5 UsEfUl LiNkS fOr Me To UsE1) http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze09.htmlI will find this link usefull as the Descent is based on six independant girls. My film goes against Laura Mulveys theory whihc is based on the male gaze, as non of the women are dressed in 'skimpy little clothes' they are going against the theory by them wearing rock climbing clothes with are pretty unattractive.2) ://www.bfi.org.uk/filmtvinfo/library/publications/16+/strongwomen.htmlI will find this link helpful as it is about how womens roles have changed in the media, which specific examples to Buffy the Vampire slayer and Charlies Angels.This will help as it will guide me into the right direction to research on how womens roles have changes since the 1990's in both cinema and telivision.3)://www.bfi.org.uk/filmtvinfo/library/publications/16+/pdf/censorship.pdfThis link would be vey helpful to me as i can talk about how the genre's have changed and more horror films are now becomming more and more gorey allowing the viewers to see the nastly parts in the film. Foe example in the Descent we get to see a girl's bone pop out of her leg.4)tp://www.bfi.org.uk/filmtvinfo/library/publications/16+/horror.htmlThis will help me as i will be able to get information and extend my reasearch futher to how the genre of horror films have changed within the past. IT also relates particulaly to my film as it is a modern horror/slasher film.5) http://www.xmission.com/~tyranist/horror/This link will help me as it is related to horror films and most frequently asked questions
Background of The Descent The Descent is a British Horror/ Slasher film Written and directed by Neil Marshall, and was released on the 8th July 2005. Due to its commertial and critical sucess in the UK with box office reciepts totaling to £2.6 million it was also released in Ireland, Fance, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Chilie, Canada and the United states. Thus resulting to box office reciepts, world wide of £13 million.The descent was released in North America with a minuit short ending, where the film did not flash back to the caves leaving the audience the impression of the final girl being left there to die, however Neil Marshall had a few endings in mind and made changes so that it differs and emphasises its originality. He compairs it to the ending of The Texas chainsaw masicure "Just because she gets away does that make it a happy ending?"(Neil Marshall-wikopedia) and chose to put the fashback to the cave to differentiate his film's ending.
Carol Clover theoristThe final girl is a slasher film trope that specifically refers to the last person (usually a woman) alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story.
This technique has been used in many films including The Texas Chain Saw massacre, Friday rge 13th, Halloween, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. The final girl is typically sexually unavailable or virginal, avoiding the vices of the victims. she could have also shared history with the killer. One of the basic premises of Clover’s theory is that audience identification is unstable and fluid across gender lines, particularly in the case of the slasher film. During the final girl’s confrontation with the killer, Clover argues, that the final character becomes masculinized through phallic appropriation by taking up a weapon, such as a knife or chainsaw, against the killer.
Clover argues that for a film to be successful, although the Final Girl is masculinized, it is necessary that this surviving character is female, because she must experience abject terror, and viewers would reject a film that showed abject terror on the part of a male.HoW dOeS tHiS tHeOrY aPpLy ?Carol clover argues that "For a film to be sucessfull, although the final girl is masculinized, it is necessary that the survivng character is female".However The Descent goes against the generic conventions of a typical horror/slasher film, as the final girl is left to die which outlines its original narrative and story line.
If nightmare inducing horror is not your bag then the less you know about The Descent the better. Neil Marshall has delivered an accomplished, well acted, out and out horror movie that comes as much of a pleasant surprise as his first major feature Dog Soldiers did back in 2002. Shot in a mere 7 weeks The Descent sees a sextet of undeniably attractive action women leaping headfirst into an adventure that goes wrong so quickly you are left wondering if any one of them will survive, let alone ever see daylight again.
Long before the cave appears we play witness to a traumatic event that underlies the plot and serves to both unite and tear apart relationships in equal measure. Mostly affected are fragile Sarah and physically strong Juno, an adrenaline junkie who leads the group further and further beneath the ground. No time is wasted in recreating the primal feel of crawling through tunnels with hard hats scraping the dust from the rocks, choking and inducing paranoia all the way as it lingers in the stale, torchlit air. It's here Marshall gets a little inventive. Playing with various different lighting techniques our
heroines become colour coded through scenes via glow-sticks, flashlights and video camera.
Sounds echo when visuals are briefly lost and deliciously bone crunching they are too. Events escalate quickly and the whole ride becomes what can only be described as a non-stop relentless assault on the senses that will demand repeated viewing.
HoW hAvE wOmEn'S RolEs ChAnGeD iN HoRrOR FiLmS WiTh PaRtIcUlaR RefErEnCe To The Decent 2005?
Story line: The decent is a revengeful, thrilling horror film based on six friends reuniting fora caving expedition. due to rock fall they are trapped in the caves to find themselves pursued by a strange breed of preditors. their friendship turns sour and they discover that the real fear is from eachother.
I had decided to choose 'The decent' directed by Neil Marshall as it does not follow the typical conventions of a horror 'slasher' film where usually at the end there will be one victim left weather it is a boy protagonise or a woman protagonist that kills the villan. The decent differs as all six characters die at the end even though it was made out to seem that the last girl survives, but at the end we are revealed that she is trapped there and left there to die alongside the ghost of her daughter who passed away at the beginning of the film ina car crash.
Other similar films: Scream 1+2+3/ Halloween. I know what you did last summer/ Saw 1+2.
Media language: Slow camera movements, effects of a hand held camera to emphasis e realism, lots of close-ups of the six girls to show facial experessions of fatal incidents that occur, tensfull music, low key lighting to set the scenes of a cave.
Institution: Celador films. Most horror films are remakes of the original, this film differs as it has its own original story line.
Genre: Revengeful,thrilling horror film most horror films show generic conventions this differs as the person who is usually left behind at the end to kill the villan is also left in the cave to die. Revengefull, thrilling, adventure, horror.
Representation: Six adventurous girls who go an expedition in a cave after reuniting. they all play the roles of powerfull gutfull girls. there is one character who stands out and playes the leading role (replacing male figures) and taking over male dominace, she does this by leading the 5 girls. young blond wemen are getting murdered rather then being saved by a male, they are getting saved and helped by female as there is no males in the film. All the females are being represented positively and show that women to can be curragous and take on challenges, and not just get scared and waited to be rescued. the film protrays the fact that women and men are more equal in the society in recent days as in comparison to past as they are going on an adventure and playing a sport which is mainly seen by males doing it. women are getting injured badly (bones comming out of their legs) and shows that women do not always stop and cry and wait for help but they are couragous and carry on going .
Audience: Targeted at both male and female. All the women are dressed in small outfits and enhances male gaze which makes the film appeal to them. It also targets to women as the six girls are carrying out somethign extraordinary that not every women would do and it would appeal to them as they will want to see how they cope.
Ideologies and values: That women and both men are equal and if they get hurt they dont just stop and cry but they carry on (e.g. when the youngest protagonist's bone was popping out of her skin but she had to carry on walking otherwise she would die). it also shows that males do not only play the heroic part in films. promotes feminism.
Narrative: does not follow generic conventions of a horror film as usually the end protagonist kills the villan, but in this film all the girls die.
Theories that apply
Feminism: as it is based on six powefull girls, promoting women are equal to men.
Male gaze: This is done through the costumes that the girls wear, and pretty young women with nice figures.
Postmodernism: this is applied as it has a distorting beginning and ending, also has stories within stories (the two friends are tying to get out and escape but they have history as they find out that one of them had an affair with the others husband)
Social context: nowadays in horrow films is more gory and gruesome as we get to see the killing rather then it being sensored by just implying and stating the opbvious that someone is being killed.(We actually get to see bones comming out of peoples legs, stabbings in the neck. people nowadays prefer stadistic pleasure in horroe films which is the couse of films not using sensorship.
Historical context: the roles of women have changed as in the 7-'s women who were seen as sexual objects are usually the ones who cause the disruption and end up dying. and then as time went by it was the males who usually dominated such as superman saving his girlfriend and would usually save the girl. nowadays womens roles have changed as in the decent the women play a heroic parts and they have to save themselves. it does not follow typical generic conventions of a blond girl being trapped helplessly waiting to be saved, as the girls actually want to fight their battle and have no male dominance to save them.
Economic: The Decent was a low budget film, which was shit in Scotland. they are low budget in comparison to American action films and fantacy films. As it was a British film it was low budget with not so much advertising done.
Political context: The narratives in horror films ac as metaphors, this is true when it comes to modern texts as they often reflect the mood of time. This is shown as zeitgeist.
