Task 3

Task 3

To finalize our investigation based on our questionnaire, we decided to go for a horror genre of film.

The horror genre is a fairly new and growing genre in which both narrative and storytelling are evolving. Horror films to begin with, films such as Halloween and the exorcist revolutionized the making of horror films, even today. John carpenter especially used his use of cinematography, lighting and acting to give audiences a new type of horror, a physiological horror and not the typical horror gore. Iconic horror films also played a huge part in director’s careers. Directors such as Alfred Hitchcock used effective horror elements implemented into his films, such as “the birds” and “psycho” which later helped them become commercial successes.

Modern horror films have taken a much more different approach, many becoming parodies of previous film. A film in which this is evident to is the film Scream. A film in which I previously watched for the first time. It took on the role involving teenagers as the main protagonists instead of adults. However this wasn’t the first time, Halloween previous also did this along with Friday the 13^th, (the original). The difference with scream is that it parodies all of this, almost into a full comedy. This lead way to other horror films such as scary movie to become such a success. On its release, Scream was praised for its uniqueness whilst retaining its scars.

A much more traditional horror film, released in 1978 was the exorcist. It startled audiences with crude language, violence and horrific scenes of horror. However it was subject to critical reviews claiming it was “claptrap” as said in the New York Times. Also the review written by Jon Landau, for the rolling stones, claimed it was “religious porn” and claiming it was not worthy the watch. However over the years it soon became critically acclaimed as it was recognized as a film that revolutionized the way horror film are seen. Critics that did claim the film to not be worthy of the watch criticized its use of crude language throughout. Film prior to this had never reached the peak of swear words that the exorcist used. Throughout my short opening, there will be no or little use of swear words. However many influences may be taken from classic horror films, such as the exorcist, such as its dark approach to lighting etc…

Whilst talking about Alfred Hitchcock with horror films, he also used classic thrillers within his film making. Films such as vertigo and dial M for murder are used and reflected commonly as effective thrillers, building up the tension throughout the film until the climax. A film widely known for its thriller is Rear window, and like scream a film I had watched recently. Its use of narrative, acting and directing all blend to create this masterful work  all throughout up by Hitchcock. Its use of music that builds up tension only to increase its thrill is most evident throughout. However what makes these films so effective are its actors, which are all essential in all films. This can also be an influence for my short opening and that actors properly know their lines etc.. But also understand the film genre. We have not yet decided if we are going to take a classic approach or a deconstruction approach just yet.

To understand what approach we would go with within our film we took a questionnaire in which we asked several people of different ages and asked their favorite genre type etc….

Here are our findings:

As you can see, the popular choice was a teenage focus. As we shall later see a lot of the horror genres target audience has moved away from young adults and becoming for focused on teenagers. This may be because of the growing genre becoming more focused on teenagers. With films like se7en and silence of the lambs now deconstructing the horror genre into a more horror/thriller, intelligent films like this appeal to older generations. However, films such as Saw and paranormal activity take a less intelligent approach and focus more on the “jump scare” element that horror films have evolved to. This is disputed to be either good or bad by critics who claim that to create a perfect horror film is to create atmosphere and tension, films such as the shining do this very well, and also the exorcist. 

As we can see here the majority of audiences prefer the horror genre, rather than the thriller. A total of 13 people out of the 21 that were asked preferred the horror genre. A total of 7 preferred the thriller aspect. However only 2 liked the Rom-com aspect of film genres. There are a whole variety of reasons. An important reason may be because of the gender of those that were asked. A total of those that were asked out of 21 that were female were only 7. The other 14 were male. The male audience therefore can be more favorable towards the thriller and the horror genre, which may explain the results shown and expressed now.  The reason why the horror genre is more popular than the thriller genre may be because of both gender and age. Again, previously said, the horror genre is a clear target audience for teenagers, whereas thrillers are the target audience for adults. 

Whilst doing this we analysed the BFI data on different genres of film. 

1 Skyfall

2 The Dark Knight Rises 

3 The Hobbit: An Unexpected 

Journey

4 Marvel Avengers Assemble

5 The Twilight Saga: Breaking 

Dawn – 

6 Ted 

7 Ice Age 4: Continental Drift 

8 Life of Pi

9 The Amazing Spider-Man 

10 Prometheus 

11 The Hunger Games 

12 Taken 2 

13 Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most 

Wanted USA 22.7 530 6.0 Paramount

14 Men in Black 3 

15 Brave 

16 The Woman in Black

17 The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 

18 War Horse

19 American Pie:

20 The Muppet's

As we can see the highest grossing film within the UK was Skyfall. This would be an action/thriller genre. As to the reason why it was top can be several. One of which can be that is was a critically acclaimed James Bond movie, many claiming it was overall a better film than the classics like Goldfinger or Thunderball. Also due to the time of release impacted on its success. It was released on the 50th anniversary in which James Bond was founded by Ian Fleming, therefore causing a wider audience due to its increase in publicity. This highly respected film, claiming to be one of the best Bond films, would have gained a wider audience due to its positive critical reception. Films atop of the list include Batman, Marvel and The hobbit were all well received by critics, this would of had a positive impact on its audience count, as many people today turn to professional critics before watching a film. Even films lower on the list had a high critical response, films such as Brave was nominated at the Oscars for best animation, the women in black was claimed to be one of the scariest films of the year and War horse was nominated for best Picture. However, there may be another reason as to why these films are on the list. Films such as Prometheus, War horse and The dark knight rises were all directed by famous directors, famous for their past work on films. For instance, War horse was directed by Steven Spielberg who is one of the best directors to date, and his past works include, Schindler's List and Saving private Ryan, both commercial successes and gained a huge positive critical response. Another example is the film Prometheus, directed by Ridley Scott. His past works include Blade Runner, Gladiator and Kingdom of heaven, again like Spielberg, all highly rated and all commercial successes. 

Many of the films on this list are squeals. Some of which are "The dark knight rises", "Ice age 4" and "Madagascar 3". If not a sequel they are either prequels or remakes. For instance "The Hobbit", a prequel to the "lord of the rings". "The amazing spider man" a remake of the spider man franchise. "The avengers" a mixture of sequel and re imagining where characters from past films are merged into one. This may be why the women in black, arguably the only horror film on there, is so low and as our film can not be a sequel or remake, it is only suitable to choose a unique film from our list that is neither remake or sequel. Many films today being made by Hollywood are clear examples of remakes, The purpose being that audiences know the past films well, therefore are likely to see the sequel. 

Fantasy 40,624 0

Action 33,194 

Sci-fi 26,528 

Adventure 25,219 

War 22,122 

Animation 21,608

Romance 20,843 

Family 14,990 

Biopic 13,519 

Comedy 12,401

Horror 10,200 

Thriller 7,242 

Crime 6,276 

Music/dance 6,154

Drama 4,738 

Western 4,095 

Documentary 2,505

As you can see from this list horror is more popular than thriller genre. However it may not be as popular than comedy. With this said, there is no Rom-com category, so therefore it can not be compared properly. There is a significant difference within the horror and thriller genre a total of nearly 3,000, therefore only supporting our argument for choosing the horror genre. Yet our genre of filming make turn into a thriller/horror as films in the past which have done this have become successful. Some of these include se7en, which shocks audience which imagery, creating a horror element, but is also a thriller as the story line is driven through detective work. A film similar to this is silence of the lambs, which two mixes both the horror genre and the thriller genre well, and like se7en was highly rated and was a commercial success.