The Monstrous Feminine

"In Carrie, the film's most monstrous act occurs when the couple are drenched in pig's blood, which symbolises menstrual blood in the terms setup by the film. Women are referred to as 'pigs', women 'bleed like pigs', and the pigs blood runs down Carries body at a moment of intense pleasure, just as her own menstrual blood ran down her leg during a similar pleasurable moment in the shower. Here, women's blood and pigs blood flow together signifying horror, shame and humiliation" The Horror Reader, Chapter: Kristeva, Femininity, Abjection. Barbara Creed.

The Theory Of The Male Gaze

Lauren Mulvey wrote a very influential essay called "Visual pleasure and Narrative cinema" (1975)

It suggest that the way women are viewed in cinema is 'unequal'. The camera necessarily presents women as "sexualised" for the pleasure of men

Mulvey's Three types of "looking"

1) The look of the camera as it records the films events.

2) The look of the audience as it watches the final film product.

3) The look of the characters at each other in the visual images of the screen illusion. 

Todorov Theory

 

Todorov felt that all stories start in a state of equilibrium.

1^st Equilibrium

2^nd Disruption

3^rd Recognition

4^th Repair

5^th Reinstatement

Propp’s Theory

Vladimir Propp was a Russian and Soviet formalist scholar. There were only 8 characters types. The emphasis was on looking at characters not as representing real people but as functions whose role was to move the narrative forward.

1.     The Hero (seeks something)

2.     The Villian (opposes the hero

3.     The Donor (helps the hero by providing magic objects)

4.     The Dispatcher (sends the hero on his way)

5.     The False Hero( falsely assuming the role of hero)

6.     The Helper(gives support to the hero)

7.     The Princess(the reward for the hero but also needs to be protected from the Villian)

8.     Her Father (protects the princess) 

Keywords

Hybrid- mixing two genres in a film (e.g. horror/comedy)

Subverts- something that we do not expect

Conventions- the expected ingredients in a particular type of media text- usually associated with genres.

Objective treatment- the ‘objective point of view’ involves treatment the viewers as an observer.

Subjective treatment- the ‘subjective point of view’ is when the viewer is treated as a participant.

My Review of Paranormal Activity 

 Horror would not be my first choice of movie to watch but this film stood out to me. It was different, not like the average horror with the predictable events such as non-diegetic sounds when the villain is about to pop out. This film was more realistic. It was based on a true story on which they found footage of.

 Katie Featherstone and Micah Sloat are the main characters In this film. The have just moved into a new house together and are very happy about it much so that Micah buys a camera to film all their special moments together. Little do they know this video camera also filmed their worst moments together.

Micah takes it to the extreme when he begins to set up the camera at the corner of their bedroom and records theme during the night weird things began to happen at night and in one scene we see Katie wake up, get out of bed and stand facing Micah who was sleeping. The time at the corner of the screen showed she stood in that position for over two hours. When they later watched the footage back they were stunned especially Katie as she had no recognition of that happening. As the days/nights went passed and hours of watching footage back, they realised there was something seriously wrong.

Katie then reveals that as a child she had bad experiences with visions, so it turns out that what ever is happening in this house has nothing to do with a haunted house but it was to do with her. Micah was fuming at this fact as this was the first time she had mentioned it. After calling in a psychic in to find out exactly what was in this house, they got a shock when he runs out the house as fast as he came in after sensing this ghost. With no help and no idea what to do next Katie and Micah decided to run away from the house the morning after but do they make it to the morning?