How much has horror as a genre developed over time?

Item 1

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/what-scares-me-most-losing-my-ability-to-write-stephen-king-tells-all-30525363.html

In this article Stephen King talks about his career, he is one of the most known and most sucesfull horror writers, he has sold in excess of 300 million books since his debut novel, Carrie, published in 1974. Stephen King is also talking about how its becoming difficult to come up with new ideas.

Item 2

http://writingonthecitadel.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/the-development-of-horror-fiction-does-it-reflect-a-change-in-society/

This article talks about how Horror affects society, this is relevant because it states how horror has changed over the time and how the genre developed, and how society changed and evolved to the genre.

Item 3

http://www.ocala.com/article/20081031/ARTICLES/810311002

This article talks about how much horror movies evolved over the years. It talks about ancient tradition of horror movies which includes mythical creatures such as werewolves, demons and monsters being passed around in different films. A few of the first full-length silent films, like "The Golem" of 1915, are based on traditional horror tales.

Item 4 

http://www.markedbyteachers.com/as-and-a-level/media-studies/why-horror-genre-has-changed-over-the-time.html
This article talks about WHY the horror genre has changed over the time. It also states that horror films are being re-made from older films and making a more updated version of the film and its told in a different way.

Item 5:
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/07/why-stephen-king-spends-months-and-even-years-writing-opening-sentences/278043/
This webpage talks about how Stephen King writes his novels and why it takes him months and years to write his opening sentences. This shows that Stephen King puts a lot of thought into his novels and that's why they are so meaningful.

Item 6:
http://www.vulture.com/2012/04/ranking-all-62-stephen-king-books.html
From here we can find out Stephen King's best selling books and it talk about why each book was a great success, and we can get in-depth explanation of each novel/book and how and why they were such a big success.


Item 7:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/sep/14/stephenking.fiction
This is an interview with Stephen King of him talking about one of his best selling books and explains how it was to write the book.

Item 8:
http://thoughtcatalog.com/nico-lang/2013/10/13-modern-horror-movies-that-give-the-genre-a-good-name/
This is an article talking about 13 modern horror films that has good horror conventions.


Item 9:
http://www.ssninsider.com/inside-the-horror-genres-shifting-trends-consistent-bankability/
The article by Neil Turitz talks about conventions and trends of the horror genre and how much it has changed over the years.


Item 10:
http://twitchfilm.com/2014/03/sxsw-2014-interview-texas-chainsaw-massacre-director-tobe-hooper-talks-his-legacy-of-unspeakable-hor.html
In this article Tobe Hooper talks about his legacy of unspeakable horror. He talks about where he started and how he got where he is now.


Item 11:
Screen international (2010) n1728 October 2010
Article on the box office performance of the horror genre, which typically provides solid returns for a relatively low budget.


Item 12:
Science Fiction Film and Television (2013) v6 n2 Summer 2013 page 153-175
Discusses the sub-genre of horror and science fiction cinema which purports to include footage of actual events, including titles such as 'The Blair Witch Project' (1999) 'Paranormal Activity (2009)', 'Trolljegeren (2010)', and 'REC (2007)'.


Item 13:
Fangoria (1995) Fangoria n141 April 1995, pages 12-18, 85
Interview with Mara Corday about horror films in the 1950s.

Item 14:
http://filmmakeriq.com/lessons/a-brief-history-of-horror/
Article talking about the history of Horror.


Item 15:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNReoA8BV_Y
A Youtube clip of a horror movie from 1897.

    

Untouchable.

 

Untouchable is a French film directed by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, it’s a comedy/drama showing the life of a wealthy man who becomes quadriplegic after a paragliding accident who hires a young man from the ghetto to be his caretaker.

The story line of the film is the kind of masterpiece that not a lot films can achieve and films like this only come every so often. The story shows an aspiring friendship story that has started off as a simple job.
Philippe is an extremely rich man who after paragliding accident has become quadriplegic. Philippe employs Driss who is a poor, unemployed man with a criminal background. Driss had no intentions of being hired when he went to for the job interview; he was just there to get his paper signed which says he attended the job interview, simply to be eligible for unemployment benefit. The two form a really unlikely friendship as their relationship develops through Driss’ work as Philippe’s carer. Their friendship is very unusual and unlikely because they are both extremely different from each other. Philippe is a rich wealthy man who lives in a mansion, and Driss is a poor man who lives on a council estate, and has a criminal record as he was in prison for 6 months for robbery. Poverty is shown through Driss as we are shown where his aunt lives, we find out that they haven’t got a lot of money at the scene where Driss is taking a bath, we are shown Driss in the bath and 4-5 other children in the bathroom, it looks crowded and uncomfortable.  The film beautifully contrasts the rich and poor, when Driss is with Philippe living the rich life, the editing makes the scenes look warm, and nice whereas when Driss is back to his own life, colder colours are used, the scenes look cold and more bluish instead of warm and orange/red.

 

A scene where we are shown the true friendship of Philippe and Driss is where they both go paragliding, it’s a really meaningful scene because Driss is the person in Philippe’s life who managed to make him overcome his fears and go back to doing what he loves doing. This wasn’t easy for Philippe because paragliding is the reason he is disabled and can’t move, so he needed a good friend to support him. At that scene we are shown a whole different side of Philippe, we see the true inner self coming out, his true colours, we can see that he’s happy and relieved again, which he hasn’t been for a very long time. The camera work is also done fantastically because we are shown Driss complaining saying that he’s not going to do paragliding and then the shot cuts and the next shot we are shown in Driss in the air paragliding. This also shows that at that moment it’s Philippe that has the power between the two of them, which is unusual since it’s usually Driss that has more power because of Philippe’s disability. The change of power is done in a non-aggressive but more of a magnificent way.    

The opening scene of the film show us Driss and Philippe driving in town and making a bet about losing the police, at that point we don’t know anything about the characters in the film, we don’t know that Philippe is disabled and we don’t know that Driss is his carer, we are just shown two friends. Then the shot cuts and throughout the whole film the characters develop and we find out about both of them, their past and their stories.  By the end of film we are shown how Driss and Philippe got into the car chase with the police, and at that point we now understand why they were in the car, and now us as watchers have stronger connections with the characters.

 

There is also conflict shown in the film there is conflict shown in Philippe’s life, with her daughter, Elisa, they have conflict because there’s too much money, and Elisa became spoilt which caused arguments between the people working for Philippe and the daughter, for example Driss and Elisa had an argument because she was being rude to him and treating him like she’s better than him. This shows that having too much money can cause conflict and arguments in a family. On the other hand, there is conflict in Driss’ life as well, but for the opposite reason, which is poverty. Poverty is causing conflict in Driss’ life because him and his family don’t have enough money therefore he gets kicked out from home as his aunt can’t afford to look after him since she’s got many other kids to look out for, for that reason Driss and his aunt have an argument. Poverty also puts Driss in a situation where he has to commit crimes to get by, and we find out in the film that he was in prison for 6 months for robbery. The film beautifully contrasts the rich and poor, and shows that money is the main reason for conflict, either having too much money or not having enough of it.

  

La Haine vs City of God

The first film I’m going to write about is Le Haine which came out in 1995, it was directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. The film shows 3 young men in the French ghetto, and shows their story over 24-hours. The 3 young men are, Vinz, a Jew, Said, an Arab, and Hubert, a black boxer, they grew up in the French ghetto that we are shown, and we are shown racism and tension between young people and the police force. In the film we are shown a riot that was going on in France, during that riot a police officer lost his handgun, and Vinz found that handgun, and he tries to gain the respect he thinks he deserves, and how vows that will kill a cop if his friend Abdel dies in the hospital. Abdel was in hospital because of the beating he got by police during the riots.

The quality of the performances from the 3 main actors, their conviction, and the way they interact with each other, Kassovitz’s script and direction make this a very interesting movie, it’s full of action, detail, unexpected incidents and quirky humor. There are constant confrontations with a brutal, racist police force, and Vinz has a 44 Magnum which he found, as the police officer lost it during the riots, and we all know that it will be used on someone at some point during the film.

The second film is City of God which was released in 2002, it was directed by Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund. The film is showing two young boys growing up in a violent neighborhood of Rio De Janeiro, and shows how they both take different paths in life, one of them becomes a photographer and the other a drug dealer. The film shows the different scenarios of life that make up the wider-story and they are presented in Pulp Fiction style chapters. The story shows all facets of the life, focusing on several key members of the gangs from childhood through to young adulthood, showing their life from young hoodlums to local drug barons. The final parts of the story shows the battle between the two gangs which was caused by business and personal matters being mixed up which lead to unavoidable confrontation.

Martin Scorsese had a heavy influence on the direction of City Of God, as at many points it looks familiar to his work. Close ups, sweeping scene shots, freeze-and-zoom shots, these are all the trademarks that were mainly used by Scorsese throughout his career. Many shots look familiar to Goodfellas, in which the camera was used to highlight the main points in the script, just like it was used in City Of God, the directors managed to use the camera to highlight the most important points in the script and the draw the viewers’ attention to certain people or scenarios.

 

The two films are similar as they both show poverty which leads to violence and crime, as in City Of God, most of the young kids started robbing people and selling drugs because they needed money, and in La Haine, Hubert sells drugs to get himself money. More importantly both films focus on “respect”, in City Of God, everyone wants to earn respect and the films shows that respect can only be earned by killing people and selling drugs and being the biggest drug dealer. In La Haine Vinz wants to earn respect and that’s why he wants to kill a cop, so people will give him the respect he deserves.

 

Young men from ethnic minorities are the main social groups represented in both films. Each film has a young black male protagonist. Rocket in City of God and Hubert in La Haine. The American ‘hood’ film sub genre usually shows a character that is trying to reject the crime life and get away from the trouble. Rocket and Hubert both fit in this, they both try to reject crime from their lives. Rocket is involved in crimes but can’t go through with robbing or killing people because of his nature, he tries to get away from crime by getting a job at a supermarket but he get fired because of his connections to the favela. At the end of the film we are shown that Rocket becomes a successful photographer because of his connections to the gangs. Similarly, Hubert rejects crime by not agreeing with the rioting on the estate. He runs a gym that we worked hard to get money for and promotes boxing for young people showing that he doesn’t want to get involved in the life of crime. We first see Hubert on the film when he’s standing in the middle of the burnt down and destroyed boxing club which was destroyed at the riots. The films ends with us seeing Hubert potentially killing a police office or being killed by one, we don’t know, but it shows that he doesn’t want to be involved in crimes but he would do anything for his friends.