Main Task Research: The evolution of Teen Horror since the 80's

In the 80's Teen Horror movies were just slashers with not much of a plot line other than a gory killing spree. At the time this was all the rage but it soon died down when the 90's came around no one really cared for characters like Freddy, Jason, Michael or Leatherface anymore; they wanted something that scared them again.

In 1996 however Wes Craven (the mastermind behind A Nightmare On Elm Street) revived the teen horror genre with smash hit movie Scream and followed it up with Scream 2 (1997) and 3 (2000). After Scream teen horror suddenly came back into fashion in "the noughties"with films such as Final Destiantion (2000) and Freddy vs Jason (2003). Freddy vs Jason was the first ever horror movie to involve two villain characters from a seperate horror film series in the same movie fighting each other.








The noughties was very popular for horror remakes or reboots, A good example of a remake would be the 2003 version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and a prequel Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006). Other classic slashers to make a comeback to the big screen would be Halloween (2007) and Friday The 13th (2009).

Main Task Research: Teen Horror

What is Teen Horror? 

A genre of horror that includes a teenage character going through every day events of a teenager's life.... And then they get brutally murdered. Teen horror mostly is aimed at a teenage audience as well despite most of these slashers having an 18 BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) certificate. Most Teen horror films are mindless slashers with no real plot line to it apart from blood, guts and gore; If there is a plot line to a teen slasher it most likely includes a brutal death or two.

The first notable Teen slasher is Halloween (1978). Halloween starred Jamie Lee Curtis as an everyday teenager babysitting for a neighbour stalked by a masked un-killable psychotic mental patient known as Michael Myers who is later revealed to be her long lost brother. Halloween was the catalyst for a revolution in the horror film industry in the 1980's, the revolution of the teen horror.


                        
The 80's is when the teen slasher really evolved in the film market. After Halloween came Halloween II (1981), A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) and Friday The 13th (1980). Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees were the main characters that spearheaded the charge of Teen horror to major fruition in the 80's.


The Friday the 13th franchise tells the story of immortal hockey masked psycho Jason Voorhees who terrorises the teen residents of Camp Crystal Lake where he drowned as a child. Jason isn't seen wearing the hockey mask until Friday the 13th part 3 (1982).

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) made Robert Englund's career legendary for his part as Freddy Krueger in what is still regarded as one of the greatest horror franchises today. Freddy Krueger was a child killer who  got murdered by victim's parents. Freddy spends his afterlife murdering Springwood teenagers in their dreams except... they also die in real life! A Nightmare on Elm Street is also famous for it's own made up nursery rhyme; 1,2 Freddy's coming for you 3,4 better lock your door 5,6 grab your crucifix 7,8 better stay up late                9,10 never sleep again.   

                     

Main Task Research: Horror films through the decades: The 2000's

"The noughties" was not too successful for horror films, there were some good ones but obviously not good enough or remakes of old horror films wouldn't have to be made. The noughties did not see a new "awesome" genre of horror being born. However the noughties did see the release of the first film of one of the most successful film franchises in decades; Saw (2004). The Saw franchise to me was successful because of it's gore and it's psychology, it makes everyone ask the question "What would you do to stay alive?" and also you have to see all of them to get the entire plot line as the story spreads over seven films. A couple of films also preyed on the fear of terrorists because of the Attacks on September 11, 2001. 28 Days later (2002) really emphasised this fear as people were paranoid that terrorists would go to chemical warfare. The noughties were surprisingly quiet for horror films.




                      


                     

Main Task Research: Horror films through the decades: The 90's

By the time the 90's came around the Slasher genre was in it's twilight, mounds of corpses and jets of blood and gore didn't faze people anymore. The 90's saw the birth of the sophisticated horror. There can be gore but the sophisticated horror looks more at how a killer's mind works, the psychology side of things. What scares people is the psychological cat and mouse game happening perhaps between the villain and the viewer or the villain and another character. The 90's saw the evolution of the thriller genre. Below is a  clip from 1991 classic "The silence of the lambs".

                           
However in 1996 Wes Craven (creator of A Nightmare On Elm Street and Friday the 13th) came up with one of the greatest films of the 90's; Scream. Not only did Scream use the more sophisticated way to chill viewers with the plot line but it also mixed in the guts and gore of an 80's slasher and even the dress code for an 80's movie serial killer (an unorthodox costume with a scary mask or disfigurement to hide their true face). The teen horror genre was back!

                           

Main Task Research: Horror films through the decades: The 80's

The 1980's saw two major eras in horror film as the slasher genre was at it's peak notoriety and a new type of horror came into the mix; Body horror! During the 80's technology really advanced in the film industry, with new tools at the helm; film makers could make their impossible dream a reality with highly advanced technology making outlandish special effects a reality, making  films look more realistic than real life itself! The films that pioneered "Body Horror" were two of the most famous 80's horrors The Thing (1982) and The Fly (1986). New editing technology meant that Sci-Fi horror now came back into contention for the top of the horror film market with films like the Alien series and Predator.

In the 80's Teen slasher horror was at it's peak. After The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween in the 70's The teen slasher genre evolved in the 80's into a film genre with the biggest audiences in the world. Many sequels followed Texas Chainsaw and Halloween and two new horror figures came into the fray that also grabbed teen audiences worldwide; Jason Voorhees (Friday The 13th in 1980) and Freddy Krueger (Nightmare On Elm Street in 1984). Theses movies preyed on people's fear of a dangerous evil serial killer figure that is incapable of doing unspeakable things (back in the 80's people were still scared of serial killers because of people like Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacey). 

                               

Main Task Research: Horror films through the decades: The 70's

The 1970's mostly was known as the "Era of the creepy kid". Children are normally seen as innocent figures who can do nothing bad or evil. Horror films throughout the 70's played on people's fear of the unknown as  no one could know what goes on in someone's mind. Not only were children the main figures of these films, sometimes they were grown adults. The 1970's is the origin of psychological horror, developed from Norman Bates' character and made into an even more creepy, evil, psycho figure. The flagship films of the 70's include The Exorcist (1973) one of the highest grossing horror films of all time, The Omen (1976). The "Norman Bates but worse" character is first seen in the 1974 gore fest The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkm2rMZXPyg

The 1978 teen slasher "Halloween" starring Jamie Lee Curtis as a teen babysitter stalked by a masked psycho with a large kitchen knife known as Michael Myers was the catalyst for the domination of the slasher genre in the 1980's and is the first major "Teen Horror" movie. 

Main Task Research: Horror films through the decades: The 60's

The 60's is where society completely changed, everyone loosened up from the nuclear paranoia of the 50's. Teenagers changed from generic mummy's boys and daddy's girls to "free spirits", hence this decade being dubbed the "Swingin' sixties". With the idea of genetically altered nuclear monsters beginning to be seen as a bit silly, Film writers gave the viewer a fear of something closer to home. The most notorious 60's horror was Alfred Hitchcock's legendary 1960 movie "Psycho". Psycho is the story of motel owner Norman Bates who hears the voice of his Mum's ghost telling him to kill people. The moral of the story was that being a "Mummy's boy" was not a good thing anymore, this film summarises the rebellious nature of the teenage population in the 60's.


                          

Main Task Research: Horror films through the decades: the 50's

The 50's is when Sci-Fi (Science Fiction) Horror took centre stage from the dark gothic horror era of the 30's and 40's. In the 1950's everyone was still reflecting on the Second World War which ended in the worst example of technological warfare possible; The American nuclear bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing over 150,000 Japanese citizens. Horror films in the 1950's aimed to prey on the public's paranoia of nuclear warfare by making films about monsters,born from Nuclear weaponry! The film that started this trend was "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" (1953). The most notorious 50's horror film though was "Godzilla" (1954). The 50's in the horror film market was known as "The Atomic Age". 

Godzilla (1954)

A clip from "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms"

                                

Main Task Research: Horror films through the decades: the 40's

The main horror characters from the 30's (Dracula, Frankenstein and The Mummy) carried on into the 40's with sequels such as The Mummy's Tomb (1942), Son Of Dracula (1943) and Ghost of Frankenstein (1942). There were also new revitalized films of other characters such as The Wolf Man (1941).

                        

However in the 1940's no one really had any interest in Cinema as the Second World War was taking place and everyone in the world was either fighting for their country, hiding in their bomb shelters or helping clear the streets of rubble from air raids during the night; No one had time to sit in a cinema watching films or were simply just too scared to leave their house. 

Main Task Research: Horror films through the decades: the 30's

The 1930's is when horror films really came into fruition with the 1931 releases of Frankenstein and Dracula in cinemas everywhere really grabbing the attention of the audience. The 1930's is the origin decade of one of the biggest media markets in the world today. Dracula and Frankenstein were the main catalysts for the mini boom that would take place in the horror market in the 30's. Other main horror releases in the 30's include "Werewolf of London" (1935) and "The Mummy" (1932).

         


                                                         








                                                   

Main Task Research: Origin of Horror

The horror genre has been around for years! The gothic style started mainly in the 19th century when Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in 1818, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in 1886 and Bram Stoker wrote Dracula in 1897. These 3 novels are what defined these 3 authors' careers. The first horror film ever made, Nosferatu in 1922 was based on the Vampire idea from Bram Stoker's Dracula. The gothic genre is the first main genre of horror, completely different to what horror is to us in the modern day.

A 1931 adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. 

Bela Lugosi's 1931 adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula.

     Robert Louis Stevenson's career defining novel "The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" (1886)




Here is the full film of the 1922 horror film "Nosferatu" there is no speech as in 1922 cameras could not pick up character speech. Nosferatu is the first ever horror film in known existence.



                         

Main Task

Now that our preliminary task is finished, it's now time to get started on the main task! The main task is an opening to a new teen horror film that lasts a maximum of two minutes. In our prelim task we used iMovie which is very simple to use however for the main task we will be using a more complex software for film editing in Final Cut. Final Cut is a state of the art software for film editing that the professionals even use nowadays for making films.

Preliminary Task: Evaluation

Preliminary task evaluation from JohnPowerKBA

Preliminary Task:Final Product

Today Twin Pine films finished filming and editing the Preliminary Task. Here is our final edited product showing Match-On-Action, 180 Degree rule and Shot/Reverse Shot.

How to embed Youtube videos onto your blog

These are the steps you need to take in order to embed a YouTube video onto your blog:

Step 1.Go to www.youtube.com
Step 2.Find a suitable video
Step 3.Click the share button on the bottom of the video
Step 4.Click the down arrow underneath the Facebook symbol.
Step 5.Click blogger.
Step 6. Publish your blog post.



                                                                 TEST

How to embed Powerpoint slideshows

These are the steps to follow in order to embed a powerpoint presentation onto your blog:

Step 1. Go to www.slideshare.net and create an account

Step 2. Upload your powerpoint presentation onto Slideshare (the amount of time this takes can vary)

Step 3. When your Powerpoint has been uploaded you can copy the HTML address. 

Step 4. Create a new post on Blogger and change writing settings from compose to HTML and paste the HTML address. 

Step 5. Publish your blog. 

                                                                TEST

          

Media consumption from JohnPowerKBA

Mise-En-Scene (costume and props)

Mise-en-scene is a french term which literally means "put in the scene"


Costume: 

In the preliminary task Chuck (played by me) I am wearing a black shirt with no tie, with the top button undone and the shirt untucked; I am also wearing black trousers with black shoes and socks. I will also have fake blood on my face to give the effect that I have been roughed up badly.

George (playing the Mafia Boss) will be wearing a black jumper, a white shirt, a black tie with black trousers and black shoes.


Props: 

For the preliminary task we will be using a table to separate the captive Chuck from the Mafia boss. Chuck will be "tied" to a normal hard chair but the Mafia boss will be sitting across the table from Chuck in a nice comfortable leather chair.