Research Rationale

Here is a video exemplifying what I will do to carry out my research for my final project.

Horror Preliminary Construction

When we were constructing our preliminary piece we found it very useful to refer back the original clip in order to make our clip flow better with the narrative, Below I have taken comparative screen-shots from the original clip and our preliminary clip.

We found that the film "Scream" uses the element of foreshadowing frequently to highlight future events and the fate of the protagonists. This is highlighted below with the knife shot in the original film and the knife scene in our clip.

Below is a gif from the final part of the original scream clip against our remake clip.

In terms of mise-en-scene we put our makeup skills (which were previously practiced during our planning stages), to good use. We tried our best to follow a similar layout in terms of setting to the original clip - Kitchen, Dining area, Patio and Hallway.

Horror Preliminary Task Planning

In terms of planning, our groups came together to discuss the movie clip we were going to recreate and how we going to conduct this. We made a group chat on Whatsapp in order to set meeting times for shooting and discuss other aspects of filming whilst we were away from each other. 

Below is a scan of the scene shot list of how we intended certain shots to appear.

Below are images showing us practising post-attack makeup for our preliminary clip.

Contemporary Horror Advertising Campaign Analysis

The horror movie I have chosen to follow in terms of advertising is "Paranormal Activity - The Ghost Dimension". 

The first aspect of advertising I have chosen to analyse is the film's trailer which was uploaded onto YouTube in June 2015.

In terms of other social media platforms, the film has it's own twitter page with over one hundred and eight thousand followers and a Facebook page with over nineteen million subscribers. Moreover, it has also been promoted numerous times on Instagram which has lead to it's popularity especially among younger adults.

Cabin In The Woods

The scan above highlights conventions of a horror mentioned in "The Cabin In The Woods", I go on to discuss whether they have been used or subverted in the film.

Clover's Final Girl

Carol J Clover wrote an article which comprehensively explains the final girl theory. She begins to mention that audiences prefer the final girl or girl being murdered to be a beautiful woman, rather than a husky man or ugly girl as "Women in Peril" work better in the suspense and horror genre. Relating this back to male gaze, audiences have been so used to seeing glamorous women at the forefront of gruesome murders opposed to the less attractive and initially underdeveloped characters. This could be because audiences who view in the male gaze frame of mind may find entertainment in the the potentially phallic murder of the "beautiful" woman.

The killer according the Clover is often unseen and portrayed as male,fat, ugly, deformed or dressed as a woman.This particular portrayal of the killer character is important as it provides a stark contrast and binary opposition with the beautiful victim.

Clover also mentions camera angles in her extract and highlights how in terms of the final girl, camera angles wane from being close to the killer and wax closer to the final girl. This is a shift underwritten by story-line as well as camera position, by the end we are watching through the eyes of the final girl and we are closest to her. Clover goes on to mention Freudian theories and phallic killing strategies "thrusts knife or drill into trembling bodies of young women". I have explained this point further in my quote analysis below.

The scan below shows 2 quotes analysed from the Clover's Final Girl text.

Horror Clip Analysis-Scream

Here I have analysed a clip from the 1996 version of the film Scream.