In what ways do genre conventions determine how particular characters are represented?

In this essay I will be looking at how different codes and conventions typically determine how particular characters are represented in the film I have watched. Horror films are unsettling films designed to frighten, panic cause dread and to invoke our hidden and worst fears, often in a terrifying shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining at the same time in cathartic experience. Horror films effectively centre on the dark side of life, the forbidden and strange and alarming events. They deal with our most primal nature and its fears. The Horror genre looks to touch upon our nightmares, our vulnerability, our alienation,  our terror of the unknown, our fear of death or fear of sexuality. The horror genres intentions are to also leave you in edge if the story is not settled and to challenge what you think of your safety in life, they make you fear what you never use to fear, the horror genre leaves you with no security over what happens in reality. In this essay I will be looking closely at how the horror genre conventions determine how particular characters are typically represented in the films The Horror of Dracula (Terrance fisher) and The Descent (Neil Marshall).

Conventions are elements which are repeated in such a way that they become any elements which are repeated in such a way that they become familiar, predictable and associated in their use with a particular genre. For example in the film The Descent the final girl in this film is almost ironic and very cliché as it happens in most horror films were the final girl is the least expected character of all characters that exist in the film. Sarah, the final girl, would have been the least expected character to make it to the end as her character at the beginning is startled by things such as the past death of her husband and child haunting her when she is sleeping, also hallucinations of herself and her daughter being together would lead the audience to believing that she maybe one of the first to be killed however this is contradicted by the view in which the film has been shot from, as the director has almost filmed it from Sarah’s life and so when looking into greater detail of this film you cant help but think that if the director has focussed so much on Sarah’s life and how it got to the point of entering the cave then why should she be the first to die, perhaps the way the film was shot and from which characters perspective that it was shot gave some indication as to who will be the last to survive in this film.

The conventions of the horror genre have been set up by the use of micro features and the way in which the director has used cinematography and mise-en-scene in a specific way to show the rebirth of the character that is Sarah and to show her change from being the hunted to being the hunter.. The only aspect that this film differs in with regards to the sub genre Urbanoia is the film would end with the death of the wilderness creatures, leaving the survivor to go back to the place they come from, bloody and traumatised. Some aspects of the ending of this sub genre Urbanoia can be referred to The Descent but the part about the death of the wilderness creatures and the fact of the final survivor find their way back into civilisation cannot be linked to this film as Sarah dreams of leaving the wilderness but the audience are unsure of whether she did in the end and the audience can also establish that what exists in that wilderness has not been ended as the crawlers are still left down there to hunt on what is left of Juno.

The mise-en-scene and cinematography show this change by the way that they have used specific elements to communicate this to the audience. The specific elements show Sarah go through several challenges of being hunted by the crawlers every time she survives until she is finally reborn in the pool of blood as we see the transformation of Sarah’s character through the cinematography as she rises out of the blood with a look in her eyes that suggests that the fear inside her is no longer there. The mise-en-scene also has contributed to the representation of the final girl as her transformation has also been shown by the way she adapts to the setting around her and how she uses the props to aid her in fighting off the crawlers. The props in the film represent this character as one who has almost been twisted into fitting the final girls traits by the way she is just a caver to start with and uses her tools only for exploring but then changes to use them for weapons as she almost becomes more like the crawlers as she adapts to the cave setting and the hunting lifestyle that exists down there.

The Villains in the films The Descent and The Horror of Dracula have been constructed in different ways yet attempt to do the same objective within the film and that is the intention to scare the audience. The crawlers in The Descent have been constructed in a way that best suits there habitat that they live in (the cave) this has been done in the way that they have no need for sight as the caves are pitch black, all they need is hearing and the ability to climb with ease in order to hunt and it is the way in which these villains have been constructed that strike fear into the audience as they know that the crawlers have been made specially for the caving system in order to prey on the victims that enter the caves they live in. Count Dracula on the other hand has been constructed in a much more different way as he is represented in a more different way from the crawlers as he strikes fear into the audience by the way that he sleeps in a coffin and lives off human blood from his victims. The way that the villain count Dracula has been represented reflects the time that the film was made as some audiences of today would feel that the intentions of the villain character that is Dracula doesn’t scare them at all, however if you was to put yourself in the shoes of a person back in the times that it first came out then the character Dracula may scare you and frighten you.

The setting is represented in both films differently as one is ironic in the way it has been used as a place to frighten the audience, the other setting used in the other film has the intention to scare the audience into believing that anywhere underground is never safe and that evil lurks within the darkness. The first setting that is represented as a place that is seen as safe in every day life is from the film The Horror of Dracula, the directors intentions with this setting is to alter it to make it seem to the audience that the setting shouldn’t be underestimated and that it isn’t safe in reality even though the definition of the word castle is ‘a type of fortified structure’, which means that is a safe construction that has been designed in order to protect and is made for defense, however this interpretation of the setting that is the castle within the film is destroyed as the castle is made out to be a place of danger and that any character that goes inside this place will come out a vampire. The Descent constructs the setting differently to The Horror of Dracula setting in a way that amplifies that the underground is the scariest setting by the way it amplifies the using of claustrophobia within the film. This can be once again linked with the sub genre Urbanoia as the setting initially offers the characters an escape from their daily experience, but will eventually isolate them from any sense of modern society in the face of mounting horror. The settings in an Urbanoia film are usually spaces that the characters assume to be beautiful and passive, often equating them with romantic notions of escape. By thinking this the characters enter these spaces supremely confident that they are capable with the equipment they have to deal with the landscapes that they enter. This can be applied to the Descent as all of the girls are overly confident that the setting they are about to enter is just a tourist attraction and that it is no big problem but they underestimate this setting that strikes fear into both the characters and the audience.

In-conclusion, in this essay I have looked in detail about how genre conventions determine how particular characters are typically represented in the two films that are The Descent and The Horror of Dracula. I have referred to the sub genre Urbanoia and looked into how the final girl, the villain and the setting have all been represented in either The Horror of Dracula or The descent, or even in fact both.

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