Postmodernism in film.docx

7/29/2019 Postmodernism in film.docx

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Understanding Post Modernism

Post Modernism in film is when a film recognises the criticisms of thegenre, so it looks in on itself and uses new techniques to keep the

audience entertained, its self-conscious. This technique relies on the

audience having inter-textual knowledge of the film genre. In the genre

horror, there are many stereotypes in which they have to overcome to

create a new sense in film. These are such stereotypes, like the final girl

(virgin), the jock, the killer, the donor who helps the hero out.

The Horror genre has been built over the years with films such as

Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday Thirteenth. These

films are some of the films that set the scene for current horror films.

They set many of the stereotypes of horror such as teens going out and

the van breaks down and they have to spend the night in a conveniently

placed house, which happens in Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Also there is the cast of teenagers in Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

which is what provided us with the now stereotypical cast of teenagers.

This cast set the standard for modern day films, such as Cabin in the

Woods.

Final Girl

(usually virgin) -

Heroin

Jock (dies first)

Geek (Usually

Helper)

Jock (The Hero

who killshimself trying to

save usually the

girl)

The

Promiscuous

Girl (usually dies

pretty early on)


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As you can see the cast is similar in the film Cabin in the Woods (2012).

This shows horror has certain stereotypes like the cats and the roles

they play. Torodovs theory is another stereotype, in which the film goesfrom chaos to equilibrium. This happens in both Texas Chainsaw

Massacre and Cabin in the woods.

Scream uses many techniques to avoid being a stereotypical film, but

still using the stereotypical cast to start off with.

Final Girl

(usually virgin) -

Heroin

The Donor

Gives information

Geek (The

Helper)

Jock (The Herowho kills

himself trying to

save usually the

girl)

The

Promiscuous

Girl (usually dies

pretty early on)

Final Girl

(usually virgin) -

Heroin

The Jock

Geek (The

Helper)

The sensitive

Jock

The

Promiscuous

Girl (usually dies

pretty early on)


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The way in which Scream is a postmodern horror in the way it uses the

stereotypical cast of two girls, three boys, but the difference is that there

is a spin on the teenagers as the two jocks are the killers, but they both

still end up dying and the final girl and the geek dont. Sydney is the final

girl and she has to kill the killers in order to save herself and to avenge

her mother.

The way in which Scream has changed horror and made the film

postmodern is leading the audience towards many other killers, keeping

the audience second guessing and never really sure who the killers are

right until the end of the film. The killers are never suspected because

they have little motive and this is postmodern in itself because before

this film, the killers would not have been teenagers, they would be theones dying. Also the killer would always have a motive and the motive

would be pain induced. This also ties in with the generation they were

living in, the MTV Generation in which all kids treated life like a movie

and listened to hip hop music where they would rap about killing people.

The film is based around a lot of teenagers which is appealing to the

audience, but the news reported Gail Weathers plays a big role in the

film. This is done to represent the times in which the film was created, as

the mass media was very influential and they producer tried to portraythat by giving her such a big role, which mirrors a reporters role in

society.

The first death of Casey is a demonstration of the typical horror genre,

with her being in her middle class suburban house, alone. This shows

the generation that was being portrayed by the director. This was the

MTV Generation which was all about watching MTV and listening to

hip hop music. Many parts in the film they reference the film as though it

is a movie. For example when Sydney and her boyfriend are in the

bedroom and he references their sex life as a PG. Which shows that

they believe life is like a movie.

Also in the scene in which Casey gets killed there is a demonstration of

typical mise-en-scene in horror. As she is trying to get away from the

killer moving around the house and there is lamps and little light in the

house, creating a sense of fear and mysteriousness, the feeling of

unknowing as the killer could be hiding in the darkness. Also in the samescene the use of disorientating mise-en-scene when she looks out of the


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window and there is mist. This is literal as we cannot see what is in the

distance, but also its symbolic, as it suggests the killer may be hiding in

the poorly lit distance. This is looking in on itself by creating typical

scene that the audience would expect, but changing it by prolonging the

killers attack and toying with the victim and by doing this they are

keeping the audience entertained.

Scream includes classic icons of horror in the film, like the knife, an

obvious killing icon which shows death from the opening scene as we

see the knife. Also it indicates an intimate killer, who likes and has to be

close to kill the victims. They also use a mask which is a demonstration

of disguise as it hides the killers identity and keeps the audience from

knowing the killer which keeps them entertained.

Also scream is postmodern as it doesnt use Torodovs theory, it has a

slight adaptation of that as it goes from equilibrium to chaos then it

comes back to disturbance, the whole film after they know there is a

killer on the loose, there is always disturbance and no one is ever

comfortable. This happens right up until the party because the killers set

the mood and keep them relaxed so they dont suspect them. This is the

film looking in on itself and changing the film around so they dontsuspect the killers and giving prior horror watchers a sense of

excitement and entertainment, by not making it like all the other films.

There is obvious the themes of death and destruction in this film as it is

a slasher horror and it wouldnt be much of horror without these two

themes. But in the Scream the audience are trying to be influenced into

not being such a media influence society. The world in which we live in

is a media saturated environment and we see so much death and

destruction in the media from real life and television. By getting so


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involved in the media, we are becoming desensitized to the reality of

killing. So the film is trying to mirror society in the film, showing that any

teenagers, who dont even need a motive, could easily become

heartless killers.

So Scream is a postmodern film, it incorporates the stereotypical cast of

teens in which the audience think they know they know the roles, but

have looked into horror and have made the two jocks the killers, so they

arent one of the first people to die. Also they dont identify the killers and

keep the audience guessing - right until the end of the film - which the

killers are.

Postmodernism in film.docx

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