Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

FEMALE/RACE REPRESENTATION
General Horror Movie Representations:

• Typically the females in horror movies are portrayed as the weaker sex always relying on the male to take care of things
  
  
  For example, Odette Yustman's character, Casey,  in The Unborn seeks out the help of a priest to banish her demons and to eventually reach an equilibrium she had to follow the instructions he gave her.


• Often portrayed by a white, American actress with blonde or brunette hair (hair colour is quite important as stereotypically blonde females are the ditzy victims, the brunettes are considered the smart and practical victims and the ones with black hair take more charge and have a darker side to them)


• Females are shown to provide the emotional support in horror films which draws on the stereotype of them being not physically strong so having to depend on their emotions
  
  
  Representations in our Horror Movie:

• Our female protagonist is Asian which breaks the conventions of having a white American actress. Furthermore she has a British accent which is fitting as it is a British film

• We are sticking to some stereotypical representations of females as our protagonist is partly reliant on her father for help from the supposed entity in her house. The male is taking charge of the situation however, we chose to do this so that the audience can instantly familiarise themselves with the plot and not have too many new things thrown at them

• However our film is a psychological horror and the main character is mentally disturbed and possibly dangerous which puts a twist on the usual expectancy of the male character being the threat

Why We Thought to Challenge Representations:

Among horror movies, it is uncommon for audiences to see an Asian female as the leading character. We thought it would be good to bring something fresh to the cinema screens. Often in films Asian females are shown as the smart ones with a traditional outlook on life. Especially older Asian females and we wanted to show our stance and counteract that stereotype. The British film industry has a growing reputation of successful films with Asian female leads that go against stereotypes such as Bend it Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice. This recent trend has been largely successful however, it has not been attempted in horror films and we thought our movie could be the one to possibly change that. 

SCREAM 4 EXAMPLE:

Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere) is one of the main females in Scream 4. She is an example of the typical American actress. The Scream movies are a large franchise that is widely recognised unlike our film which is a one off, independent movie so large differences are to be expected.

Character wise, looking at Scream 4, Kirby is quite fun and daring but gullible at the same time. If our film progressed, we would have made Violet a strong and fierce character but have certain vulnerabilities too. This way she can also remain relatable to the audience.

THE AWAKENING EXAMPLE

In the context of our film we also looked at other British horror films. An inspiration for a strong female lead was Florence from The Awakening (2011). She starts off as a woman who does not believe in the supernatural and her career in fact is proving that supernatural occurrences are hoaxes. As the film goes on, we learn that she has been blocking certain memories as a child from her mind which is similar to how Violet's mind is confusing her and tampering with her memory.

 

The Awakening 2011 trailer.

The Final Girl Theory

The final girl is a common trope in horror films and it refers to the last girl or woman alive in the movie to affront the entity/murderer/etc. The generic idea in horror films is that some form of an attacker kills several victims and one female is the last one alive and turns the table by stopping the menace. Many theorists have stated that "the final girl" in most horror movies share the same qualities. They're often the virtuous girl who high morale or the clever/"geeky" one who is one step ahead of the killer.

Examples of "Final Girls" in horror movies:

From top left: Halloween, Scream, The Cabin in the Woods & Friday the 13th.

Violet is the final girl in our film.

A point we could have improved on was that we could have possibly explored Violet's character in more depth or given more signs throughout the clip that we was psychologically disturbed. The only giveaway was the connotations of the pictures in her bedroom at the beginning of the clip:

If we showed more aspects of her character through small habits or more dialogue, audiences might have been able identify with her easily.

Overall, we provided a view of social groups that opposed the general stereotype in order to bring something new to the film industry and to encourage better perceptions to be made of them.