Jessica Love

Aspects of teen horrorThe following information is about 5 independently research teen horror texts, of which I completed to analyse for my own research purpose for when I am making my own introduction to a horror film. By doing this, it can give me basic ideas on how the best films created such drama and tension in just the first couple of minutes.

Institutional informationParanormal activitiesDirector- Oren Peli, this director s most famous work tends to be more recent by directing films such as Paranormal Activity (1, 2, and 3) and insidious, of which all 4 of these texts are teen horrors, so it appears this genre is his specific strong area. He was not only the director to this particular film, but he also wrote the story line, creating a big part of the film production team. Release Year- Paranormal activity was created in 2007 and was then released on the 25 November 2009. Production Company- Blumhouse Productions, this company has also help produce films such as, Tooth fairy, Graduation, Untitled Bryan Bertino Project, showing this company is a reliable and good distributor to create high ratings when at the box office. Where the company made the film- The film Paranormal Activity is set in San Diego, California. It was also filmed there. It was actually filmed in Oren Peli's (the director s) own house, where he originally got the idea for the film, in 2006. Box Office return/ Success- the film had a very small budget to create the film itself, due to the team starting off from their own ideas and not having much involvement with other major companies (like warner brothers etc.) therefore their budget was only $15,000. However, on the first opening weekend it created $77,873 (USA) (27 September 2009) (12 Screens), and made a profitable gross of $193,355,800 (Worldwide) (21 January 2010). Cabin FeverDirector- The director of this film was Eli Roth, of which he helped write the storyline too. Eli shooting Super 8 films at a very young age of only eight years old, he decide after watching Ridley Scott's film, that he wanted to be a producer/director. Release Year- 10 October 2003 (UK) Production Company- Black Sky Entertainment, Deer Path Films, Down Home Entertainment Tonic Films and Cabin Pictures. Where the company made the film- North Carolina- cabin fever was filmed over a period of 24 days in October 2001 at Camp Raven, a Boy Scout camp in Mt. Airy, North Carolina. Box office return/ success- surprisingly this film had a rather large budget able to spend on anything in the film from, characters, props, to stage drama like special effects, the budget was roughly estimated at $1,500,000, however it created 352,962 (Italy) (7 September 2003) (109 Screens) and made an overall gross profit of $30,553,394 (Worldwide). Scream 1Director-The director of this film was Wes Craven, he has become synonymous with genre bending and innovative horror, challenging audiences with his bold visions since the release of his first feature film, The Last House of the Left, which he wrote, directed, and edited in 1972. He has also directed films such as Nightmare on Elm Street; the Hills have Eyes II and Freddy Vs. Jason all wellknown horrors/ thrillers. Release Year- this film was released 2 May 1997 (UK)

Jessica Love Production company- Dimension Films and Woods Entertainment, both of these companies are well known and have a fair amount of money to help within any film the produce, therefore giving scream a reasonable budget allowance. Where the company made the film- California; scouts discovered Sonoma County and the cities of Santa Rosa, Healdsburg, and the nearby Tomales Bay. The house of Barrymore's character is situated southeast of Santa Rosa on Sonoma Mountain Road, directly facing the house used in the horror film Cujo (1983.) The Woodsboro town square, including the fountain where many of the cast sit in an early scene, is represented by the Healdsburg town square. For the Woodsboro high school, Craven desired a building that looked American and the producers approached Santa Rosa High School. www.wikipedia.com Box office return/ success- This film has a $15,000,000 budget, therefore they could afford characters, props, to stage drama like special effects, on the Opening Weekend it made $6,354,586 (USA) (22 December 1996) (1413 Screens) and finally produced a massive profit of $161,600,000 (Worldwide). Scream 2Director- The director of this film was Wes Craven, he has become synonymous with genre bending and innovative horror, challenging audiences with his bold visions since the release of his first feature film, The Last House of the Left, which he wrote, directed, and edited in 1972. He has also directed films such as Nightmare on Elm Street; the Hills have Eyes II and Freddy vs. Jason all wellknown horrors/ thrillers. Release Year- 1 May 1998 (UK), one year after the first film was released. Production company- Dimension Films (presents) Konrad Pictures Craven-Maddalena Films (in association with) Maven Entertainment and Miramax Films. Due there being so many more production companies wanting to be involved with this film, it is because they realised that scream was such a big hit at the box offices, that they want to be involved with such a company. Where the company made the film- The sorority house, where Sidney is relaxing at a party while CiCi (Sarah Michelle Gellar) meets the Ghost face killer, is 350 South Grand Avenue at Arbor Street in Pasadena, east of Los Angeles. Also in California are the setting for Stab and its premire. The moviewithin-a-movie was shot at Malibu. The premire was filmed in the beautiful little Vista Theatre, 4473 Sunset Drive Hollywood. Box office return/ success- This film has a $23,000,000 budget to make the film, this is because they made so much profit on the first film, they used this money, they also knew that they had to make this scream bigger and better than the first one and upstage themselves, by having more money there was more of a chance of this happening. They then received $32,926,342 on the opening weekend and a gross total of $101,363,301 (USA). Final DestinationDirector- James Wong, director of other films such as the x files, and all the other follow on final destination films . Spooky children and Rubber girl, all these films seems to be horror genre, showing he is most commonly known to be making these types of films and has great experience with creating them. Release year- 19 May 2000 (UK) Production company- New Line Cinema (presents) Zide-Perry Productions (producer) and Hard Eight Pictures. Where the company made the film- Squamish, British Columbia, Canada, Vancouver International Airport, Sea Island, Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. All of the above were in Canada making the film process a lot easier to produce rather than having to keep travelling to different states or even countries. Box office return/ Success- surprisingly this film had such a high budget, they could do so much with the film, ($23,000,000) if watching the film, you can tell that they needed a high budget for the

Jessica Love technology they would of needed and the amount of stunt teams to perform the act to make the film seem more real and life like. They received $10,015,822 (USA) (19 March 2000) (2587 Screens) on their opening weekend, and a total gross value of $53,302,314 (USA) (13 August 2000) 3 months after the release date.

Analyse effecting my own performanceI will be analysing 5 different horror texts, or which have a target audience mainly towards teens, (my own age range) therefore being able to relate to these films fairly well. The purpose of analysing them, is to improve my own performance when making my final piece of horror, which is acting out my own horror film introduction, therefore this information will help me greatly as I am looking at each text in such detail that I would not have noticed when just watching the film in the cinema, by analysing it, and breaking down the introductions of each film into sections like Sound, Props, Characters, Speech etc., and watching the same clip over and over I could then just look for that one aspect of the film, rather than having an overload of information being generated at once, of which it is sometimes hard to work out why the director has added this small detail into the film, by analysing it in such detail like this, it can give me an idea on how to make little tweaks into my own movie, to show horror. One way I could do this, is by suggesting horror without actually using it, one example from one of the horror texts is by using a prop like a large knife, the character is just innocently cutting up a piece of food they will later cook, this appears in both Scream and Paranormal Activities, showing that this technique is used very often in major Hollywood films suggesting horror is upcoming in the introduction. In all of the Introductions the these media texts, there was an innocent girl of which we expect to be the final girl in the film, however by only watching the introduction of the film, we do not see who survives or not, to see whether this makes them the final girl, the character who survives all, but is emotionally unstable due to seeing their loved ones being killed. In my own performance I would like to use someone as the final girl left, by having either her boyfriend or male figure friend killed, you then feel fear for this girl, to be left in the open with no male protection to save her, making the girl seem a lot weaker without this male figure to save her, creating tension without showing it in such detail.

Target audiencesA target audience is defined primarily by gender and age range. Additional elements include socioeconomic status, rural or urban, race, family status, theatre goers or not, and special interests. Paranormal activity- Initially choosing to market it to the main target audience, in university towns, word of mouth quickly saw over a million people begging for the film to have country wide release, leading to its incredible and rapid success this year. (http://www.screentrek.com/paranormal-activityreview/) This film (as will all the other texts I have analysed) will have a target audience for anyone looking for a thrill in horror, they will want to be scared as an excitement, this film is a 15, meaning that the producers would not suggest anyone under this age to be able to watch this film as it is too scary however I think it is suitable for anyone between 13-40, as it would keep anyone in this age range entertained, and there is not any complicated language or humour that would only apply for a certain audience.
Cabin Fever- This films contains a lot of swearing even within the first couple of minutes of the film starting, it also contains sexual references, of which would be too explicit for anyone under the age of 15 and parents would definitely not want their child to be watching this film due to these two matters in the film. The main characters in this film are a group of teenagers who are going on a short break, therefore teenagers and university students could relate to this, going on their first holiday which

Jessica Love
would be cheap, rather than going abroad because they either have little money or are in debt with study fees. Its also doubtful that people over the age of 40 would want to watch this film, due to the explicit language, this generation of people would not agree with the language, as they were not brought up with a society that understood swearing. Scream- Scream came along at exactly the right time to ensure its success, when a new generation of "nicer" kids -- like the mostly upstanding young citizens of Woodsboro -- was beginning to replace slacker Generation Xers in teen hood. (http://www.flickfilosopher.com) This shows that scream have tried to represent the teenagers in this film as independent young adults who can look after themselves, but on the other hand they try to rely on each other to save themselves from the killer, however it is unknown that the killer is actually one of the friends within that group of people, showing that people aren t always what you expect and it s hard to trust people. The effect of doing this is that it creates a twist and throughout the whole film, the audience does not know who the killer is, and it s very hard for them to work out who it is, due to them wearing a very distinctive mask, giving away no clues of who the person is. This could give a target audience applicable for both women and men to watch and for people who enjoy mystery films as well as slasher s and horrors, therefore making the variety of target audience a lot more broader, giving more of an opportunity for people to experience this film and enjoy it.

Scream 2This target audience is obviously fairly similar to the original scream movie, any gender within the audience of which who are looking for horror, screams, and comedy within the movie. The people within the audience are more likely to be people who have watched the first movie and enjoyed it, hoping that the second release would live up to the same expectations, an age range of 15-40. Final DestinationBy looking on IMDB I selected this reviewI think it is safe to say every individual has different feelings about death. Some fear it. Others deny it. Most are weary in some way regarding decease. "Final Destination" is a perfect thriller for skeptics, detailing seven confused individuals who accidentally escape demise, discovering the impossibility of defrauding their destined time. The film's atmosphere provokes cringe through a presumably omnipresent force stalking the characters, producing audience participation whether the Grim Reaper is footsteps away from us all. This review shows that this final destination film is suitable for many people, and is a very passive piece of media text, for that when you come out of the cinema from watching this film; it may question yours beliefs in death and the afterlife. This could attract more people to watch the film, not because they are interested in horror but the curiosity of their intake of death. Aspects of teen horror, codes and conventions-

The Final Girl is represented in many horror films, to make the audience feel that this character is now hopeless and alone with all their friends/ family killed, however they are also seen as brave for being the last character standing throughout all the drama. In paranormal activities, the woman Kate is the one who doesn t want to encourage anything into the house making her seems very innocent and harmless, when actually the twist in the detail is that she is possessed by the demon. Again in Scream 2, Gale Riley appeared to be the final girl, she was going to be killed however Gale fled for her life, and escaped the killer, then mysteriously disappeared. The setting of the film is a major part of horror; typical scary atmospheres like graveyards, woods are still used today, however by using a setting of a house, this can become even scarier, as the audience will enter their house every day, the same type of setting someone in the film could have been killed in. Paranormal activities and Scream s opening setting is

Jessica Love

at a house, whereas Scream 2, is in a cinema, of which the audience could be watching this movie at the cinema, making them feel even more tense, as this could be happening around them. Cabin Fever and Final Destination on the other hand, is in a holiday cabin and an airport, therefore you wouldn t visit these settings very often, but when you did these films would become very distinctive, it could even change some peoples attitude towards flying! Many of the films created an aspect of Mise en scene (paranormal activities and Scream one) they both implied by using the same object, a knife. In both of these films, the character takes out an extremely large knife (for no apparent reason) this knife could signify stabbing (especially in scream) as the killer s main weapon is a knife. Scream and Scream 2 are very similar for both using a knife as the main weapon to kill, it shows that whenever someone is wearing the mask they are likely to be carrying a knife. Even in Scream 2, when the characters go to see Stab the movie many people are dressed up in the killers outfit, with foam play knifes making it a lot easier for the real killer to make his movie, being camouflaged within everyone.
Classic conventions of horror. Final Girl- the person who survives at the end of the film, usually emotionally unstable due to them losing their loved ones throughout the film and seeing how they were killed. Mise en scne- Everything in the picture including sound, location, the actors, props and makeup. Setting- Graveyard, Woods, or a natural environment like your house, school.