Individual Essay

"Compare the two versions of TCM. HOW and WHY are they similar or different, paying close attention to ideas/theories about the ways genres repeat themselves and the wider contextual factors that have influenced any changes

The purpose of this essay is to establish the similarities and differences between the two versions of Texas chainsaw masacre. This will be done by paying close attention to idea's and theories about the way genre's repeat themselves and the wider contextual factors that may have influenced any changes made in the newer version of the film.

The original Texas chainsaw masacre was released in 1974 and was most probably one of the best horror films that was ever released. Directed by Tobe Hooper and presented as a true story, involved a group of friends on a road trip in rural Texas. One by one they are ambushed and murdered by a family of cannibals. The Texas chainsaw masacre is the first of the other six films that became a film franchise revolving around the character of "Leaterface". The success of the original film lead to a remake in 2003, this proved to be just ask successful as newer technology was available making the film more 'gory' and terrifying to its audience.

There is one similarity that can be seen in both movies, that is they both follow the same conventions of a horror film.

Cover Work Weds 25.03.09

'Scary movie' horror franchise:

• This movie specialises in spoofing horror films that have already been released
• Movies from the mid 1990's have been spoofed
• The name of the movie 'scream' was meant to be called 'scary movie' but they left the name to be later relased as a spooff of scream
• The film was released on 7th July 2000, and made $42, 346, 669 in the first week
• The film was realeased through dimension films.
• By 2001, the sequel Scary movie 2 was released with the tagline "we lied". It was then followed Scary movie 3 (2003) and Scary movie 4 (2006)

There are a number of other movies that are made reference to throughout Scream. They are as follows:

• Halloween
• I know what you did last summer
• The sixth sense
• The blair witch project
• The usual suspects
• The Matrix

Cover Work Tues 24.03.09

'Scream' horror franchise

• The movie has been directed by Wes Craven
• The movie is based around a psychopathic killer
• Throughout horror films particularly in scream and its sequels a certain set of rules have been made clear and made reference to repeatingly. The rules were mentioned by Randy in the film and they are as follows: You will not survive.....If You have sex, If you drink or do drugs, If you say "i'll be right back, hello? or who's there"

There are a number of other movies that are made reference to throughout Scream. They are as follows:

• A nightmare on Elm street
  Halloween
  Candy man (by Stu)
  Prom night (by Randy)
  Night of the living dead
  Friday the 13th
  Exorcist (by Billy)
  Psycho (by Billy)
  Texas chainsaw masacre (by Randy)
  Silence of the lambs (by Billy)
  Evil dead (by Randy)

Postmodernism: a term used to describe the period of art which followed the modern period. It means 'after the modernist movement'. While "modern" itself refers to something "related to the present", the movement of modernism and the following reaction of postmodernism are defined by a set of perspectives. The idea of postmodernism links to Scream as in the developement of technology is portrayed in the film and the more acceptable society.

Pastiche: a work of art that mixes styles or copies the style of another.

Irony: a mode of expression that calls attention to the character's knowledge and that of the audience. This is reflected in Scream as there are numerous occasions where the character states something, but means something totally different by it.

Intertextuality: the shaping of texts' meanings by other texts. As Scream has a wide and diverse audience, each member will view and interperet the movie in a different way to another member.

Cover Work Thurs 19.03.09

'Elm Street' horror franchise:

• An American horror franchise that consists of eight slasher films, a television show, novels, and comic books.
• The franchise is based on the fictional character of Freddy Krueger, introduced in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), who stalks and kills teenagers in their dreams
• The original film was written and directed by Craven, who returned to co-script the second sequel, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), and to write and direct New Nightmare (1994)
• In 1988, a television series was produced with Freddy as the host
• There were 8 sequels to nigthmare on elm street

The film and it's sequels:

A nightmare on elm street (1984): The teens of Springwood, Ohio have been having a shared nightmare of a shadowy figure wearing a fedora, a striped sweater and a glove with metal talons attached to the fingers. they discover that years ago their parents burned an acquitted child murderer alive, and now he's back for dreamy revenge.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985): this film largely abandons the whole dream scenario by focusing on Freddy's efforts to materialize in the real world. He does so by possessing the son of the family that moves into Nancy's old house. However, the son, Jesse, eventually regains control and sends Freddy back to the netherworld.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987): Freddy continues to kill the teenagers in their dreams, but the directors have decided to allow the victims to fight back by giving themselves super powers in their dreams. The movie begins with Freddy stalking the last remaining children of the mob that killed him. They all end up in a psychiatric hospital and coincidentally the doctor of the hospital is Nancy. She helps the kids dispose of Freddy by burying his bones in sacred ground, although she dies in the process.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988): Freddy returns to off the kids who stubbornly insisted on staying alive in the previous film. He does so fairly easily, then moves on to a new group of kids, led by alice who eventually defeats Freddy.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989): Freddy returns by haunting the dreams of Alice's unborn child. Through the baby, he's somehow able to torment Alice and her friends. However, the ghost of Freddy's mother, along with Alice's future unborn child team up to give him what for.

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991): This movie has Freddy tracking down his long-lost daughter, Maggie. She manages to destroy Freddy "for good" by dragging him into the real world, but only after the film flashes back into his childhood.

Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994): Freddy haunts Heather Langenkamp (Nancy from the original film) in real life. He draws her and her young son into the dream world, but they eventually defeat him

Freddy vs. Jason (2003): Merging with New Line Cinema's other struggling slasher franchise, Friday the 13th, Freddy vs. Jason finds Freddy recruiting Friday's Jason Vorhees to kill the children of his old Elm Street haunting. This however turns out to be totally wrong as the pair end up at each others throats.

Cover Work - Weds 18.03.09

'Friday 13th' horror franchise:

• Friday the 13th was first released in 1980 and then remade and released again in 2009
• It is an American horror franchise that consists of twelve slasher films, a television show, novels, comin books and various merchandise
• It mainly focuses on a fictional character of Jason Vorhees, who died by drowning at camp crystal lake due to the negligence of the teenage counselors
• There are a number of different sequels and Jason is featured in all of the films, either as the killer or as the motivation for the killings
• The success the success led Paramount pictures to purchase the full rights to the Friday the 13th franchise.
• Franchise was sold to new line cinema, this is when the crossover of Freddy vs Jason came about.

Summary of the film and its sequels:

Friday the 13th (1980): Jason's mother doesn't give permission to the counseller to reopen the lake where her son drowned. This then leads to the killing of his mother by counsellor Alice kills who murders her with a machete. Entrepreneur Steve Christie (Peter Brouwer) re-opens Camp Crystal Lake after many years during which it has been cursed by murders and bad luck. The young and nubile counselors all begin to die extremely bloody deaths at the hands of an unseen killer during a rainstorm which isolates the camp.

Friday the 13th part 2 (1981): Two months after the events of the original Friday the 13th, Alice meets a grisly end in her city apartment. Five years later, a new group of co-eds converges near Camp Crystal Lake, scene of the original massacre and the drowning of Jason Vorhees that preceded it. Jason seems to be alive and his first act of violence is to kill the counsellor who killed his mother as revenege. The ending of the film shows Jason left for dead with a knife through his shoulder.

Friday the 13th part 3 (1982): Immediately after his mysterious escape at the end of Friday the 13th part 2, Jason returns to crystal lake once again, this time to terrify rich girl Chris and her band of summer-cottage guests. Jason finds a hockey mask which he uses to hide his identity and to disguise himself. He waits in the barn for anyone to dares to enter it, killing all the guests at the cottage. However Chris using an axe as a weapon is convinced that Jason is dead once again.

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984): Thought to be killed by the sole survivor of the last Crystal Lake Massacre, Jason kills his way back to the lake to once again murder its inhabitants. Chris confirms that Jason is dead, his body is then removed and taken to the Wessex County Morgue. Mysteriously he comes back to life carrying out a few killings and making his way back to the famous set of 'Crystal lake'. Six teenagers rent a cabin next to the Jarvis' in Crystal Lake, which Jason soon finds his way to eliminate all who trespasses his way. Leaving two survivors, a girl and her little brother, Tommy Jarvis.

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985): Tommy Jarvis, one of the survivors from the previous movie is moved into a home for mentally disturbed children as he is haunted by Jason coming back to life. Tommy witnesses a murder by Vic, which convicts Vic to put him behind bars, however the murders continue to take place.

Friday the 13Th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986): The name of crystal lake has changed to camp forest green. This movie see's the return of the relentless killer Jason Voorhees, this time as a supernatural zombie. Tommy Jarvis accidentally resurrects Jason when he impales the killer's corpse with a metal pole during a lightning storm, numerous murders follow. However Jason is still left to die.

Friday the 13Th Part VII: The New Blood (1988): Jason is released from his watery grave by a telekinetic girl. The teenage residents of Crystal Lake have something more to fear than Tina's powers as she accidentally frees Jason Voorhees from his watery grave. And Jason's really in the mood for a good ol' teenage massacre.

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989): Jason is once again, brought back to life from his grave in the lake via an underwater electrical cable. He ends up on a cruise with the class of a local high school killing everyone on it apart from a school group, who head out to manhattan. long battle with Jason ensues until Jason is washed away in the New York sewers by a midnight flooding of toxic waste.

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993): Jason is again bought back to life but is now being hunted down by the FBI. He possess the body of a medical coroner to help him carry out his deadily attacks. However in this film Jason is killed by his own neice.

Jason X (2002): Finally captured in the year 2008, Jason is held inside a government research facility whose scientists try to answer the question that keeps eluding them. His body freezes over and is then later discoveed by a group of teenagers who decide to bring the masked character home. The kids end up re-animating Jason using anotechnology unaware that it is enough to resuscitate Jason and reawaken him.

Freddy vs. Jason (2003): The two biggest icons of the slasher genre finally meet in Freddy Vs. Jason, it is in hell that these two first meet. Freddy resurrects him and commands him to start terrorizing Springwood, hoping to instill enough fear that the name Freddy Krueger gets out again so that the ensuing panic makes Freddy strong enough to return a seventh time. Freddy soon finds out that Jason is taking over and killing all his victims, so he decides to come up with a plan to kill Jason. However a small group become aware of what is happening and decide to help Jason become victorious.

Friday the 13th (2009): This is the remake of the movie that was first released in 1980.

Overall as it can be seen from above, there have been a number of different changes that have occured, from the setting of the movies to the different weapons used to kill Jason. This reflects the change and development of the technology available to produce the films.

Friday the 13th

I have been asked to create a studio pitch for my own 'Friday 13th' hybrid movie if i was the film director. Below i have researched and have come to a conclusion on what elements of the film i would keep the same and what elements i would change.

I have decided to keep the same setting as the lakeside is present in all the previous Friday the 13th movies and would be a shame to change the setting and loose the whole meaning to the film. As the lakeside is a significent point in the movie it has been kept in my own version of Friday 13th.

Within todays society women's roles have changed dramatically and laws have become more leniant allowing females to take on a more independent role. I have decided to change the representation of the main character to represent the zeitgiest. I have choosen to show the young lady as the final survivor, reinforcing the idea that women are more strong and independent and no longer need to rely upon a man. I have also decided to scrap the male gaze as women have always been exploited and no longer need this stereotype upon them.

I have also decided to add a new character to this sequel as it will help keep the story going and make it more exciting. I have come to the decision to add another family as Jasons pregnant teenage neice as teenage pregnancy is an important issue within society today. I have choosen to show her struggles of being a teenage mum and have a huge twist in the plot. I am going to have Jason to take the life of the child.

The sound effects and editing will remain the same, as the sound of shrieking and heavy breathing is stereotypically associated with horror movies. The begging will consist off a montage of shots of the previous films to jog the audiences memories to help them to remember what happened in the previous films. I will begin with a cliffhanger to help keep the viewers 'glued', the effect of this will keep the audience wanting to see more to find out what happens next.

cover work - Tues 17.03.09

'Halloween:UK'

The task in hand is to remake the "grandaddy" of all horror movies "Haloween". We have been asked to repeat some elements from the original movie and to replace some elements with our own unique idea's. Below we have discussed what has changed and what remains the same, stating the reason why we chose this decision.

Iconography refers to the images and symbolic representations that are traditionally associated and seen within certain movie genre's. As all horror films consist of iconography that is familiar to the viewers, we have decided to keep most of iconographic symbols and images that have been used in Halloween. This then makes it easier for us to decide who we will market and produce this movie for and will be less time consuming for us as we wouldn't need to take time out to generate questionnaires and then go hand them out to the public to find out what they would prefer.

We will keep such iconography such as knives, masks, group of teenagers and the pumpkin that is used at the opening of the original movie. I will keep knives as the main prop as this the main weapon that is normally associated with horror movies. The audience movie effect will also remain the same, that of Visceral. The begging of the movie will be kept the same, chants will carry on playing in the background as spells and chants are normally associated with halloween and in this case reflects the title of the movie.

As a group we have decided to change the setting of the movie as horror films are normally set in houses. To create a sense of orginallity we have decided to move the setting from a suburban midwestern town of Haddonfield, Illinois to a large mansion that has a graveyard in the back. This will be used to scare the audience as graveyards are normally associated with halloween and are visited by a number of youngsters in society today to get some sort of adrenaline rush and excitement. By adding a graveyard will allow us to use it as a scare tactic and allow us to create scenes where the audience are unaware of what is going to happen. Music and sound such as heavy breathing, shrieks and the upbeat sounds of a heartbeat will be used to create suspense and add to the scare tactic.

As in society today there are a number of issues that have arised that are to do with the way women have been represented and exploited and how men are shown to be more superior then women. We have decided to change the order of who dies when, this time round the females will be seen as the survivors rather than the males, this will then go against the stereotype. As the issue of anorexia is also on the rise, we have decided to use an obese character to show equality and to show the audience that you don't have to be anorexic or slim to be successful. This may then help the issue of anorexia reflecting the zeitgeist.

Cover work - Wed 10.03.09

Unit 1:

• Genre orginates from France, it is a french term given for "type" or "categorry"
• Genres are not fixed
• By having a genre it makes producers, audience and scholars understand a range of films.

Unit 2:

There are different ways how genre can be classified. Some include the following:

• Iconography refers to common images and icons that are seen to be in a particular genre
• style refers to the camera angle, the way the film has been edited, special effects etc
• Setting - location
• Audience response- audience reactions, physical ,emotion, mental.

Unit 3:

• Altman is a theorist who analyse's and looks at characteristics of a particular movie associated with different genre's
• "B" films and genres, like genre fiction, were seen as "low status" by critics and commentators
• Another theorist Maltby stated that 'Hollywood is a generic cinema, which is not quite the same as saying it is a cinema genres'

Unit 4:

• There are a number of different pleasures that people get from different film genres, they are...

1. Emotional Pleasures - Movie genre's make people feel different feelings. for example romantic genre's may make the audience feel happy and in love, a horror genre may make them scared

2. Visceral Pleasures - The style of the film has a particular physical effect on an individual

3. Intellectual Puzzles - This allows the audience to get involved within the movie, trying to solve the mystery and unraveling murders etc

4. Counter-Culture Attractions - This is where the audience can find out the genre by its typical conventions of that particular genre

• The apparatus theory is a theory that argues that audiences are passive recipients; the reading of the film is imposed upon them by the films structure
• The strongest elements of genre is the emotional response

Unit 5:

• Theorist Dyer stated that Stars are seen as "Commodity", which is an important asset or element of making and selling a film
• Theorist Ellis states that stars hold a promise to the audiences
• Film theorist "Dyer" stated that Stars are seen as "Commodity", which is an important asset or element of making and selling a film