Character Profiling - Van Helsing

When we first meet Van Helsing we see him in his long coat (with fur inside) his long gloves and his hat. Van Helsing, just by looking at his clothing has already been summed up by the audience by a man of good wealth. The audience wouldn’t say that it is strength that they see within this character but in fact the audience see a man that is smart and sophisticated and has clearly been through good education. The way Van Helsing speaks is light but yet sounds cunning and mysterious at the same time when we first meet him. The audience can establish by Van Helsing’s body shape and frailness that he is not your typical male gender who will be the strong hero and save the day for everyone. Instead the audience sum this man up as someone who is cunning and will take Dracula down with other ways apart from strength but with knowledge.

From then on in this film Van Helsing is shown in nearly every scene which shows as the antagonist their priority over the rest of the females of the film as the male characters are the only threats to Dracula where as the females just fall at his feet.  Van Helsing’s gender is communicated in a more fragile way to the audience compared to Count Draculas gender as Van Helsing is a more of a formal man who doesn’t let things distract him when doing his job and carries on looking for Harker without any distractions. This communicates to the audience about Van Helsing’s gender that he is a man who likes to get the job done.

This film is all about the male characters, to be more specific the antagonist being Dracula and the protagonist being Van Helsing, are the key characters that drive the narrative forward and the cause and effect of their actions help to move the story on, this already priorities the importance of men over women in the film.

The representations of gender is The Horror of Dracula is vast when looking at Van Helsing as he can be contrasted a lot compared to other characters gender within the film as he is not sexualised in any way compared to Dracula and isn’t like your typical hero who saves the day with all the muscles and the girls that he would get. Van Helsing the sort of hero that would use his knowledge collected from Harker’s diary and his initiative to defeat the enemy that is Dracula. 

The Descent (Neil Marshall 2005)

The Descent is about a group of women cave explorers who come together to explore this once cave that isn’t what they thought it would be. When one of the girls lie about the cave destination, the rest of the group find themselves exploring an unknown cave with no map and no knowledge if there is any exit out of the hell hold they have plunged themselves into. As they search for an exit together, the find they are not alone down in the caves and find themselves trying to out pace creatures that can not see but can only hear as they try to find the exit that will set them free of this unknown death cave.

This films fits into the horror genre by the way it links in with the codes and conventions of this specific genre. It links in with the specific codes and conventions through its use of the micro features (sound, mise-en-scene, cinematography and editing) there are many ways in which they have used these things to communicate to the audience that this film belongs in the horror genre. One of the ways it has done this is through its use of sound when within the cave and the screeches for music they have used in order to scare the audience and frighten them. The mise-en-scene has also been used in this film to indicate to the audience that it is belongs in the horror genre, by the way it has used the lighting, props, setting and facial expressions to communicate to the audience that this is a horror film. The lighting indicates to the audience that this is a horror film by the way such high key lighting is used at the beginning but when the horrific parts start to happen, that is when the low key lighting is used. The props that have been used such as the blood and weapons used communicate to the audience that this is a horror as these props have been purposefully used to scare the audience and to intentionally scare them. Finally for the mise-en-scene the setting and facial expressions used create a sense of tension and suspense amongst the audience, as down in the caves no one can here you from above and no one can help you and the facial expressions used communicate to the audience just how scary these creatures are. The cinematography and editing work together in the micro elements to create a theme of scarceness by the way the combine to frighten and petrify the audience and to leave them on the edge of their seats.

In my opinion what is horrific about this film is the sense of awkwardness created within this film and how when the group of girls are in the cave, some of the scenes make me feel uncomfortable like i cant breathe and i just want to move so that i can. The main thing for me and most probabaly the audience that scares me would be the monsters or creatures that are down in the caves that kill off the cavers one by one. These are what scare me the most as they show up out of know where without any kind of signal, they just pop up to scare the audience and pertify them. Once again the blood and gore and the way the director has made things so that they jump out at you have been used also is really horrific in this film and i think that is what scares the audience the most out of the whole film.

Most of the reviews are very good for this film and comment on the blood and gore and the horrificness of this film. Some are the reviews are as follows 'good performances from all involved' 'Magnificent gore fest' also other things such as, 'the film packs in top class gore with exquisitely detailed 'creatures' and brilliantly claustrophobic cinematography' and the final good comment that i have found from user reviews is 'This movie is certainly one of the best films of 2005'. There are some comments that dont reflect wel on the film as such reviews as 'the wild overpraising of this film' have been made about this horror and also things have been said by other critics such as ' I can honestly say this is the worst film I've seen at the cinema this year'.

What makes this film so British, is the British cast used in order to make the film and the fact the film is set in Britain. These two factors basically add up to make what about the whole film that s British. We can tell that the actors and actresses are British within this film through their accents and other things that we as the audience see and here throughout the film, we can see this film is set in Britain as we here a comment from one of the girls stating that it is.

These are some of the key scenes within the film;

 

28 Days Later (Danny Boyle)

A virus that locks those infected into a permanent state of killing rage is accidentally released from a British research facility. Carried by animals and humans, the virus is impossible to contain and supposedly spreads across the entire planet. Twenty-eight days later, a small group of survivors are trapped in London, caught in a desperate struggle to protect them from the infected.

We can see that 28 days later is clearly a horror through its links to the codes and conventions of the horror genre. Things such as sound, editing, mise-en-scene (props, makeup and facial expressions) are what have been used in order to communicate to the audience that this films belongs to the horror genre. Mainly to me the make-up and facial expressions of the zombies are what communicate to the audience that this film belongs in the horror genre. Also even sound to me once again indicates to the audience just how this films intention is to scare the audience. The sound is used is music that is intentionally made to build tension and to create suspense amongst the audience.

In my opinion what is horrific about this film, is the zombies themselves and the blood and gore used throughout the film. These are what is horrific about the film as the make the audience recluse in the sight of them and makes the audience feel awkward with how much blood and gore and makes the audience scared by the way the zombies actions and make up tend are deliberately done in a way to make the audience frightened. Also when being the audience when watching this film, it is scary in the thought that there is no one around in London and where this film has been linked to reality, it is frightening in the fact that we don’t know what why there is no one around at first and compared to the London that we see every day, in the film it is completely empty and is very scary to the audience as when it is that empty, you can’t help but think that something may jump out and scare you.



When looking at the audience reviews you can see that this film was taken well by the audience as the opinions of the film are very good and make comments such as 'A tough, smart, ingenious movie' and there are other good comments used such as 'a first-rate zombie movie' and other things such as 'This is an excellent portrayal of people who are surviving, and what people can be driven to' . Also many people have commented smart things aboutt he film that make us see just what this film is 'realistic example of what the world would be if there was a zombie apocalypse'. another thing that someone has reviewed about this film is they have found an interesting hidden meaning within this film that is 'The disturbing truth of how men react to destruction and death with violence and anger. Anger, an infectious disease that has been spreading throughout mankind for centuries'. there are a few bad comments scattered amongst the many good reviews that you see such as this one 'Its nowhere near as great as dawn of the dead which this movie seems to resemble only it has less zombies and a different ending'. however the rest of the reviews are very good and there are only a few reviews that can be seen as bad.

What makes this film distinctivly British is the fact that it is set in the capital of England (London) and uses typically British features in order to shown just how British themed this film is. The typical British feautures would be the London setting used, the British army soldiers used within the film and the British actors used for this film. The fact the film is set in London makes the film british as this is the captial of England and is set in this place throughout the whole film. The British army also show this is a British film as it shows the little group of soldiers attempting to survive the waves of attacks that are coming at them and this is ironic that all of the zombies have taken over the even the birtish army and that the only survivors have been drven mad being that alone away from civilisation and even they are going more mental than the zombies who try to break their defence. Finally there have been plenty of British actors used to communicate to the audience that this is a British film.

In my opinion, these are some of the vital scenes within the film, i have shown them within these pictures;

The Horror Of Dracula (Terrence Fisher 1958)

The horror of Dracula is about a vampire (count Dracula) who preys on victims for their blood as so he can feed himself. Throughout the film many try to stop him such as Jonathon Harker at the beginning of the film who attacks Dracula. Jonathon falls short of the strength to kill Dracula and so pays by the fact that Dracula goes to a nearby city where he preys on Jonathon Harker’s fiancés family. The only man who can put a stop to Count Dracula is Dr. Van Helsing, who will put a stop to Count Dracula at what ever the cost, the two are then locked in a battle till death.

The horror of Dracula fits into the horror genre by the way it follows the specific codes and conventions for this genre. The horror of Dracula does this by its use of sound, props, setting and cinematography. Sound is used to great effect in the horror of Dracula to communicate to the audience that it belongs in the horror genre. The audience can tell that this is a horror as dark deep music is used to suggest danger is close. The sound used is a sort of drumming music that is used throughout the horror of Dracula to keep the audience of the edge of there seat as they know that something scary is about to happen when the music kicks in. Props have been used to indicate to the audience that this is a horror as things such as blood, stakes and coffins have been used to give off traces that it is one of the famous gothic horrors that belong to the hammer horror studios. Once again theme of horror has been communicated through the use of setting. We can see this through the setting as the setting used is a castle in the middle that is sectioned off from the rest of the villages around it, the castle is in a place where no one can hear you and no one can help you, this communicates to the audience that not only is it a spooky place, but you wouldn’t want to get stuck there by yourself. Finally the cinematography also contributes to these traces that this film belongs to the horror genre as close-ups have mostly been used to get the facial expressions of characters to scare the audience and to petrify them.

What makes Dracula so horrific is the character himself, the close up of his facial expressions are what mostly scare me when watching this film as it is very frightening with the blood running down his chin from his teeth, its enough to send a chill up my spine like the picture below.

• the eyes also scare me as they are blod shot and frightening. Dracula's eyes here are also bold and pure black which makes me want to look away from him
• his teeth also scare me as they are larger than any humans teeth and the fact they have blood on them makes me feel uneasy as i know that hes been feasting in his prey (victim)
• also his face in general scares me by the way he is at the moment. Dacula looks as if he actually enjoys it so much and that he thrives on sucking the blood out of his victims necks

For me when watching this film the only thing that does scare me is the music and Dracula. The music scares me because it builds tension and suspense, as i dont know whats coming it scares me as i think something will pop out and make me jump but it always calms down in the end. Dracula scares me by the way he looks and his facial expressions he uses. His facial expressions scare me as there just so uneasy and un natural and they make me want to look away from the screen by the way he looks. also when he goes to prey on his victims, his face just looks so horrific and makes me want to look away.

The film was received well by the audience as they made comments such as ‘Terence Fisher's DRACULA is the best vampire film of all time. No other picture combines the right amounts of horror, humour, action, and eroticism’. Also other comments such as ‘I'm not a big fan of horror films but I was very impressed with this one, titled Horror Of Dracula’. ‘An outstanding film on all accounts! This is far and away a better vampire(Dracula) film then the Universal film because of its action and pace, its acting, and its rich musical score and lush cinematography’. However as much as there are many good reviews on the film Horror of Dracula there are also a few bad ones amongst the pile such as this one ‘Don't quite understand the popularity of this one – I found it 82 of the longest minutes of my life’.

These are some of the key scenes within the film that i think are most important to the anrrative and to the audience.

Dracula Is A Sexual Predator - Plan

The Castle Is An Inviting Prison - Plan

How are women represented as inferior and sexualised beings in The Horror Of Dracula (Terrance Fisher)?

When looking at this question I decided to break it down and look at it in more detail; for example the way the word ‘women’ is used in the question shows there is an issue with gender within this film. It can clearly be stated that there is an issue with gender in The horror Of Dracula as throughout the film the men are always more higher up and more stronger than the women who are more vulnerable and likely to give in to Dracula’s seductions. It can also be said that this can be linked with the codes and conventions of horror and the typical representations that you get from characters within this genre; for example within this film you have the traditional damsel in distress who is always screaming and who the audience tend to want to be the next victim so that they don’t have to hear scream and cry anymore, in this case the damsel in distress in The Horror Of Dracula is Lucy.

The time that this film was made and the time that it was set in could contribute to the fact that women are represented as inferior sexualised beings as this is around the time that women weren’t the ones to work and only had to be there as a wife to the men who went out and worked for there living. In this film, the day and age it was set in could communicate the fact that women are being represented as sexualised beings as all they were needed for was relaxation for the alpha male who went to work and put food on the table for his family.

When you look at the word inferior you can define it as saying someone is beneath, mediocre or lower than you and say that the women are inferior to the men is making a strong point about gender and you would need a lot of points to back this up, however the horror of count Dracula does give you a lot of points as it is always the women who give in to the men in this film as Dracula is let in by the women so they he can feed on his prey. Where as the men stand up to Dracula and do not allow this as they put up a struggle with him and try to put an end to his life. This is one of the reasons that women are represented as more sub standard compared to the men in this film who like in other horror films seem to save the day and rescue the women from the antagonist.

Some people may argue against this statement saying that within this film there maybe evidence of women being inferior to men, however this is set in a time where most people thought this but this isn’t politically correct anymore as women and men are seen as equals in the society of this day and age. Furthermore the part about woman being sexualised beings in this film is not a point that you would like to argue against as it is clearly shown throughout this film that woman are sexualised beings as one of the characters has used a low cleavage in order to give evidence to this quote. Also when Dracula looks to strike again on his victims, he doesn’t have a struggle in doing this as the woman is sprawled out in a sexual inviting way on the bed waiting for him. This is contrasted with another one of the characters costume as she has her dress done write up to her chin, covering her body and neck and not leaving a piece of flesh to be seen by the human eye.

Finally coming to the final word within the question which is ‘sexualised’ when thinking of sexualised, things such as to have sexual allocations spring to mind as within the film you can clearly see that the women are vulnerable and that the men stand tall and strong and with hold from the clutches of Dracula where as the women they seem to struggle with holding off Draculas waves of hunting as they always seem to give into him so easily. The women can be seen as sexualised again in this film as they always seemed to be laying there just waiting for him to feed off their blood.

In-conclusion women can be seen as inferior and sexualised in the film The Horror Of Dracula as they are sub standard compared to mean they are vulnerable when it comes to keeping away from Dracula. You could also say that they almost enjoy what Dracula does to them and that they have no control of the emotions that possess them when he comes to feed.

Hammer Horror Research

Hammer film productions is a film productions company based in the UK. founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "hammer horror" films made in between the mid 1950's-1970's.  the production company also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies. During its most successful years, Hammer Horror dominated the horror film market, enjoying world wide distribution and considerable financial success. This success was due to the partnership with warner bros and other film companies.

Horror Of Dracula
when coming to making the film 'Horror Of Dracula' they encountered  a few problems with funding the film as Universal Studios wasn't interested even though Frankenstein (the film before) was a success. Eventually the funding was found and come from the National Film Finance council (£32,000). with an eventual budget of £81,412 Dracula began principal photography on 11 November 1957. Dracula was an enormous success, breaking records int he UK, United States, Canada and across the world.

Other films by Hammer Horror include;

• Frankenstein 
• The Mummy
• Cave Girls

Furthermore, Hammer Horror also made a series of psychological thriller know as 'mini-hitchcocks'. This series of mini films were low budget, suspense thriller with twist endings. Started with Taste Of Fear (1961) and then followed by Maniac (1963) Paranoiac (1963) Nightmare (1964) Hysteria (1965) Funatic  (1965) The Nanny (1965) Crescendo (1970) Straight Till Morning (1972) and finally Fear In the Night (1972)

Hammer Horros last production in 1979 was a remake of Hitchcock's 1938 thriller The Lady Vanishes. The film was a failure at box office and all but bankrupted the studio.      

Laura Mulvey Research

   

Laura Mulvey (born August 15, 1941) is a British Feminist film theorist. She was educated at St Hilda’s College, Oxford. She is currently professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London. She worked at the British Film Institute for many years before taking up her current position.

Laura Mulvey is best know for her essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ , written 1973 and published in 1975 in the influential British film theory journal Screen. It later appeared in a collection of her essays entitled Visual and Other Pleasures and numerous other anthologies. Her article was one of the first major essays that helped shift the orientation of film theory towards a psychoanalytic framework (a school academic film criticism that developed in the 1970s and 80s, is closely allied with critical theory and that analyses films from the perspective of psychoanalysis) influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan

Prior to Mulvey, Film theorists such as jean-Louis Baudry and Christian Metz had attempted to use psychoanalytic ideas in their theoretical accounts of the cinema, but Mulvey’s contribution was to inaugurate the intersection of film theory, psychoanalysis and feminism.

Mulvey’s article engaged in no empirical research on film audiences. She instead stated that she intended to use Freud and Lacan’s concepts as a poloticical weapon. She then used some of their concepts to argue that the cinematic apparatus of classical Hollywood cinema inevitably put the spectator in a masculine subject position with the figure of the women on the screen as the object of desire. Basically Mulvey’s theory looks at how the masculine subject will tend to look more towards the sexy women and will pay more attention to them, as they are the objects of desire.