Essay Plan So Far

Essay title : Is the “Hills Have Eyes” (2006) a typical horror film

My topic
My study will look at the film the hills have eyes and look into if it can be said to be a pure horror film. I will look at the key conventions of horror films and how they have been shown and try and find similarities in the hills have eyes to prove it is a horror film. Many of the modern horror films have been accused of being “hybrid” genre horrors as they have borrowed aspects of other genres of film, it has been like this since the 1990s with various different films. The other thing I will be looking at is the representation of women in the hills have eyes, the female characters play a big part in making a horror films and their representation has always been a indicator of the genre of film, I will be analyzing the film to study the representation of women to find out how they have been represented and if there is a change from historic horror movies to present. I will be looking at the changes to see what the factor was that changed the representation. Aswell as looking at the female roles in horror films I will be looking at the representation of the main male protagonist to see how he has been shown. With the “new man” being on a rise I will look to see if the main male protagonist shows signs of being a new man or does he still display the traditional ideas about men. Also I will be looking the different aspects of horror films to see which are the most influential on horror films and what a “real” horror film is. I will also be looking at the sub genres of horror such as slasher movies, monster movies, survival horror etc.

Other films
In this study I am looking at what makes a typical horror therefore I will need to study a range of horror films so I will be able to pick up on the key conventions of the genre to see if the hills have eyes also displays this. I will be looking at other films which belong to the same genre to look for similarities and differences, the films I will be looking at are:

- Scream
- Halloween H20
- The Texas chainsaw massacre
- Psycho
- The hills have eyes (1977)
- The hills have eyes II

For each of the films above there is a reason for why I will be looking at them in terms of my study. Along with the films listed at the top I will look at other horror films to understand more about the genre but also I will analyze films such as scary movie as it is a parody of a horror which uses the key horror conventions and makes it humorous, by watching the films it will enable me to underling key horror points and allow me to make my answer more accurate. As said above I will be looking at the films for different reasons some will be to analyse the role of women some will be see change from historic texts to modern texts and some will be for the conventions of horror.

Scream
Scream is very similar to my main text of the hills have eyes, both films feature a female protagonist and the films have similar story lines. Scream is a movie which has been known to be a proper horror movie due its use of gory scenes and the use of realism which has become key to horror films over the years. I will look at scream and the conventions of horror it shows and then I will be able to find the convention in the hills have eyes to see if it matches up. I will also look to see if scream has borrowed conventions from other films if so could it be said that the new horror is a mix of traditional horror and conventions from other genres. Also from this film I will look at the last girl theory and see how that character is shown in horror movies.

Halloween H20
Another similar film to the text of my focus, this film also has a female protagonist and could also be classed a slasher film. Also this film is abit older then my text so it will allow me to see the stages of change from historical horror to new horror. Since this film has a female protagonist it will allow me to see if the representation of women is the same in the hills have eyes.

The Texas chainsaw massacre
Another film which follows the horror conventions, I will be able to compare this film as it is similar to both scream and Halloween, the film is also a good example of a slasher film so it will be useful and help me to categories weather the hills have eyes is a slasher film or something else. The film is also a good link to watch because the role of the female character and the actual role is very similar to the character in the hills have eyes.

Psycho
This film is the original horror film and best highlights the conventions of the horror genre, this will allow me to see how it was originally shown. This film will have the original representation of females and males as it is a historic text. I will input information about this film when I have to talk about the origins of horror and when I am comparing contempory horror with modern horror.

The hills have eyes 1977
This will be my main historical text as it is the original to the film I am looking at, this film will make it easier to see the difference and the impact of social change on the movie, I will talk about things like desensitizing of the audience and how it has become on of the key conventions to horror movies now. The role of women in the film were shown differently in that time which will allow me to talk about how women were shown before compared to now and if women’s role in horror films makes up the key point.

The hills have eyes II
This is the more contemporary version of my film so it will allow me to see where the genre of film is going and if the makers have changed certain things as the first hills have eyes is just a remake of a classic maybe with the second film it will allow the directors to put forth more modern ideas. After watching the film I found out that this prediction was true as there is more sex shown in the film, also the film has more of a modern feel to it.
My first paragraph will start of with talking about what my essay is about and define what media means by the word typical, “According to Daniel Chandler the word typical represents the “repertoire of elements” in a certain genre” this will just be a introduction to my essay allowing me to explain what I mean by a typical horror film and what I aim to do in the essay. ( Daniel chandler)

A typical horror

In this section I will look at all the different conventions which make a horror film. I will look at things such as the setting the use of violence and also the realism that is seen in horror films. One of the things I found from research and actually watching the movies is that every horror film has to offer a sense of a realism to its audiences for it to be scary otherwise it would not effect the audience therefore not scaring them “horrors never never land is bearable because it is so entirely rational” (Brian Murphy)

Horror conventions

In this section I will look more in-depth to the conventions of the horror movies and what the audience expect “one might say that the tire subject of the horror genre is the struggle for recognition of all that our civilization represses and oppresses" (Wood 1979). After explaining the horror conventions I will start to introduce the conventions in the hills have eyes and compare them with those of other horror films.

Hybrid genres

This section will feature information about the hybrid genre and the issue that has followed with all recent horror films how it has borrowed aspects of different genres to make the new horror genre. I will talk about the genre of the hills have eyes and what it could be and what has been mixed together to make this film. Also I will talk about different aspects of the film that do follow the horror genre but other things which do not.

Matching up the conventions

I will go through all the conventions of horror films and look for a link within the hills have eyes to see if the hills have eyes can be called a true horror film. Also in this section I will look at things that have changed so conventions that are now key to horror movies which weren’t before and then I will see if the hills have eyes possess these conventions.

Comparing old to new

Here I will do a full analysis of both films and compare them to each other to find out what social issues come up, there is a change in the film and I will explain why that change accured if it was down to the feminist movement or something else, I will highlight all the changes made from the new film to the old film and also to the film which was produced after my main film to see if there are any changes.

Representation of women

Here I will look at the way women have been shown in the horror movies and then compare it to the way women have been shown in the hills have eyes. Also I will look at the representation of women overall and see if the representation has changed over time if so then why this change could have accured. In the modern version of the film the female character seems to be less as powerful then she is in the olden one, this could be down to the fact that now the audience of horror films like to see helpless female characters in the film and at that time the idea was still in process so they may have not been aware of this at that time, another point of evidence to include is from the film Halloween h20 that the female character is seen to be strong much stronger then she would have been portrayed if the film had been produced today.

Another point inside of women’s representation that I will look at is if this representation of women is important to horror films, this leads me to my next point about the representation of males and how they are being shown in todays horror movies.

"The image of woman as (passive) raw material for the (active) gaze.....The argument returns again to the psychoanalytic background that woman as representation signifies castration ( Mulvey)

Sharon Smith Journal (1972): Women and Film "The role of women in a film almost always revolves around her physical attraction, and the mating games she plays with the male character

Representation of men

This will be similar to the female paragraph but will be about males, I will look at how males have been shown in horror movies compared to how it has been shown before, I will look at the way males have been shown in horror films and the reason why, I will also look at the relationship between the male character and the female character and what trends come up.

Also I will be looking at the new man in a closer look and seeing if there is any representation of the new man in horror films, if not what could the reason be to why the representation has changed if not isit because those who conform to being the new man may not enjoy horror movies.


Books

1 Burton G 1999: media and popular culture.

2 Mulvey, Laura, 1975,-'Visual pleasure and narrative cinema'

3 Sharon Smith Journal (1972): Women and Film

4 Wood 1979: introduction

5 Brian Murphy : monster movies

6 Maltby, Richard: Hollywood Cinema

7 The cinema book