How Far Do Spectators Respond to the Emotional Content of Films in the way that the Filmmakers Intended?
Spectators respond to films in different ways—this may be due to gender differences or pre-existing expectations of film. This occurs with the response to horror movies in particular as the genre often employs similar codes or conventions to provoke the desired response from the audience.
Horror movies typically use shock factor to terrify their audiences, whether it be visceral or psychological fear. They also make use of a catharsis factor, with the film being a horrific experience that the audience feels the need to ‘cleanse’ themselves of or watch purely to ‘get through’. Overly visceral films often employ this trope the most, although
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The character POV would emotionally connect us with whoever is our ‘guide’ in the film though a variety of ways, perhaps through dialogue or performance, or even through editing. The theorist Bela Balaz proposed that the close-up shot is the most emotive one in cinema as it connects us directly with the character. Examples of this in horror films would be those of Jenny and Marion in Eden Lake and Psycho, respectively. Close-ups are used of them during scenes in which we are supposed to either relate to them or feel animosity against someone else. In Eden Lake we are shown close ups of Jenny as she cowers in the bathroom of her attacker’s house, death literally on the doorstep. In Psycho, we are given a close-up of Marion as she is brutally stabbed by Mrs Bates, witnessing every impact the blade makes and her pained reaction to it. In both cases we connect with the women as we experience first-hand the fear and desperation they fear. The close-up literally corners the audience in the same way the women are; we cannot see anything outside or beyond the shot of their face, meaning that like the characters we can see no way out and we realise that this is the end for them. Additionally, in these two films the …show more content…
As a mass audience they will recognise that a villain is bad, but when it is a man pursuing a woman an atomised audience will fear him for different reasons. A male spectator may simply fear the antagonist because that is the point of their role in the narrative whilst a female viewer may fear him because of the effect of the male gaze—she may interpret his scopophilic tendencies as predatory, perhaps even comparable to that of a rapist. Because of this female viewers may find a realistic layer of horror in the film as they know that a man stalking a woman with intentions fuelled by lust is not an unlikely scenario. In addition to this, women are also stereotyped to be more emotional than men, and so they would be more likely to relate to the characters and react to their deaths with
This open letter is directed at the directors of Horror films. This letter will discus the over used gimmicks and the lack of creativity on their part. It will be written in a conversational way with the use of pathos of how these movies are faulty with a touch of humor, and rhetorical questions to emphasize certain points of my discussion of this topic. I will also use ethos through my time as a film fanatic who is passionate on all that is film especially horror film which is my favorite film genre, and is the largest genre with so many subgenres within it that have the ability to use so much imagination. I have crafted this conversation to be directed towards the directors of horror films with the use of film lingo that is used for this genre, movie examples they should look at, and a deep analysis of what and how this problem cause movie of today to lack in appeal.
The natural being of monsters is supposed to instill fear in humans. Their original purpose of creation was to scare children into doing what they were told and to scare people away from places. They instill fear because they possess supernatural powers. Each society that has monsters worked into their culture, reflects that society’s values. In the majority of societies across the globe, men are seen as the stronger, more dominant gender. So, when monsters have more power than men, and that monster happens to be female, men feel vulnerable to allure and emasculated to their domination.
negotiates with what one may feel when, or after, viewing a horror film. While this may
While there are many popular movies out there, often times the uncommon ones are just as moving. Flicka is a powerful film about the story of a young girl whose passion and determination empowers her to tackle the obstacles she faces, even when all the odds are against her. Gil Netter’s production of this film is based on Mary O’Hara’s children's novel, My Friend Flicka. Being directed under Michael Mayer, this is the story of “the only daughter in a long line of ranchers,” (Netter & Mayer, 2006), and how finds her “Flicka”. Flicka meaning strong, young girl whose beauty shines brighter than anything else.
The Siskel and Ebert Halloween Review from 1978 shows how they like how the movie shows how the female character is seen as intelligent, brave and smart. The way the two men spoke about how they felt about the film gave a feminist critic. They were able to put them self in her shoes and think about how they might of felt in that scenario. They see the film as up and positive and see the movie for the film qualities other than the depressing killing. The film focused on film qualities, where the mood, lighting, music and camera angle all played roll in creating the feeling where one can feel that the female actor out smart the bad masked man.
Horror can be defined as a genre meant to psychologically trigger individual fear with the presence of certain supernatural or abstract characteristics. The genre is dependent on people’s fascination with unrealism and the sensation that comes from experiencing fear personified into tangible elements on a screen. Horror films have thrilled audiences for decades, revealing stories of the more sinister parts of life. The popular allure that stems from the genre comes from the tension moviegoers experience when aroused by specific stimuli uniquely present in these cinematic features (Walters). Over time, as the genre progressed, the standardized elements found in a typical horror movie began to shift in different directions primarily due to changing societal circumstances and increasing consumer demand for cinematic innovation. The expansive nature of the different codes and conventions within the horror genre, coupled with the evolution of society’s fascination with these characteristics, has led to the mutation of the genre itself in order to allow for unique approaches to a familiar style in response to both economic developments and taste shifts within the consumer industry.
There has been a large variety of horror films produced throughout the last fifty years. People are always going to be frightened and scared by different types of horror films. But, what type of horror film scares more people, and were men or women more frightened by these horror films? Each one of the horror films had its own agenda to frighten its audience using several different methods of horror. Some of these methods were more so directed at the female audience than the male audience. Most horror movies show the female as being vulnerable, because in real life females are defenseless against monsters.
Through exposure, the role of women as a visible visual icon, such as cinematic mechanisms fetishism serves to convince the position of the male audience as an absolute subject.
Both male and female characters act in varied ways, doing terrible things along the way. Constantly, however, men view women as less than equals, something to control or to be attained, and this is visible in many of the main male characters. Women are portrayed in conventional
All types of horror films are designed to unfold our most horrible fears and insecurities that lie deep within. It successfully focuses on the bizarre and illicit side of life that frights us by playing around our nightmares, vulnerability, and fears of the indefinite. However, despite how chaotic and terrifying these films are, the horror-genre still attracts and repel us. We crave to see the numerous film villains overtake our nightmares and then be defeated by a particular “Final Girl” who normally places society back to its stagnant normality.
Horror movies throughout history have been known to have their cheesy storylines or continuous bad acting. Especially horror movies. People nowadays could easily spot the flaws in a film and judge them drastically in reviews. Yet, little do people notice the ongoing discrimination between genders. Horror films tend to portray males and females substantially differently because of stereotypical views. There seems to be a pattern in which each gender takes a certain role in a movie continuously. Females are shown to be “objects” such as sex and emotional symbols, while males are shown as strong or powerful and moreover as the main bad guy. Although some of the newer edition films of the horror genre are displaying each gender more and more equal throughout the ongoing years, the gender discrimination dilemma still exists and can be seen by the statistics in the movie industry in general.
Horror is designed to scare, cause alarm and dread, while also entertaining the audience at the same time in a cathartic experience (Dirk, 2016). Horror films are meant for a specific type of audience that enjoy scary films. Dirks (Tim, 2016) approach to genre horror, is that films went back as 100 years ago, from the earliest days our vivid imagination in seeing ghosts in the shadows to be connected emotionally of the unknown, and fear things that are improbable. You watch a horror film, it makes you aware of the scary surroundings, the essence of fear itself, without actually being in any sorts of danger. Dirks argues that there is a fun and thrill factor in being frightened, or watching something disturbing. It gives you that feeling of an adrenaline rush, as well as having that feeling someone is actually next to you lurking in the dark (Dirk, 2016).
In the introduction to her book, Men, Women, and Chain Saws (1993), Clover delimits her inquiry to "[those subgenres] of [1970's and 80's] American cinematic horror . . . in which female figures and/or gender issues loom especially large: slasher films, occult or possession films, and rape-revenge films" (5). More specifically, Clover argues convincingly that these subgenres (especially the slasher film) make possible certain quasi-transgressive viewer identifications: she proves that the mostly male audience of the slasher film identifies less with the sadistic monster than with the monster's female victim-heroes. Clover ends her book by imagining a different kind of audience, this one for her own work: "at least some horror filmmakers read Freud . . . and film criticism" (232), she notes. Ultimately, she challenges these hypothetical, literate filmmakers: though the "slasher film proper has died down. . . . There may . . . be life in the amazingly durable and adaptable vampire movie" she claims. And, she adds, contemporary horror films do not "take the kind of brazen tack into the psychosexual wilderness that made horror in the seventies and eighties such a marvelously transparent object of study. Unless and until the direction changes again, I suspect we will soon be back to the dominant fiction in its dominant forms, out of which we must dig meanings rather than have them displayed so obviously and so
When Making a film a director wants to draw the audiences emotions to the film to make them interested in what is going to happen. The director wants to make sure the audience is putting their emotions into a particular character or event. They can use this to give items importance and help us see who is an important character or if an event is serious or not. They basically tell us how to feel in a situation. They do this with the perspective/focus, lighting, and with the audio.
Laura Mulvey pointed out that the main bias of cinema lies in the obsessive psychological and social assumption. Mulvey used Freud and Lacan’s theory to explain: Hollywood cinema set the audience in subject position/ masculinity, while women on screen is often the object of temptation. Women can be seen as “goddess” to curiously and