"A model emerged from structural equation analysis indicating that three important factors in the appeal of horror films are (a) the audience's desire to experience the satisfying resolutions usually provided in these films, (b) the audience's desire to see the destruction often found in these films, and (c) the sensation-seeking personality traits of audience members for these films. In addition, age and gender were important predictors. Horror films were enjoyed more by males and by younger viewers."
And First chapter of horror and need of it in everday life: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=a-1bAo3fK0wC&oi=fnd&pg=PR6&dq=horror+film&ots=KBbmWT7Y8V&sig=vNnPQQW9vHr4i6ysdGb5-K09kfY#v=onepage&q&f=false
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Book on Horror Trends
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=x4fLaCLD11MC&oi=fnd&pg=PA3&dq=horror+film&ots=94r9xtV8bX&sig=gUfDzJWVnTOaX91rX2ZWDt4z6YA#v=onepage&q&f=false
Do we see gender as a theme in Saw or Paranormal?
Do we see gender as a theme in Saw or Paranormal?
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Paranormal Activity - Sherry Lansing Theatre Reactions
This is a clip from youtube of typical reactions to Paranormal Activity from the Sherry Lansing Theatre in Hollywood, California. A lot was made about how strong the reactions were to this movie, which started a word of mouth that built the film's popularity about how scary it was. This clip exemplifies how the audience can engage with the film through expressing their emotions. Many are laughing in the clip and expressing expletives out of amazement of what they are seeing, many are closing their eyes to avoid witnessing the torment and even some girls are cowering into the arms of their brave, slightly scared boyfriend. It is understandable why people close their eyes in the clip because they are constantly bombarded with scary images that keep them at a high emotional state with no break from it. But why do these people go to this film?
Many of the people smiling in the clip could be seen as sensation seekers as Rickey (1982) argues that fear causes a rush of adrenaline and makes people more energetic, which was shown in the clip (as cited in Tamborini and Stiff 1987, 418). These people went to see Paranormal Activity because the subtle fear it displays arouses a strong, exhilarating emotion that can be pleasurable. The trailer as well as the clip creates a curiosity about whether the film is really that scary and leaves those who have not seen the film wondering why people are reacting in this way. This is another reason why people went to see the film because it is horror film that is a test of strength and the viewers challenge the film to scare them as argued by Werner (1980) (ibid., 416). But this is particularly the case for men, who can express their masculinity through withstanding fear, playing the role of the strong boyfriend allowing his girlfriend to cuddle up to him. There is certain logic then of couples as well as young people, who tend to enjoy more excitement as they are at an age of great vitality. In addition the typical response of people closing their eyes is down to a fight from fear, or simulated fear in addition to a quickened heart rate (Keisner 2008, 415). For them the film is way of expressing the emotional stress of whatever is going wrong in their life or from their subconscious and according to Goldsmith (1975) it allows them to displace it on screen, so simulated fear can be a form of psychic relief (as cited in Tamborini and Stiff 1987, 416).
As you can see the film does what other horror films came before it, allowing their audience to emotionally engage with it and making it one of the remaining genres and mediums that allow interaction with the cultural source. People saw this film as a test of strength out of curiosity of its degree of scariness and this clip does that for Paranormal Activity, encouraging more people to go see it for this reason. Clearly you can only really get it when you see it.
Can you vouch for these people's reactions personally? Was the film that frightening? Would watching this make you want to see the film? In that case would you see the film as a challenge to avoid being scared?
Reference
Paranormal Activity-Sherry Lansing Theatre Reactions [video]. 2009. Retrieved April 19 2011, from YouTube.com.
Paranormal Activity: Grassroots scaring through suspense
This is the trailer to the first Paranormal Activity film. It is a film that is very minimalist in terms of special effects with the blowing of the bed sheet to give the impression that someone is there, relying on the fear of the unknown at a time when you are most vulnerable, when you are sleeping (Schwartz 2009a). The film was marketed in a very unique way as it allowed people to request it to be shown in their hometown by voting on the paranormal activity website, which is shown at the end of the trailer (ibid.). The film was in fact made in October 2006 in seven days and had been shown at festivals for a couple of years including at Screamfest in LA in 2007 (Schwartz 2009b). Oren Peli, the director struggled to get distribution but did get help from Steven Spielberg, who infamous ly had to turn off the film at night and resume it the next day (ibid.). Their decision to conduct a grassroots effort to build popularity for the film and gain a national release showed how important it was to gain the affections of horror fans, particularly college students. This explains why the initial release was in limited to 13 college towns (ibid.)
This is a poster for Paranormal Activity. It shows how it engages with its audience by giving them the power to determine where the film is shown to build popularity and word of mouth. It also uses a still of the recording of Micah and Katie, the San Diego couple trying to sleep, showing how the fear of th unknown and suggestive actions are used to scare people. It also tackles the issue of surveillance in post 9/11 culture expressed earlier in the Saw post about how it can be used see to things you should not be able to see and giving the film a dose of realism rather than fantastical violence to scare.
This really shows how significant social media is recent popular culture, that through Twitter, Facebook and websites like the paranormal activity demand it site horror movie consumers are given a medium where they can express their desires and opinions. For the Horror film this helps engage the audience further, which has always been important for their success. By including horror fans in the process of the film becoming popular it shows the importance the cultural consumer has of determining what is popular, especially when the filmmakers give them that power (Hampp 2010).
In addition the film shows that you do not have to rely on violence and gore to scare and shows why we picked this film to represent the other end of the spectrum of horror movies. There is a sense that this is because audiences are now smarter, leading to a series of horror films that are now smarter and possibly spelling the end for torture porn (Hicks 2009). Tony Hicks of the Oakland Tribune argues that this is because people have become increasingly desensitized to gore and Winston Dixon, the author of "A History of Horror" arguably credits Paranormal activity with bringing an end to the popularity of torture movies (ibid.).
Do you agree that the new trend in horror movies is to make smart horror with suspense? Do you think torture porn is over? What do you think of the grassroots element of the film's popularity? Is this a new trend in horror movies?
References
Hampp, Andrew. 2010. "Paranormal Activity" Wins by listening to "Fans Demands." Advertising Age 81 (8). Retrieved from Film and Television Literature Index.
Hicks, Tony. 2009. Horror films reflect the times. Oakland Tribune, October 21, 2009. Retrieved from Proquest Newspapers.
Peli, Oren. 2007. Paranormal Activity. San Diego: Paramount Pictures.
Schwartz, Missy. 2009a. 5 Things you should know about Paranormal Activity. Entertainment Weekly, 2 October. Retrieved from Film and Television Literature Index.
Scwartz, Missy. 2009b. A Shocking Hit. Entertainment Weekly, 6 November. Retrieved from Film and Television Literature Index.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Film Journal International Review- Paranormal Activity
This review by Kevin Lally, rehashes the incredible low-budget success of Paranormal Activity as well as its creative use of marketing to attract a bigger audience. Yet he also claims that Paranormal Activity successfully delivers "what the Blair Witch Project never did, but its achingly slow buildup is a test" of the audience's patience (Lally 2010).
Film Journal International Review- Saw
This review by Bruce Feld criticizes the believability of Saw, commenting that nothing from the makeup to the script seem genuine or real. Feld calls the script "cliche ridden" and the plot irrational and at times "ridiculous" (Feld 2010).
TIME article on Saw
"Saw came and conquered" by Richard Corliss of TIME magazine lends an interesting look into the audience of horror movies. Corliss explains that in the year 2006, 10 out of 18 horror film released were the weekends top grossers. And the main demographic for these movies? Teenage boys.
Corliss also mentions how horror films almost always cost less and make more in relation to their big-budget production counterparts. For instance, he notes that Final Destination 3, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and The Hills Have Eyes all trumped Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers on the opening weekend.
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