Watch the DVD entitled ‘The Perfect Scary Movie’ and make any necessary additional notes.
There are plenty of Sci-fi and horror films on TV over the next few days - E4 has The Fantastic Four (2005) on tonight and tomorrow – has the ‘high concept’ superhero film taken over from science-fiction? Shaun of the Dead (2004) is on ITV2 tomorrow – horror comedy hybrid? A pastiche of the Romero films? ITV4 has two Hammer Horror film Scars of Dracula (1970) and Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) on tonight and tomorrow – consider the development of technical codes and look at the lovely technicolour. FilmFour has the 1954 version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea on this afternoon – relate Nemo to the idea of the ‘mad scientist’. Kate and Leopold (2001) is on BBC3 tomorrow and merges science-fiction and romantic comedy with great success – consider ‘hybridisation’. Star Trek: Nemesis (2003) is on C4 on Saturday – think about films and audience – Trekkies are a good case study. ITV has Eight Legged Freaks (2002) on Thursday and Red Dragon (2002) on Saturday.
Choose any two or three of these films to watch, analyse and use as examples in the following essay:
Discuss how and why film genres change over a period of time.
[45 marks]
Write at least two sides using the films we’ve seen so far and any relevant films from your own viewing experience.
The argument you could follow is – film genres change
reflecting 1. changes in society (feminism for example) 2. changes in moral standards (more gore) 3. changes in technology (gore shown in a more scary way 4.different style of directors (more women directors for example), more independent directors.
Don’t forget to mention conventions, narrative conventions, feminist film theory if applicable, audience theory if applicable, and a small example of textual analysis to support your point.
E-mail the essay to my school address or via Miss Legg if you can’t remember mine. You can also contact me through the department blog…
