Horror film notes

Sankara Ananda

The American Nightmare:

⦁ Those kids you got excited who were amazed by the Horror films they saw back then became the
directors creating a new generation of Horror film are the ones who created the next generation of horror
films.
⦁ In horror films like night of the living dead when it was created it was way ahead of its time.
⦁ There was much detail in "Night of the living dead" that amazed people that when they carried one of
the main characters with hooks so they don't touch his skin and treated his body like a piece of meat.
⦁ When you get scared of a movie a mental teaching people do is keep repeating to yourself was that it's
only a movie only a movie only a movie only a movie.
⦁ In the movie Leatherface when he hits the guy with the hammer and then he shuts the door to finish
him off you naturally think to yourself thank god i don't have to see it but at the same time you want to see
what leather face does to him even though it is disgusting and brutal.
⦁ The old order and the new order thatch replacing it means theirs no way out of this Fulani situation.
⦁ We see the kiss in slow motion where we could see the pain and the relief the parasite has now
infected everyone this is the new order.
⦁ The killer kills especially the nose who are engaged in sex,drugs,drinking.
⦁ The point of the killer is that you are afraid and creaped you out which is a joyful experience.
⦁ Everybody enjoys the blood and torture a bit
⦁ The part when you see the teenage girl naked it gets your attention and you are aroused by it and then
the killing starts and you are turned off by it and disgusted.
⦁ Most of the time in movies whenever you discover the killer its never who you would expect it to be its
most of the time a friend a child someone you where close to.
⦁ There is always a moment to moment struggle that we are always obligated to engage in. Whenever
the killer doesn't catch the victim he or she goes into a rage of anger.

Repression and the other:

Basic repression is universal, necessary and inescapable. The things that we repress that keep us from
being animalistic are:
⦁ Thoughts and memories
⦁ Self-control
⦁ Consideration for others
⦁ Ability to assuage the desire for immediate gratification
1) Sexual energy is repressed in American culture in order to produce the notion of heterosexual
monogamy as the dominant sexual preference.

2)Bisexuality
A. Devalues the romantic notion of one right person for everybody.
B. Threatens the norm of sexual union for reproductive purposes.
C. Deconstructs social roles of masculinity and femininity.

3)Female Sexuality:
⦁ Passivity
⦁ Purity
⦁ Compassion
⦁ Innocence

4)Sexuality of children
A. Instilling the child with the notion that sexual expression before marriage is forbidden.
B. The boy child is taught to be masculine while the girl child is taught the virtues of femininity.

⦁ Basic repression makes us distinctively human while surplus repression prepares us to lead normal
American lives as patriarchal monogamous heterosexuals.
⦁ Normal is used in a non-evaluative sense to mean conformity to the dominant social norms of a
particular culture.

Frankenstein
⦁ When the two brothers go and take the body Igor has this urge of hunger to get the body. They are
obsessed with it.
⦁ When watching the movie i noticed a strong bond between the brothers one being stupid and one being
smart and the smart one watches out for the stupid brother but uses him at the same time.
⦁ The brother cannot help being called wrong or crazy or rejected, he does what he has to prove himself,
he has way to much ego.
⦁ When the Frankenstein comes to life the brother is filled with so much joy he almost dies with joy
because of the magnificent creature he has made.
⦁ Everybody is against the monster that the doctor has created but the doctor is still amazed by it and is
the only one that has hope.
⦁ The Frankenstein monster is so fascinated with his surroundings and is like a child not understanding
what is going on and is reaching for the things he cannot get he is curious.
⦁ The doctor is so devastated when he finds out that his creation is a abomination he has a sadness in
him like he lost his son because thatch what he meant to the doctor.
⦁ When Frankenstein sees the little girl and she offers him a flower he gets a smile a smile of
encouragement like being a child because in his mind he is a child.
⦁ When Frankenstein sees Elizabeth in the wedding dress he shows a sexual attraction toward the
women something he cannot express like a normal human and instead acts like a animal and does not
pose feelings towards other people or can resist.

Gothic Horror:
⦁ Gothic fiction can be viewed as a depiction of an immoral and decaying world.
⦁ Horace Walpoles The Castle of Otranto introduces themes of extreme cruelty, fear, passion and sexual
degradation.
⦁ As the genre progresses, hallmarks such as demon-ism, occultism, necromancy, and incest become
prominent.
⦁ The principle aim of the Gothic is to evoke terror, exploit mystery, and exhibit a variety of horrors.
⦁ The trope of the haunted castle sitting on a barren wasteland or rocky mountainside is a mainstay of
Gothic fiction.
⦁ Castles are filled with dark passageways, labyrinthine corridors, looming archways, secret chambers
and subterranean crypts.
⦁ Terror ~ The feeling of dread and anticipation that precedes the horrifying experience.
⦁ Horror ~ The feeling of revulsion that usually occurs after something frightening is seen,
heard, or otherwise experienced.

Nosferatu:
⦁ Silent films show a lot of detail in the story and lots of detail in movement and dancing since they cant
say the words.
⦁ The vampire is very amazed and has a deep desire for the blood almost as if he loves the person that
has blood dripping from the body.
⦁ Nosferatu is a very tall and creepy like creature and like all other dark Gothic creatures.
⦁ He scares everybody and has a need like no other the need being blood of course.
Horror as comedy:
⦁ Everson argues that the popular horror film can be separated into categories:scientific experiments
monsters,vampirism and lycanthropy voodoo(zombies) old house necromancy and diabolism, ghosts and
apparitions, the stunt thrillers and satire.
⦁ IN 1941, George Wagner directs the wolf man. for many critics, this marks the end of the traditional
monster movie, and ushers in a new brand of horror film.
⦁ Horror comedy often consists of 2 characters being close and one of them acts like the smart one, and
the other acts dumb, and they both act like the three stooges.
The internal monster:
⦁ The films in the 1960 mark a shift from the physical, external monster, towards psychological horror as
a method that utilizes the unconscious monster.
Psycho:
⦁ The movie of psycho starts out with very scary music in the opening credits and then gets very calm to
show you that life is normal in this movie until the killing starts.
⦁ The scene in Psycho when she is in the shower and the lady comes in and kills her I find it very
interesting how the dramatic music starts playing and when it happens the scene is so real and so intense
every time she gets stabbed.
⦁ The actress that played the girl in the movie was so traumatized by the event in the movie that she
carries a gun to the shower now this shows how good the director was he made it so real.
⦁ When the boy realizes she is dead he is so shocked at first and then realizes what has to be done and
then goes into a calm state of mind completely silent.
⦁ When the boy pushes the car into the lake he starts getting very paranoid and then starts biting his nails
and breathing heavily because he just wants it to be over already and then when it sinks he is happy.

The Bad seed:

⦁ The movie starts out in a big thunderstorm but then changes to calm music and shows a nice happy
suburban family to show how good the family is. Then the movie gets bad.
⦁ No matter what has happened the little girl still needs to get the medal back from the river even though
she has caused so much pain.

Five most basic conventions of the slasher film:

⦁ 1.Killer
⦁ 2.terrible place
⦁ 3.weapons
⦁ 4.victims/final girl
⦁ 5.shock effects

Postmodern horror:
Postmodernism evolves as a response to modernism (1860s through the 1970s).
Modernist art seeks to represent truth over reality (avant garde aesthetic)
Jean-Francois Lyotard stresses that the “post-“ should be read not as some chronological sequel to
modernity but rather as an invitation to rework its hidden or forgotten stories (an eclectic return to the past).
Intertextuality refers to the shaping of a texts’ meaning by other texts.
Reflexivity is an act of self-reference, where an artwork specifically calls attention to itself, or to its method
of production
The border that separates so-called high and low cultural artifacts is blurred in the postmodern era.
Modleski identifies three general ways that the postmodern horror film “dismantles” traditional
Hollywood/horror narratives:
1)  Open-ended narratives and a lack of closure antagonize the spectator, allowing for the possibility of
sequels.
2) Plot and character development are drastically minimized, or dispensed with altogether.
3) An anti-narcissistic sense of identification is often developed.
Cabin in the woods notes: this movie I feel like really focused on the teenage aspects that every horror
movie has like the athlete/jock,slut/whore,the one who either cant stop drinking or doing drugs/the more
messed up one,the virgin/prude/the nerd who doesn't really like to participate in most of the activities her
friends like to do. I really liked how at the end of this movie when the virgin and the fool where in the room
where it shows all of there statues that they need for the sacrificing the woman explains all of their
characteristics and how almost every slasher teenage movie in the world it had that recap where it talked
about that and I felt like that was basically a tribute to all of those movies. In this movie I also noticed how
through all of the sacrificing and in the movie and even when the monsters take over the building they try to
make the killing and blood a horrific as possible while making the monsters as creepy and messed up as
possible to make it even more horrific.

Torture porn horror:

⦁ Horror films in the 2000’s revive the tradition of gore and violence was that made popular in the 70’s
and 80’s, with one key difference: they add elements of excessive torture.
⦁ Torture porn films deliberately focus on the vulnerability of the human body, in an effort to create
seemingly realistic acts of maiming and murder.
⦁ The torture film's primary focus is the staging of horrific events.
⦁ Without any significant character to latch onto or identify with, the spectator is forced to watch the
events of the film unfold, as an experience of pure torture and violence.
⦁ One of the main reasons we continue to engage with its content is that it affects us - it makes us feel.
Post-9/11 monstrosities:
⦁ The foreigner is marked as an Other because of the characteristics that exclude him from the dominant
group, and he is specifically foreign in that he is not a citizen of the country in which he resides.
⦁ Similar to the Other, there are two options for the foreigner: he must either attempt to become
assimilated into the social group, or withdraw into isolation (assimilation/ annihilation).
⦁ The post-9/11 horror film reflects the fear and anxiety projected upon foreigners by an American
population consumed by post-9/11 hysteria.
1) They emphasize arbitrary acts of violence.
2) The monstrous element is positioned as foreign.
3) They employ specific 9/11 imagery.
⦁ Traditional horror film killers typically kill for a reason, whereas the monstrous other in the post-9/11
horror film carries out a sudden and unprovoked attack against its victims
The fly:
⦁ In the Fly when I saw Seth Bbrundle I thought of him as the womb for the fly growing inside of him even
though the pod is the movies womb of course.

The possessed woman:

⦁ The victim is possessed by a spirit of the opposite sex the woman is possessed by a male character the
male is possessed by a female character.
⦁ The victim is always almost a young female possessed by a male demon violating the boundaries
between innocence and corruption, purity and impurity.
⦁ The possessed body in horror films is used as a means to put the female body on display as
depraved,monstrous,abject,appealing.
⦁ All of the signs of bodily excretions must be treated as abject, cleaned up and removed from sight
things like bile urine blood limbs.
⦁ The possessed female subject is the one who refuses to take her place in the symbolic order.
⦁ The central project of possession horror is to construct monstrosities source as the failure of the
paternal order to ensure the separation of the mother and child.

Vampires,Witches,and blood monsters:

⦁ Vampires are members of the undead who feed off the blood of the living.
⦁ The Vampire are abject because:
1:It crosses the boundary between the living and the dead, the human and the animal.
2: It lives on blood drawn from a wound that breaches the surface of the skin (the
Vampire bite)
The male vampire is often feminized:
1:He is a sensual, elegant, aristocratic figure who wears a black satin cloak, speaks with a seductive
accent, is clearly evil, and yet immensely attractive to women.

Carrie:
⦁ In Carrie it shows how she in unpopular and is hated by a lot of girls when they throw tampons at her
and hit her for losing them the volleyball game.
⦁ You can see how traumatized she is from the incident by her heavy breathing and loud music then the
ash tray flipping off the table.
⦁ Carries mother obviously traumatizes her by her religion and her sociopath type of personality
especially when it first shows her in the house with Carrie, scary scariness starts playing.
⦁ Carrie is portrayed as a freak/witch and cant control her powers like a regular girl would be able to
control because of her troubles at school and her mother.
⦁ The gym teacher is portrayed as the angel/mentor that takes Carrie under her wing just how in lets say
a movie with spells and wizards the wizard apprentice has a wizard that trains his powers and the gym
teacher tries to calm and help Carrie so she could control her powers.
⦁ The popular girl that everybody liked is now hated and everybody is sick of her and just want the prom.
⦁ On the running track when Connie is told to go with Carrie to the prom he is wearing completely black
and the rest are wearing black and yellow to portray him as the character thatch relevant.
⦁ This movie shows one of the elements in popular rules in teenage films the rule of no
Drinking,Drugs,Sex and partying and the ones that do those things are the ones who die at the end even
though Carrie dies she is the one that kills all of them.
⦁ When Carrie tells her mom about the prom it makes a lightning bolt right after to show how horrified the
mother is.
⦁ When Carrie is walking to the stage elected as the queen she is happy and even happy music plays
and at the same time is shows evil music laying with the girl that's going to pull the string.
⦁ The girl that dumps the blood gets a sense of anger and wants to see it happen so bad she becomes
more evil.
⦁ The music gets more intense and faster as the bucket is getting closer to fall.
⦁ Of course all of the students then start to regret their dissition and are all terrified of the witch that they
have created.
⦁ The mother has now snapped its all over the devil has come home.
⦁ The mother is now hanged on the wall like Jesus this is to symbolize what her religion and what it has
reflected upon her.