ZOMBIE MASSACRE
Over view
A bacteriological weapon developed by the US Government to create a super soldier - spreads an epidemic in a quiet little town in the middle of Eastern Europe. All citizens have been turned into infected zombies. The plan is to bring an atomic bomb into the city's nuclear plant to pretend a terrible accident occurred. No one has to know the truth. A team of mercenaries is hired to complete the mission.
The final destination 2009
Genre: horror/thriller
Gross box office: $112,802,314
Audience: mostly male 15-25
Summary: After a young man's vision of a deadly race-car crash helps saves the lives of his friends, Death sets out to collect those who evaded their end. Him and his friends try their best to figure out deaths next move.
My analysis: Nick Zano, Krista Allen and Andrew Fiscella star in it, the characters they play are just normal people living their life. The filmmaker uses a lot of mid shots and long shots so he could show al the destruction and events taking place. Also a lot of cuts are in the shots so we see the events from all different angles. The sounds in the film are mainly diegetic sounds from the disasters that’s happening for example the sound of tire’s screeching after the car goes out of control in the opening scene.
Dawn of the dead 2004
Genre: horror/zombie
Gross box office: $102,356,381
Audience: mostly male 15-25
summary: Ana, a young beautiful nurse finishes her day shift at the hospital to return home to her beloved husband. The next day, after her neighbor kills her husband, he suddenly comes back to life (becomes a zombie). She discovers her whole neighborhood is gone mad and she escapes and finds help.
My analysis: The main characters that star in the film are Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake weber, Mekhi Phifer and Ty Burrell.
[Rec 3] 2012
Genre: horror/zombie
Gross box office: $10,158,047 (only just came out)
Audience: mostly male 15 - 25
Summary: Clara (Dolera) and Koldo (Martín) are celebrating their nuptials with a ballroom full of friends, family and distant relatives that no one likes. Unfortunately, one uncle is nursing a recent dog bite, which is causing some strange symptoms. Once he’s vomited blood over some guests, and bitten a few more, the reception if officially over and the film has just begun.
Codes and coventions of horror genre
- Split into sub genres, often hybridized
- Primary target audience – male, 16-24, Mainstreamers
- 15 or 18 Certification – debates on passive consumption
- Uses and Gratifications (active audiences) theory can apply
- Extensive use of Narrative enigmas
- Exploration of Narrative Themes
- Slow pace of Editing, builds tension. Long takes
- Three act narrative structure
- Predictable narrative content (follows format)
- Clear binary oppositions e.g. good v evil
- Use of low key lighting
- Use of CGI, FX
- High production values but many low budget horror films
- Dominant, hegemonic representation of gender: The Female Victim
- Extensive use of close up
- Incidental non-diegetic sound
- Distorted diegetic sound
- Extensive use of narrative off-screen space
- Young/teenage characters
- Use of hand-held camera: audience identification/realism
- Point of view shots
- Low angle shots
- Horror Films are unsettling films designed to; Frighten and panic Cause dread and alarm Invoke our hidden worst fears Captivate and entertain us in a cathartic experience. Often conclude in a terrifying shocking Finale.
- Fears created by horrors For different types of audiences it can deal with our fears; Nightmares Our vulnerability Alienation Revulsions Terror of the unknown Fear of death Loss of identity Fear of sexuality
Characters there's always a lead character, that often results as the survivor in the film. The Killer/ monster often has a trademark characteristic in the way he kills, for example the people he kills or the weapon he uses to kill them. Its usually good against evil, the two characters conflict. The outcome is the good person always survives, or defeats the “bad guy.
Things you are likely to see in a horror film, which follow the traditional codes and conventions:
- An introduction to a typically normal day-to-day lifestyle.
- A bizarre/unknown mysterious death.
- The credits would fit into the theme of horror, by using a creepy font, and odd movement depending on the film and how modern it is.
- The majority of the characters would be quite young, most likely to be teenagers showing their vulnerability and naivety.
- If there are teenagers, it’s normally an American film so there would normally be a typical American teenage couple, i.e. a ‘jock’ and a head cheerleader, most likely to be blonde.
- Mysterious unknown phone calls from the killer.
- Attempts at heroism, often from the teenage boys would be unsuccessful.
Led to believe that the main character/victim would die, they would normally overcome the killer miraculously.
The film that we are researching and focusing on two film openings and how it will help us develop in a similar way, for idea for our media project: is resident evil retributiona and zombieland.
Resident Evil Retribulation
Audience- male 72% female 28%.
Ages 4-6 =0 7-11 =0 12 - 14= 0 15-24 =47% 25-34 = 30% 35-44 = 11% 45+ =10%
Class- AB-18% C1-27% C2-19% DE-36%
ZombieLand
Audience- Male 65% Female 35%
Ages-4-6 =0 7-11 =0 12 - 14= 0 15-24 =48% 25-34 = 22% 35-44 = 16% 45+ =14%
Class-AB 32% C1-33% C2-20% DE-15%
We decided to choose these two films, becuase it has similar featuers and some part of the opening such as zombieland links back to our story board. Our research we can understand that Male viewers are more attracted to Horror genre, So we know most of the audience will be male viewers, becuase we found out that the statistic show the male per centage are more higher then female, so the per centage for female would be lower.