Jaguar campaign that Draper throws money at her. This belittles Peggy and makes her feel unappreciated and taken for granted and so she takes an offer of another job at a rival company. It is when Megan stands up to Draper, and when we find that Joan has already gone through with her plans and when Peggy leaves the company that it is clear that women are gaining strength, and rising up, becoming feminists. This rise in 'girl power' will attract a female audience in the way that they will like to feel empowered and they will appreciate watching how feminism came about as they are the product of feminist campaigns and equal rights. Men will be interested in Mad Men because the women are all very attractive and strong and dress to their advantage, they look appealing and nice at all times and they will like to look at them. Men will also want to be Don Draper, in the way that he is strong and powerful and successful.

Explore the impact of digital technology on your selected industry. [30]

Lady Gaga was the most viewed artist on YouTube until Justin Bieber took over.
Lady Gaga is also the most downloaded artist in the world.
She calls her fans her Little Monsters and interacts with them on Twitter on a regular basis.
Her most viewed video is Bad Romance with nearly 510 million views.
Her debut album, The Fame, was released in 2008, with 14 songs on it and 5 singles to be released - one of which was released before the album.
Just Dance was released before the album to raise awareness of her debut and to market and build a fan base for her. The video was released virally on YouTube and has obtained 156 million views. This was her cheapest video.
The game title Just Dance was derived from Gaga's Just Dance, however, none of Gaga's songs are in any of the games.
Google did an interview with Gaga called 'Google Goes Gaga'.
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Radiohead released an album called In Rainbows in 2007 and they stated that fans could pay whatever they wanted - some paid nothing, some paid £20, this album was only for download until they brought a CD out later on.
Radiohead released King of Limbs in 2011, 20 years after Nirvana's Nevermind. They released King of Limbs a day early on February 18th as a download only, at a set price of £6.
King of Limbs was later brought out on CD, and then a special edition where they sold posters, miniature artwork, vinyl, CD and download.
Radiohead released King of Limbs without a recording label and proved that you don't need a label to make it.
They released the video for Lotus Flower a week prior to the release of the album, on their YouTube channel and website. This meant that their viral fans would see their song and then realise an album is due.
The video for Lotus Flower was directed by Gareth Jennings, and was the only video they have done for any songs on the album.
Gareth Jennings directed Son of Rambo and also directed videos for Sound Garden and many others.
                _______________________________________________________________

Nirvana was a Grunge band from the 90's.
They released Bleach in 1989 under the record label that was Sub Pop. Due to the time that this album was released, downloads were not available - therefore there was no technological interaction.
They later released Nevermind under DGC in 1991.
This album was also not available for download until about 10 years later.
Since then, Nevermind has been re-released on it's 20th anniversary, re-packed and re-mastered on CD, vinyl and download.
                 _______________________________________________________________

Technology has had a positive impact on Lady Gaga in the way that she reaches most of her fans and she markets herself with a strong use of technology. Gaga maintains a strong and loyal relationship with her fans, which she calls her 'Little Monsters'. She feels strongly about fans and she feels as though without fans, she'd have not made it as far as she has. She was the most followed person on Twitter until Justin Bieber took over. Lady Gaga also manages to maintain a strong bond with her fans by making lots of television appearances and addressing her fans in the audience directly. When Google did an interview with her, she walked on stage and someone shouted that they loved her, she said she loved them back. This is the kind of relationship she likes to have with her fans which is rare as many other stars are very cold towards their fans.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

SCREAM
Item 1:Scream (Movie)
Item 2: Scream review http://www.the-filmreel.com/2011/04/15/scream-1996-review/
Item 3: Slasher movie information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slasher_film
Item 4: Clip of Randy telling the rules of a horror http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-q-AWD_8AY
Item 5: Website/information about post-modernism https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9id-Rdi1rJqZDlhMzgzYzUtMTk3Ni00YzJmLThiNTMtODRiYTJmODgzMjRh/edit?hl=en_US
Item 6: Website about stereotypical characters http://horrornews.net/41413/top-10-most-stereotyped-characters-in-horror-films/
Item 7: Clip of Tatum being killed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdYmIIbYoH0&feature=plcp
Item 8: 'Cultural Theory and Popular Culture' John Storey - Pearson Education 2001
Item 9: Website about the music within a horror film http://www.eng.umu.se/monster/john/sound_music.htm
Item 10: Youtube clip of Billy Loomis (Ghost Face) being shot (From 4.30 onwards) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA2f8_4gWRg
Item 11: Youtube clip of Scream 2 in the film class http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzKYNZY9Hpk
Item 12: Definition of Postmodernism http://www.thefreedictionary.com/postmodernism

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS
Item 1a: The Cabin in the Woods
Item 2a: 'We should split up' scene http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmfHJaYMFeg
Item 3a: 'Cultural Theory and Popular Culture' John Storey - Pearson Education 2001
Item 4a: Website about stereotypical characters http://horrornews.net/41413/top-10-most-stereotyped-characters-in-horror-films/
tem 5a: Monster scene from The Cabin in the Woods http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN5YDtkmxsk
Item 6a: Elevator scene in The Cabin in the Woods http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9xXIiqnHCY
Item 7a: Website/information about post-modernism https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9id-Rdi1rJqZDlhMzgzYzUtMTk3Ni00YzJmLThiNTMtODRiYTJmODgzMjRh/edit?hl=en_US
Item 8a: Website about the music within a horror film http://www.eng.umu.se/monster/john/sound_music.htm
Item 9a: Paying homage definition http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/homage

To what extent are your chosen texts typical of their genre?

Fish Tank is a social realism film made in east London.
It is typical of it's genre because it is made with a hand held camera, and it has very little editing.
Throughout the entire film, the hand held camera follows Mia, the main character, and if it's not following her, it is on her so that we are looking at her from someone else's point of view. The hand held camera makes the viewer feel as though they are in the film, as though it is real and that the viewers are onlookers.
The lack of editing means that the shots are usually very long and drawn out. This is typical of social realism because it makes the shots more realistic. It makes the viewer feel as though they're in the film because life doesn't have any editing, and neither does this film.
The actors in the film have very regional accents, they are very broad and obvious as to where they are from. This is conventional of social realism because it is natural and there is nothing done to change the voices of the actors. This maintains the social realism effect. This is also social realism because it shows that the film wasn't made in a studio or edited to be changed. It shows that the film was made on sight, that it was real people and real places.

Research Investigation

To what extent can Scream and The Cabin in the Woods be regarded as postmodern horror films?

The horror film genre has been ever changing since it was created and one of the most recent and most popular changes is a wave of ‘postmodern’ horror films. Postmodernism is "relating to art, architecture, or literature that reacts against earlier modernist principles, as by reintroducing traditional or classical elements of style or by carrying modernist styles or practices to extremes." (Item 10). "That gives the movie a sense of reality as the characters are watching and talking about the horror films that we, the viewers, watch ourselves." This is a quote from a Scream review (item 2). This shows that throughout Scream (Item 1), there are references to other films that the viewers will have seen. This is post-modern because it is intertextual.

Slasher movies have been in production since the early 1930’s but they gained popularity in the 60’s and continued to gain popularity throughout the 70’s and80’s. “In the 1990s, the horror genre was almost dead.” (Item 3) it goes on to say that Scream attracted a new audience and was a critical and commercial success. Scream was the first film to really push the boundaries of horror at the time it was made. Scream had a lot to contend with when it was made, there were many, many other horror films that had already been made and these had already been smash hits, and they are still referred to now, for example The Exorcist. This is what makes Scream post modern; Scream often refers to other older horror movies, and actors that had iconic roles in the horror movie genre. It is also a parody of Halloween (Item 3). For example the scene in Scream where they are at the house party and Randy and a couple of other none-starring actors are sat around a TV watching Halloween, Randy starts talking about the rules of a horror film (Item 4). This is post modern because there is reference to another horror film within a horror film (Item 5) and also talking about the rules of a horror film isn’t done in any other film, the rules are none spoken, people just know them. This makes Scream different because it is telling you what is going to happen.

The Cabin in the Woods (Item 1a) is a film full of funny remarks, it is smart and witty but it is also a serious film. These are all postmodern sub-catergories; irony, wit, smart remarks. Like Scream, The Cabin in the Woods isn’t a typical horror film; there is a scene in the cabin after Jules has been killed and the remaining characters are in the cabin, where Curt says they should all split up (item 2a). This is when the witty and sarcastic character, Marty, questions this with ‘really?!’ (item 3a) This is an ironic and witty example of postmodernism within the film. This also shows that all the characters are typical (Item 4a), Marty being the sarcastic, witty and smart stoner, Curt being the ‘jock’, Jules being the ‘blonde’, Dana as the equivalent to Sidney from Scream and Jamie Lee Curtis; she’s the virgin, and Holden as the geek. These are all typical characters, just like in Scream, but Dana and Marty break the stereotype.

Throughout The Cabin in the Woods, there are intertextual references to other horror in the way of the monsters that are sent to kill the characters (Item 5a). For example: there is a man with saws in his head, this is similar to the killer called Pinhead in Hell Raiser. There is also a cobra which is similar to Anaconda, a ghost similar to that is in Poltergeist, zombies that could be from any zombie film like Dawn of the Dead, the angry tree from The Ruins, bugs could be from The Mist, the people in white masks could be from The Strangers, and the list goes on. All these killers are similar to them of all these different movies and more. This is post modernism because these different horror films and killers influence The Cabin in the Woods, and like Scream, it references different horror movies throughout (Item 3a).

Scream uses typical horror movie characters (Item 6) as well as The Cabin in the Woods; Sidney as the virgin, Tatum as the blonde, Randy as the geek, Stu as the joker and Billy as the jock. This is a clip of the scene in Scream where Tatum gets killed in the garage (Item 7), this proves that she is the blonde girl but also offers a different take on it because she actually fights back and becomes the victim. Having said this, Stu and Billy also have another side to their characters, they are also the killers. This is different to other horror movies, because throughout the film, hints are made towards Stu and Billy but there is also doubt about other characters even though it is blatantly obvious. This is post-modern because it is making fun of other horror films, it is breaking all the rules whilst, at the same time, making all the rules clear and obvious, it is being ironic (Item 5).

Scream is post-modern because it is a hybrid of horror and comedy (Item 6). A hybrid is where two genres are mixed together. You can tell that Scream is a hybrid genre because of the funny aspects in the film but also the horror aspects. For example when Stu is on the phone to Sidney at the end of the film and Stu asks if Sidney is going to tell his parents about what he has done, and then he says ‘they’re gonna kill me’. This adds an element of comedy to the film because it is ironic that Stu is the fool of the film and also that he is dying when he says it. An aspect of horror in the film is when the killer rings Drew Barrymore’s character Casey and says ‘do you like scary movies? …cause I wanna know who I’m looking at’ this adds suspense and disrupts the equilibrium.

The Cabin in the Woods is similar. Although it is not a hybrid, it takes reference and influence from other horror films and filters them in. This is intertextuality because it is one text referring to another text. For example, when they are in the glass lift going through all the monsters, there are many monsters that are in other horror films. "They offer a 'false realism', films about other films..." (Item 3a)  this supports the intertextuality because intertextuality makes a film slightly more surreal, offer a slight de ja vu effect - as if its happened before. Like the monster people in white masks – taken from The Strangers, the dinosaur could be from Jurassic Park etc. (Item 6a). The fact that The Cabin in the Woods contains reference to other horror films makes the film slightly unpredictable in the way that if you haven’t seen the films it references, then you don’t know what the monsters will do.

The music and sound effects in both Scream and The Cabin in the Woods (Items 8a and 9) are post-modern too because the same music and sound effects will be used in any generic horror movie; ‘A series of films that uses a short melody as a symbol for its monster is the Halloween series’ (Items 8a and 9). It is said that Scream is a parody of Halloween. This is slight intertextuality because it is one thing that is used in many things, past and present. Throughout both films, familiar sound effects are used, such as creaking floor boards and a long silence leading to a loud, startling sound. These are common horror movie conventions which are post-modern because they are featured in so many horror films. The sound effects and music are important in horror films to build tension and create a certain mood. Without the music and effects, horror films would be dull and the scary aspect of it will be lost.

Another sub-category of postmodernism is being reptetitive. The scream films are very repetitive, the sequels are all similar in story line and all the killings are along the same style. This is postmodern because it is copying a copy of a copy (Item 8). As similar as the killings are and as the sequels are, they have slight differences. This happens when things are recycled again and again; there will be more tiny changes with every copy. Similarly, Cabin in the Woods recycles regular conventions of horror; for example, when Curt says they should split up. This has been recycled and copied over and over again, throughout horror films and even Scooby Doo.

Paying homage is another sub-category of postmodernism. It means paying tribute or reverence (Item 9a). The Cabin in the Woods pays homage to different horror films in the way that it takes influence from different monsters (Item 7a and 5). Scream pays homage to a variety of different films such as Halloween, Friday the 13^th, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Prom Night. All of these are in turn referred to at different times throughout the film. At the house party scene where Tatum dies, there are multiple occasions where you catch a glimpse of the TV, and there is a horror film playing. The horror films have Jamie Lee Curtis in them, because at the time Scream was made, Jamie Lee Curtis was a big horror film star. This is post-modern because it is not only intertextual but it is also paying pastiche to other films that have influenced it (Item 8). It is also ironic as Scream is poking fun at these horror films for being so predictable and ordinary.

An example of irony in Scream would be the clumsiness of Ghost Face, the killer. It is playful and ironic that the killer is as stealthy as the typical killer in a horror film. The killer is not a typical murderer. Typical killers are perceived as having super human strength and are meant to be un-kill-able, but Ghost Face is not super human. In typical horror films, the killer never dies either, so when Ghost face gets shot, he doesn’t die straight away, he gets up again and again. Gale shoots Billy Loomis (Ghost Face) when he is attacking Sidney, he is on the floor with Randy, Gale and Sidney looking down at him and he sits up as if to attack them again, Sidney shoots him in the head (Item 10). This is ironic because Ghost Face gets shot multiple times but because he keeps getting back up, this is making fun of the convention that the killers don’t die.

The Cabin in the Woods is an example of simulation because it is an example of the influence television has on every day life (Item 3a). Television is a massive part of the film because the film has a very ‘Big Brother’ feel to it. This is proved by the amount of the unrealistic things that happen in the film and by the effect of the two main characters in the offices that overlook what is happening in the Cabin. Quoting Jean Baudrillard (Item 3a): “the dissolution of TV into life, the dissolution of life into TV”, this supports what I said because Baudrillard studied simulation and he too came to the realization that “It's a perfect example of life imitating art imitating life” (Item 11). That is said in Scream two, during a film class. This relates to Scream and The Cabin in the Woods because both of these films strongly focus on the fact that life is televised to the point that there is no longer any difference between what’s real and what isn’t.

To what extent are your chosen texts typical of their genre?

Sin City is a hybrid genre of Comic Book, Film Noir and Horror.
This makes the film post modern because it is a mixture of three different genres.
Film Noir is a very stylish genre; it's very cynical and it's always black and white. Film Noir style films are always set at night with rain drenched streets and men in trench coats. In Sin City, all the main characters, especially Marv, wear trench coats. The characters will always be seen out in the rain. Usually the characters will we unfazed by the bad weather but with the rain, there will be strong winds and usually thunder and lightning. For example, in Sin City when Dwight is pushing the car up the rain soaked hill, there is thunder and lightning and Dwight is wearing a trench coat.
Voice over is also a regular convention of Film Noir. Throughout Sin City, the main male protagonist will always provide a voice over. Throughout Sin City, the male protagonist changes, and with the changing of the Protagonist, the voice over and the content of the voice over changes too.
Comic Book is also a genre within Sin City. All the male protagonists have super human strength, and they will be referred to as different super hero figures. For example Dwight is referred to as Superman and he is also referred to as Lancelot. When the men are running around and jumping off buildings, their trench coats will float around them like a cape and they'll resemble super heroes.

the man with the saw head - pin head from hell raiser
cobra from anaconda
giant spider from 8 legged freaks
bugs from the mist
the ghost from poltergeist
werewolf dog soldiers or underworld or van helsing
zombies from dawn of the dead
people in white masks the strangers
angry tree the ruins
dinosaur jurassic park

Comparing Scream to The Cabin in the Woods

"That gives the movie a sense of reality as the characters are watching and talking about the horror films that we, the viewers, watch ourselves."
This is a quite from the Scream Review that I posted, it shows that post modernism and intertextuality take place throughout Scream. 
It offers proof that Scream is a post modern horror film and that it is an entirely different take on the horror film genre, and when it was made, it was often referred to as 'groundbreaking'. Craven made this horror movies as a slight parody, sticking to all the typical rules but making them blindingly clear, but at the same time, it was a genuine slasher movie that redefined the horror genre and the rules and boundaries. 
The cabin in the woods is a post modern horror film that, like Scream, was in some respects groundbreaking. It advertised itself is quite a typical teen slasher movie only to surprise those who went to see it and be an entirely different slasher movie all together. The Cabin in the Woods pushed the boundaries with it's narrative and rivalled Scream for it's smooth and smart story. 
Also the villain in both these slasher movies are very clever; Ghost Face being an iconic face for horror and the people behind the goings on in The Cabin in the Woods.

To what extent can Scream and The Cabin in the Woods be regarded as postmodern horror films?

Reviews:
The Cabin in the Woods

Adverts make this look like a cliched exploitation film, with good-looking young people murdered one-by-one in a spooky forest cabin by, as one of the characters says with understandable resentment, ‘zombified, pain-worshipping, backwoods, redneck idiots’.

But don’t worry — it’s anything but conventional in where it goes from there.

Those directions are hinted at by the opening titles. They depict ancient scenes of ritual sacrifice.

Then there’s the first scene, which shows two middle-aged technicians (well played by Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford) swapping banalities as they prepare for a day at the office or wherever it is they work.

Their cheery badinage, jokily reminiscent of Ricky Gervais’s The Office, is interrupted by more menacing titles which drip blood in a way that clashes with the tone of the opening.

The endearingly playful, dazzlingly unpredictable movie that follows — and I’m not going to spoil it by telling you too much — shows Hollywood at its best. 

This is a hugely entertaining, brilliantly crafted entertainment that’s witty, ground-breaking and — most important of all — fun. 

We’re still only in April, but by the end of 2012, millions are going to be talking about this as the outstanding film of the year.

The actors, inspired by a screenplay that miraculously bothers to give them funny things to say, hang around long enough to suggest they are capable of more than the necessarily stereotypical characters they have to play here.

Two make a particular impression. The more-or-less virginal heroine — in the Neve Campbell (Scream)/Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween) role — is engagingly played by Kristen Connolly, a redhead who’s the spitting image of the young Shirley Anne Field. 

And Fran Kranz, looking like a youthful, even more frazzled Owen Wilson, is a hoot as a young man whose cannabis intake has unexpectedly revelatory side-effects.

The first picture to be written and directed by the co-writer of Cloverfield, Drew Goddard, The Cabin In The Woods is a personal triumph for him, but also recognisably the work of his co-writer Joss Whedon, who helped give us Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Lost and (a credit less well known) Toy Story.

Both men deserve credit for artistic integrity. The Cabin In The Woods was shot three years ago. 

The delay in releasing it came about because Whedon and Goddard objected to the studio Lionsgate’s plans (later shelved, thank goodness) to convert it to 3D.

The creative influences upon Goddard and Whedon are clear. The scarily effective mixture of black comedy and horror is reminiscent of Sam Raimi’s first two Evil Dead movies, and of Wes Craven, who gave us three of the other most memorably innovative achievements in the genre, Scream, Scream 2 and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. 

The plot is also indebted to Welsh director Marc Evans’s intelligent horror movie of 2002 My Little Eye, sadly underestimated by most critics at the time.

The spooky corridors, chilly vision of the future and skilful blending of horror with social comment recall Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Dr Strangelove.

Less obvious influences are two British authors, Clive Barker and Douglas Adams, both of them always keen to deconstruct the appeal of horror and science fiction and reveal why they’re important to so many of us. Their ideas underpin the entire movie.

Add to these ingredients five charming performances by the doomed college kids (you’re actually sorry to see them die) and an unexpectedly lavish special-effects extravaganza for a finale, and you have an innovative mixture of at least three genres: horror, science fiction and  black comedy.

It’s much cleverer and more mature than The Hunger Games, but it’s about very similar things. 

The Cabin In The Woods ends up as the more biting satire on the entertainment industry, man’s appetite for violence and older people’s love-hate relationship with youth.

And don’t worry, I’m not spoiling anything by saying that. It’s clear from very early on that our two boffins are desensitised workers in an entertainment machine that regards human life as something that can be cavalierly ended in order to appease the audience. 

Who and what that audience is, the movie leaves teasingly uncertain until a big guest star cameo reveals all — but it may not be the answer you’re expecting.

If you wanted to be hyper-critical, you could argue Cabin is guilty of the sins that it condemns. 

It values narrative ingenuity over genuine horror and treats with flippant callousness the characters it slaughters for our gruesome scary-movie delectation.

But I’m happy to swallow a small amount of hypocrisy in exchange for the pleasures this movie gave me. 

I haven’t enjoyed a film as much since The Artist, and this is easily the most fun I’ve ever had watching a slasher movie.

I’ve only five stars to award, but it deserves an extra one for being about 30 IQ points brighter than it needed to be. Of how many Hollywood movies can you say that?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/reviews/article-2129045/The-Cabin-In-The-Woods-review-Surprise-smash-hit-year.html

Scream

I’m sure someone is screaming bloody murder that I would dare say the film is far from groundbreaking but what did it change. It’s still a group of teens getting offed by a masked killer. It didn’t change the formula. It was a well crafted story though with a level of intelligence that slasher flicks fail to have. Craven and Williamson made a smart movie. Maybe that is groundbreaking when it comes to the horror genre! The best thing that Scream did for the horror landscape was bring it back from the dead in terms of general public opinion. Horror films still would have been made but at least the studios would try to take them a bit more seriously now. Of course they’d also start pumping out the Scream ripoffs and the teen slasher genre is still flooded with all kinds of terrible films. The studios may understand that there’s a large market for horror but they still don’t know how to make them properly.

This is still the only good entry in the Scream series. It’s a bit bloodier, it’s grounded more in reality and it isn’t a ridiculous joke yet. The reveal of the killers at the end is great. We knew all along and just couldn’t accept it. It’s a great murder mystery that just happens to be drenched in blood. Easily the best part of the film is how it references other famous horror films. That gives the movie a sense of reality as the characters are watching and talking about the horror films that we, the viewers, watch ourselves. Of course nobody does that better than Randy (Jamie Kennedy). His rant about the ‘rules’ of the horror film have become the distinguishing feature of the series, even being used to promote the fourth film with the phrase ‘New Decade, New Rules’. It’s that exact reason that the film fails to be groundbreaking.They spend a good part of the film talking about the ‘rules’ of the horror film and then they break every single one with typical results. The film follows every cliche that makes up the horror genre but because they admit it that somehow makes it groundbreaking. Honestly, what saves the film from being just another generic slasher flick is smart writing and a great villain. Ghostface has now become one of the greats, overshadowing some of those that have come before. Freddy, Jason, Leatherface and Ghostface. Those are the go-to characters for horror villains now. Nice to see that Craven had his hand in half of those.The fact that there’s really two villains in the movie makes it so perfect. It’s hard to figure out who it is when it’s not just one person. That gives them the chance to build up an alibi so we can never really be sure of who it is even when it’s made obvious early in the picture. It’s where the other films start to fail. The lame revealat the end of the sequels are painfully stupid and are almost impossible to figure out by using characters we sometimes barely see. The best performance of the flick is Jamie Kennedy. He steals the show and is a great representation of the horror fanatics that were actually watching this movie. He says what we’re all thinking and it’s sad to know that he doesn’t get to make it through all the movies. I’d rather have him around than Neve Campbell! Another great horror franchise started right here. It’s too bad that the entire series didn’t try to make itself different from everything that had come before it.

http://www.the-filmreel.com/2011/04/15/scream-1996-review/

Explore the marketing strategies used by your selected industry. Use the examples you have studies to illustrate your answers.

Lost has a number of different marketing strategies, for example:

• Calendars
• T-shirts
• Teddy bears
• Games
• Jewellery 
• Key rings
• Action figures
• Magazines
• Box sets/DVDs
• Posters

http://www.cafepress.com/+losttv+gifts

Also, Madmen has a number of different marketing strategies, for example:

• Box sets/DVDs
• T-shirts
• Lighters
• Cups
• Phone cases
• Notebooks
• Posters
• Whiskey glasses
• Bags
• Badges/Buttons

http://www.cafepress.com/+mad-men+gifts

How do your chosen texts attract their audiences? Referring to Lost. (30)

Lost attracts their audience by having a mixed cast.
The cast of Lost includes two Japanese people, an Iraqi, American, a fugitive, a doctor, and more. The diversity of this cast means that it will appeal a more diverse audience and more people will be able to respond to it in a more passive way. The enigma codes that the cast presents make the audience feel drawn to them, want to know more, for example, what did the fugitive do? This is something that every viewer will want to know as soon as Kate and the handcuffs are linked in the Pilot episode part 2. The viewers will be paying more attention to this storyline and will have a greater interest in the programme as more and more enigma codes will come to light. For example, the polar bear. Every viewer will be on the edge of their seat wanting to know where it came from and why, and this is how Lost attracts it's audience, it's audience will be craving more information, which will make them watch episode after episode.

In horror movies, you nearly always get the stereotypical dumb blonde character, the gutsy character, the popular girls, the popular boys, the sporty lot, the arty lot, and a bunch of other, less important lot, but overall there will always be a character like these, in a film, at some point.
The typical blonde character will usually be one of the main ones, as in Scream, the blonde character is clearly Tatum, Sydneys best friend:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdYmIIbYoH0&feature=plcp

This Youtube video is one example of Tatum being the stereotypical blonde girl. Although she started out to pretending to be over the top stereotypical, making fun of the stereotype and pretending to be more stereotypical than she actually is, she does end up being the dead blonde girl who had an easy way out but ignored it. Saying that, she put up a good fight, managed to fend off the killer for a short time, but every blonde girl in a horror movie does, so it was only time until she got killed off.

http://horrornews.net/41413/top-10-most-stereotyped-characters-in-horror-films/

This is a website that gives a list of all the stereotypical characters in horror movies, it is pretty much accurate, and it supports my case that there is always certain specific characters that will have more spectacular deaths than others, for example, the blonde will have an incredibly brutal death as opposed to the geek who's death will be fairly simple. This also supports my claim that there will always be specific characters you'll root for more than the others, for example, people usually root for the girl who's a bit of an outcast but is quirky and quite funny, or they'll root for the cute guy with the crush on the outcast girl. Either way, you'll root for someone, and usually it's one of the stereotypical ones.




This has all been changed, I am not doing work on stereotypes, instead I am looking into whether Scream and The Cabin in the Woods can be classed as post-modern horror films.