#ILS4180BattistaSpring18

[lyndseylikeus]

Essay III – Unfriended – Contemporary Cyber Horror

The newer generation has been so obsessed with social media and their reputation on the internet that they would do anything for a ‘like’ on their selfie or wall posts. When the internet gained popularity in the early 2000’s with AOL Instant Messenger and the Chat Rooms, we were worried about pedophiles and seeing our neighbor on Dateline NBC with Chris Hanse in To Catch a Predator. There was a sick obsession with the predators that lurk the internet, seeking out innocent children and young teens in the chat room to lure them into crude acts and god knows what. In 2005 the Cyber Horror movie released called Hard Candy with Ellen Page, followed the vigilante in seeking out a pedophile online. She had lured him into a trap for a taste of his own medicine. He admitted to being involved in a heinous rape murder scenario of a girl him and a partner targeted online. She drugged him and planned an elaborate set up to pretend to castrate him (which was all fake to get him to confess to the murder) and eventually got him to commit suicide, as she later revealed she has done the same to his partner from said crime. This film was a sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat thriller flick and took it to the extreme fantasy scenario of what we would imagine to do if we ever encountered a twisted pedophile in real life. As Stephen King says in Why We Crave Horror Movies, “we’re all mentally ill; those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better” (King). We find enjoyment in these films as we all are a little twisted and have a bit of a dark side. Buying tickets to the movie theater to watch these sort of films on the big screen prove his claim. We are fascinated with the nightmares, the guts and the gore. 

In the 2014 American film, Unfriended, the director explores different genres of horror including Found Footage, POV, Cyber and even Supernatural. Unfriended is based on our collective fears of the dark side of social media and cyberbullying. The film is mainly shot through a MacBook screen of a high school student who finds themselves haunted and terrorized by an anonymous source. As categorized mainly as a Cyber horror, a film which either has its narrative told through a computer or any other form of technology, or that utilizes technology as a key plot element, Unfriended fits every aspect of the genre. It all begins with Blair logging onto her laptop to view a video on live leak to watch a video of her best friend, Laura Burns, a year prior, committing suicide after being cyber bullied due to a series of humiliating events at an unsupervised party. 

Blaire is showed video chatting moments later with her boyfriend and their friends joined the conversation along with an anonymous user who they believed answered the video call, eerily would not allow them to skype with their friends without the unknown user being attached. They all then received Facebook messages from Laura, believing she was hacked they were worried how someone could be so cruel with a prank like that. Then their other friends page was hacked, posting embarrassing pictures of the accused hacker. That’s where things got intense and the actual hacker identifies herself as the dead friend on skype. The ghost behind the account began typing rude comments in the skype chat, turning everyone against each other, revealing that Val was the one who pushed Laura over the edge to kill herself. She is shown on the video chat almost frozen, then fell over, police arrive confirming her death as a suicide. The ghost user shows all of the friends’ dirty little secrets as the film progresses. One by one they commit suicide over skype and are forced to play mind games created by Laura to reveal that Blaire, who was supposed to be her best friend, posted a humiliating video of her in the first place which caused the initial cyberbullying and ultimately lead to her suicide. After everyone has died, the door cracked in Blaire’s room, a pair of hands slammed the laptop shut and the ghost of Laura lunged violently at her and the screen went black. 

Going back to Hard Candy, that cyber horror film played off our fears of child molesters and the dangers that they could find within the chatrooms. It got your heart racing and confirmed our trepidation that people like that exist and are a huge danger to our children… as time went on our fears of the internet evolved to something much more. Children were now the predators upon each other. Using social media as a tool to humiliate one another and get under each other’s skin on a larger scale than the playground. As Sigmund Freud puts it, “The uncanny is something familiar that has been repressed and then reappears,” (Freud 152). The obsession with the eerie ability that the internet has to ruin someone’s life in a split second grows with every new advancement in technology. We are now in a world that bullies thrive behind a keyboard and it is very easy to manipulate our peers through social status and our online appearance. We lived in such a private society before Myspace, Facebook and Instagram came about… “everything that was meant to remain a secret and hidden but has come into the open,” (Freud 132). The ghost exposed all of the dark secrets of each teen in this film and brought it to the open. Moments before Blaire was attacked by the ghost, the video that led to the death of Laura was posted on her Facebook wall, putting out one last secret out into the open for everyone to turn against her.

In Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places, Dickey investigated several historical accounts of hauntings across the country but one chapter stuck out to me while watching Unfriended. The Rathole Revelation discussed the background of spiritualism and how America’s fascination with spirits became popular during the 1850’s. He wrote an account of the Fox sisters and how they were breaking the glass ceiling of spiritualism by being female and able to communicate to the dead. In Unfriended, the main character was a female and her friend who had committed suicide was a female as well, so by her reaching out from the other side in a frightening manner was interesting when looking at it in a gender role perspective. On the anniversary of her death, Laura reached out one last time to her so-called friends for closure of her suicide. “Spiritualism’s appeal lay in its social aspect: it was a means of bringing together a community over a shared grief or curiosity, in an intimate and emotionally intense setting” (Dickey). She used her haunting ability as a way of getting her revenge on those who cyberbullied her to her death. She made them curious with the anonymous skype user, the humiliating photos on Facebook, the chat log of Val telling her to kill herself, etc. The intimate and emotionally intense setting of the video chat and mind games was her way of getting what she wanted. The anxious feeling one might get watching these films is uncanny, some might say it is normal to have that sensation as the plot thickens. Our emotions rise and begin to relate these occurrences real life and how this can possibly happen to my children one day, maybe not the supernatural part, but the cyberbullying definitely.

Dickey, Colin. Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places. Penguin Books, 2017. Freud, Sigmund. (2003). The Uncanny. London: Penguin Books. King, Stephen. (1981). “Why We Crave Horror Movies.”

[audipop311]

Essay #3: The Juxtaposition of the Films “House on Haunted Hill”

Established in 1929 and owned by Dr. Richard Vannacutt, the Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane, was the setting for the 1999 film, House on Haunted Hill. Although the building was demolished in 2007, the history of the structure inspired creators of the film and the fears and anxieties of the time were depicted through the characters, as well as the structure itself. 

Unlike the setting of an actual house in the first film created in 1959, the 1999 film was directed by William Malone in an abandoned insane asylum located in Los Angeles, California, and the structure’s history drove the entire plot of the film. Dr. Richard Vannacutt brutally murdered and dismembered patients while working at the institution, and it is rumored that those patients continued to stay past their visit to haunt anybody who stepped inside the building. The primary cause of the famous hauntings however, was the placement of the Baphomet idol inside the facility, which is an ancient pagan deity, a powerful and evil demon named Baphomet. The Baphomet idol was supposedly responsible for trapping the spirits inside the institute, as well as possessing Dr. Richard to perform such terrible acts on his patients. Although there is very little information on the origin of the Baphomet idol, it has been documented since the Dark Ages and during that time Baphomet cults worshipped the idol, as well as at one point were forced to go underground in which the idol was not seen again for centuries. The return of the Baphomet idol in the 1999 film depicts the fears of the Idol returning to haunt and use its power against those that buried and attempted to hide it centuries prior. The shape of the entity that possesses the host’s wife, Evelin, is almost the exact same shape as the Baphomet idol, and represented each spirit that was trapped inside the facility. This symbolized the spirit world regaining control after centuries of repression due to the Baphomet cults being forced to be hidden underground. 

According to Freuds theory, “The Uncanny”, to experience the feeling of being uncanny, things that were meant to be hidden, suppressed and secretive are brought to light. (Freud, 1919). The previously repressed and hidden Baphomet idol is brought to light through this film, and symbolized the fears of curses and hauntings people had in the late 90’s. Besides the obvious example of the Baphomet idol representing fears of curses, another example of fears of curses depicted in the film was in the subtle ‘Native American’ chanting in the background after each death occurred throughout the night. In the 1959 film, the only reference that embodied the fears of curses was represented through the housekeeper, as he resembled a witch of sorts that is associated with the fears around the origination of the Pagan religion. Another prominent fear depicted in the film associated with fears around religion as well as curses, was the reoccurring appearance of the doppelgänger. Originating in Germany, a doppelgänger is a person’s lookalike, typically an apparition that has no shadow and if seen yourself, resembles bad luck. The two characters that experience the doppelgänger phenomena were, the only African American character, Eddie, and the host, Mr. Price. However, Eddie was not the one to see his doppelgänger, as the character Jennifer was. Like the acid bath in the 1959 film, Eddie’s doppelgänger tried to commit suicide in a blood bath which led Jennifer to attempt in saving him, only to glance up to see the real Eddie. Mr. Price sees his doppelgänger in the scene of him trapped in the Saturation Room and as he is hypnotized by it, it leads him to escaping the room. Another example in both films that depicted fears of suicide was in the scene that Annabelle ‘dies’ and Mr. Price accuses the guests of committing homicide. Progressing from fears of deadly scientific experimentation in 1959, this scene in the 1999 film represented dominant fears of that time regarding suicide, the paranormal, as well as fears of the doppelgänger. 

(Baphomet Idol in 1999 film)

(Pagan deity Baphomet)

In contrast to my personal analysis of the original film’s connotation of the house representing the psyche, I believe the asylum in the 1999 film represents a larger figure impacting lives all around the world, the power of the universe itself. Depending on one’s perspective, the universe controls elements of our lives that we can either allow to defeat us or allow us to succeed. Life is set up in such a way that each person is to go to school as child/young adult, to be accepted into a prestigious college with the intention of landing a killer job by the end of the fifteen years it takes to achieve such a task every person is faced with. Some of us have an easier or more challenging time accomplishing this task however, each of us have our own unique journey along the way. An invitation to the House on Haunted Hill was an opportunity to showcase the character’s failures or successes. The host asking each guest their occupation during the introduction represented the importance of economic/financial status and social class in 1999 compared to the importance in 1959. For example, Melissa, the celebrity TV reporter, was the first to be killed as she was consumed by her paranormal equipment. The house ‘spirits’ killing her represents the universes power, ‘the dark side of Hollywood’, and the consequences that come with being a celebrity, all of which is worked out in a cinematic way. Fears of technology and the spiritual world intertwining was also represented in the scene that the host explains to the guests that the ghosts of the house hacked into his email and invited them, as the host had no knowledge of the guests prior to the invitations. Unlike each character representing the various sides of the psyche in the 1959 film, each character in the 1999 film represents each life path the universe or fate the characters took. Dr. Trent, the logical character yet again, had an MD, Eddie was a former baseball player, Melissa was a TV reporter and Jennifer was an executive VP, all of which are higher class career paths. I believe that there is a connection between Eddie’s race and the career path that was chosen for his character, as African American slaves were often only sought after for their physical abilities and by pursuing a career in sports exclusively highlights his physical attributes and talents. Although Bridger’s occupation wasn’t really mentioned, Bridger resembled Nora in the first film as he was the most ‘hysterical’ character, and I believe this represents the evolution of women of power, as well as the progression moving away from the ‘damsel in distress’ era. Except, there is still a presence of sexual violence and male dominance embodied in both films, specifically in the scene that Mr. Price pulls on the back of Annabelle’s hair. Mr. Price’s appearance in both films is similar however, Annabelle’s character was demonic in the 1999 film rather than angelic depiction in the 1959 film. In the 1999 film, Annabelle’s hair is black compared to her blonde hair in the 1959 film, as well as her overall dark clothes, attitude, and demeanor. The spirits residing the House on Haunted Hill inviting each high social class standing guest, represents the lower class as the house itself suffering and seeking revenge by murdering and torturing them. By enticing the guests with money, it fed into their greedy personalities and showcased their greed throughout the twelve hours they were required to stay. Although the agreement made in both films were the exact same, the evolution from 10,000 dollars in the first film to one million dollars in the second film, illustrates how quickly the economy progressed in forty years, as well as the way money drives the economy and social acceptance.

Insane asylums were places in which the, almost always lower class, mentally ill patients would call ‘home’ for the remainder of their lives. I believe this is the reason why the asylum is still considered the ‘house on haunted hill’ and throughout the film give viewers an uncanny, unhomely feeling. The individual rooms within the asylum represented the many ways the doctors would ‘assist’ in treating the patients and symbolized fears around the doctor and patient relationship. “The asylum, in its own way, created both the doctor and the patient.” (Dickley, 2016). It created a culture where abuse, neglect, and seclusion were justified by the abuse of authority by way of the doctor and the patient. For example, the Saturation Room was used to brainwash individuals with schizophrenia with graphic and disturbing images with the intention of making them ‘normal’ again. The various ‘treatment’ rooms illustrated in the film embodied fears of contracting mental illnesses and the aftermath fear of the cruel treatments revealed in asylums and institutions prior to the films creation. “We know the images. They are familiar in all histories of psychiatry, where their function is to illustrate that happy age when madness was finally recognized and treated according to a truth to which we had too long remained blind.” (Foucault, 1965). The aftermath fear that was a result of these treatments coming to light to the public was embodied through the genre of horror, specifically cinematically.

The final major difference between the 1959 film and the 1999 film, was the way the films concluded. In the first film, Mr. Price was the ‘puppet master’ as he knew of the scandalous affair occurring between his wife and Dr. Trent, and ended up being responsible for the death of both characters as a result, by tricking them into falling into the acid bath. In the 1999 film, however, the acid bath is not a prevalent component in the plot, but the house takes control by utilizing the Baphomet idol to kill Mr. Price as well as attempted to kill the remaining characters, Jennifer and Eddie. However, a spirit ‘puppet master’ pulled a rope to the exclusive door that would allow them to escape the facility yielding both characters the only survivors of the night. The contrast in the endings of both films represents the evolution of how much people thought they were in control over the spirit world. In 1959, there was not enough time to build stigmas and stereotypes to the extent society had built in 1999, and even to this day. However, in 1999, fears were represented and symbolized through cinema and the overall genre of horror that was enabled by the advancement of technology, something that in 1959 was only beginning to occur. The medium in which television served was a form of communication that depicted fears that were previously in literature, paintings and other forms of art. “While wisecracking ‘horror hosts’ had become an endangered species in print, the new medium of television did not fall under the jurisdiction of the Comics Code Authority, and it was inevitable that the comic-book format would find a broadcast equivalent.” (Skal, 1993). Forms of art, media, and literature are ways of expressing repressed emotions that otherwise would be hidden and not brought to light. Therefore, by bringing repressed emotions, such as fear and anxiety, to light through cinema many people can release similar repressed feelings towards events happening either personally, politically or socially, by simply watching the films. “But anticivilization emotions don’t go away, and they demand periodic exercise.” (King, 1981).

The stereotypes regarding concepts that question one’s sense of homeliness developed between the forty years the films were created, were embodied throughout the characters and setting of the film. The progression from fears of war and science in 1959, to fears of the advancement of technology and mental illness, truly depicts the way horror is used to work out repressed and dark emotions humans inevitably feel.

Sources:

“Baphomet Idol.” House on Haunted Hill Wikia, http://houseonhauntedhill.wikia.com/wiki/Baphomet_Idol, http://houseonhauntedhill.wikia.com/wiki/Baphomet

David J. Skal (1994). The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror, Drive-Ins Are a Ghoul’s Best Friend: Horror in the Fifties, Plexus.

Dickley, C. (2016). Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places

Holloway, April. “Doppelgangers and the Mythology of Spirit Doubles.” Ancient Origins, http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/doppelgangers-and-mythology-spirit-doubles-001825

King, Stephen. (1981). “Why We Crave Horror Movies”

Freud, Sigmund. “The Uncanny.” The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XVII (1917-1919): An Infantile Neurosis and Other Works.

Foucault, M. (1965). Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, Birth of the Asylum, New York.

“Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane.” House on Haunted Hill Wikia, http://houseonhauntedhill.wikia.com/wiki/Vannacutt_Psychiatric_Institute_for_the_Criminally_Insane

“Vannacutt Sanitarium.” Esmeralda Santiago’s Biography, http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/collinwood/vannacutt.html

Additional Links:

https://classic-horror.com/reviews/house_on_haunted_hill_1959

http://variety.com/1999/film/reviews/house-on-haunted-hill-2-1200459954/

https://ultraculture.org/blog/2016/02/08/baphomet-sabbatic-goat/

[swinterwriting-blog]

Blog Post 17: Carrie

The famed horror writer Stephen King says, “The mythic horror movie, like the sick joke, has a dirty job to do. It deliberately appeals to all that is worst in us. It is morbidity unchained, our most base instincts let free, our nastiest fantasies realized . . . and it all happens, fittingly enough, in the dark.”

In the 1976 film based on King’s novel, we follow the story of a marginalized, abused, neglected, and misunderstood teenage girl, taking the viewer through her hell. After torment, ridicule and aggression from her peers at high school, she goes home to a mother living in her own hell, who consequently abuses Carrie mentally and physically, shaming Carrie at her core using religious doctrine. As the movie progresses the viewer feels increasingly anxious, being placed more and more in Carrie’s shoes. There is this nervousness Carrie has, knowing something might happen and not being able to change the chain of events, and the viewer mirrors this emotion. The final straw is when Carrie is brought up on stage as prom queen after a heart wrenching journey, and pig’s blood is poured on her. She then goes insane, burns down the high school with everyone in it, and ends up killing her mother before their house collapses on them both.

Carrie pulls out our most instinctive emotions through symbols and signs. Carrie represents male anxieties about the female body and form, shown both in the school atmosphere and her mother’s religious household. Carrie also pulls the viewer to the perspective of a person who has been a victim for her entire life, and as the anxiety builds throughout the film, the viewer hopes more and more for Carrie’s revenge, for Carrie to have power. Carrie’s story shows the very worst that comes out in people, and puts Carrie (whom the viewer identifies with) in a position to enact violence and revenge without the criticism of the audience, because the film justifies her actions. Carrie is not the horror, but rather everything “normal” around her is.

[selenateale-blog]

Blog Post 3: The Amityville Horror Creates a Series of Uncanny Feeling and the Subconscious

The Amityville Horror is filled with the feeling of the uncanny. There are many instances of what is supposed to be hidden coming into the open and being revealed throughout the movie. Seeing the ghosts of Jodi and the previous victims from the Indian crusade on the land are exposing what happened without directly saying what happened. The interactions the individual characters have with each ghost creates the feeling of uncanny with both the characters on screen as well as the viewers. Chelsea first sees Jodi and has many interactions with her, including her almost death scene to go see her father again. George sees the ghosts of the Indians that were brutally murdered and hears the voice of the Reverend who committed those atrocious murders to murder his own family.

Seeing the ghosts and having conversations and delusions is only the beginning of the uncanny feeling that the Amityville Horror partakes in. There is “doubt as to whether an apparently animate object really is alive” (Freud), when various inanimate objects start moving around the house. The first notable and close instance is when the toy soldiers are moving and falling off the mantle in the boys’ room. There is also the close of the magnet letters moving on the fridge to spell out Katck em Kill em. There’s the stereotypical lights flickering, chairs and tables moving, and the windows and doors opening and closing by themselves, even more frequently and loudly when something “bad” is about to happen. These all create fear in both the characters and the viewer. The viewer has the sense of dread because they can anticipate what is about to happen, where as the character is just freaked out and worries that they are being paranoid for no reason. They ignore these uncanny feelings and signs and pretend that they are not occurring, just so they can continue with their life in hopes of returning to normalcy at some time.

The uncanny feeling doesn’t end with just seeing visions of ghosts and seeing the inanimate objects moving as if they had a life of their own but goes to a deeper subconscious issue of fear and the issues with masculinity, rage, and most importantly losing control of the situation. These uncanny feelings cause mental instability and the fear of losing everything that George holds dear, his family. When he is faced with this fear, he starts to question his masculinity and reacts by over asserting his dominance through anger and rage. This struggle is portrayed through the bathtub scene. He takes a scalding bath and almost gets drowned by a ghost of the past. He gets rescued in the end by his wife. He is wrestling with losing control over his emotions because the history and ominous presence in the house in controlling him into acting out. He wants to be the good guy and be there for his family, but still feels like an outsider (the kids miss their father). He’s trying but failing in that aspect. The parallel is losing the struggle in the bathtub. In both instances, his wife pulls him out and saves him in the end. George is wrestling with his unconscious self and the repressed feelings he has about being a replacement are coming out in a dangerous and unhealthy way. Once he is out of the control of the house, he can assert his control and power over both his and his family’s lives.

Douglas, A. (Director). (2005). The Amityville Horror [Video file].

Freud, S. (2003). The Uncanny. London: Penguin Books.

[belenrodrguez]

Blog Post - Night of the Living Dead - Belen Rodriguez

300 word minimum analysis of Night of the Living Dead, using Barbara Bruce’s “Guess Who’s Going to be Dinner” article along with at least one other article from the unit.  How does Living Dead represent anxieties in American late-60’s culture? In what ways is race represented and how are they problematic? How might we read Living Dead through the lens of our historical present? What might the zombies represent? Again, your responses should be steeped in the language of the essays and lessons we have discussed this week.

The civil rights movement was very big and heavy during this time, with the main hero being a black male made the role and movie a very hot topic at the time. Like its mentioned in” guess whose going to be dinner” it was all over the radio, and that it would have been much bigger if it weren't for the Vietnam war and other civil rights movements happening. 

When it came to race the African American man, it came “natural” to him to be a leader, to protect and educated enough to know what to do in this situation. You can see how the women is uncomfortable with him throughout the whole movie. Even though his intentions of protecting her is clear (the scene where's he's tearing up the house in order to board up the doors and windows) she then decides to freak out and he then slaps her across the face knocking her out. During this time he was the perfect African American that people wanted at that time not “ghetto”, educated, didn't have a accent, and wore “white” clothes. There were a lot civil right movements happening during that time like mentioned in “ guess whos going to be dinner” so the hero being African American got a lot of positive an negative views.

At the end when they shoot him it shows how we see history. How anyone with a weapon is dangerous. Yet they decided to shoot the only African American man in the movie. we can see through the racist lenses America still had at that point in the movie. Its like having a happy ending during a movie instead of the one that would help the plot develop or actually make sense. 

[thisisnotdrbattista-blog]

Essay III: Get Out

For my third critical analysis essay on horror, I chose the contemporary movie, Get Out, directed by Jordan Peele. Horror is a broad spectrum, and the most effective pieces of horror find their success in playing off the insecurities of their audience.  This movie was considered a huge hit in its genre, and has such a unique and captivating story.  Get Out uses race and cultural differences to uncover the social failings of a society and to entertain at the same time. Using references from literary studies on the uncanny, zombies, and much more, this essay is going to take a deeper look into the power of genre and the cultural significance of this movie.

The first connection I was able to make to the coursework when watching this film was the similarity between the Haitian Zombie, and the way that the Armitage’s were able to create their own zombie slaves, if you will, through hypnosis. David Inglis provides a great definition of the zombie in his chapter Putting the Undead to Work: “The fear that is embodied in the Haitian figure of the zombie is not the Euro American one of the dead returning to visit a cannibalistic holocaust on the living, but rather involves dread of the body snatcher –the zombie master- who takes the living body and destroys the soul within it, creating a living dead being who endlessly obeys his will” (p. 42).  I think the term “body snatcher” can be easily applied to the work that the Armitage family was doing.  A perfect example would be the opening scene where the son throws a black man in the trunk of his car, who shows back up later at the garden party, but this time he does not seem to have his soul.  Following the same type of mentality as the witch doctor from White Zombie, the Armitage family is making slaves out of people, through hypnosis and surgery instead of magic, and selling them off as their own labor force.  

Another connection I made after watching the movie was the sunken place (Chris’ hypnotized state) and the subconscious, to Freud’s ideas on the uncanny.  Freud gives an insightful explanation on the relationship between human consciousness and the uncanny: “If this really is the secret nature of the uncanny, we can understand why German usage allows the familiar to switch to its opposite, the uncanny, for this uncanny element is actually nothing new or strange, but something that was long familiar to the psyche and was estranged from it only through being repressed” (pg. 148). Exploiting Chris’ subconscious by bringing up the topic of his mother’s death, she is able to repress the part of his brain that makes him Chris.  After the initial hypnosis, she almost has complete control over him with her teacup. We see throughout the film that these people with someone else in their mind controlling their body and consciousness are brought to the surface when exposed to a camera flash.  Meaning there is some hope for these people that have been turned, but we also see that the man taken over by the grandfather kills himself as soon as he is freed from the distressing situation of living his life as a spectator.

The term used to describe these people once they’ve been hypnotized is the “sunken place.”  Once put in this trance, Chris finds his existence to be as the passenger of his own life, he screams and struggles and gets no result or reaction from the people around him.  The sunken place is meant to represent the oppression of the system, and how minorities find themselves trapped, screaming as hard as they can without being able to get any sort of communication across.  Peele was trying to make a statement about the underrepresentation of black people in the horror genre, and how he was upset with the stereotype of them always being the first ones to die off.  Thinking about the film in that light, Peele really turns the tables around, by not only having the black protagonist survive, but having to murder his way out of the house to freedom.  

To bring this all back to the discussion of cultural significance, Get Out, tells a story of racism to a group of people that think racism is no longer a problem.  So what is it that makes this movie so powerful and such a good medium for a message that a nation desperately needs to hear?  Author Colin Dickey sheds some light on what separates good hauntings and horror from the sheep: “A paranormal event without a story is tenuous, fragile.  What makes it “real,” at least in a sense, is the story, the tale that grounds the event. The sense of the uncanny, of something not-quite-right, of things ever-so-slightly off, cries out for an explanation” (pg. 5).  Dickey explains to us that to deliver a message, especially to todays disconnected population, you have to ground the idea your trying to communicate with something that seems more interesting or entertaining to the masses.  Once you have captured their attention you are able to point out the reality and truth to them, the truth that they refuse to see by looking around.  Even genres of horror like the ghost hunters start off by establishing the history of the buildings they go through, as well as the tragic pasts of the ghosts they are trying to provoke.

Peele does an excellent job in Get Out of building suspense.  By creating those not-quite-right situations, as Dickey put it, he was able to use a realistic character.  Most horror films feature protagonists who are incredibly oblivious and don’t have the sense to pick up the phone and call the cops, or to get in the car and drive away. What is so brilliant about the suspense build up in Get Out, is that nothing too out of the ordinary happens that would make a rational person leave a girl he’s been dating for months, until its too late.

So what dose this movie say about our current situation as a nation? Looking at the bonus features on the film there was a Q&A panel with Jordan Peele and someone asked him about his favorite scene in the movie.  Peele responded, saying that he enjoyed the insecurities revealed in the garden party: “When you have older white people trying to connect with a younger black man the insecurities come out in a weird way.”  Watching the movie, you find out that the whole purpose of the garden party was for these people to evaluate the possibility of buying Chris at the auction, which only adds another theatrical layer to the racist situation on display. Every time Chris meets with a potential buyer they let out some awkward piece of conversation as their way of trying to connect with someone with racial and cultural differences.  All the other black people on the question panel agreed that this scene had a lot of truth behind it, and said that they do have to suffer through situations like this regularly

One of the biggest eye openers for me when I watched this movie is the character Rose.  She is a powerful persuader and a master of lies, and to me, she reveals the most about our culture’s divide when she tries to talk down Chris as a way to prove to him she and her family are not racist.  Rose will go on little tangents with Chris as her audience about her family having black servants, the way he was treated by a cop, or how her family and friends are just “so white.”  Hearing her overcompensate as a way to try and come off as sincere reminded me of the same thing I see on social media every day.  White people will see a video of police brutality on twitter and quote it with some witty caption and think that they have just made peace with the whole black community.  The way they go into great lengths online about civil rights and social responsibility reminded me of the same empty way that Rose would overcompensate so that her cover wouldn’t be blown.  I know that these people’s words are hallow because I spend time with them in real life and know for a fact that they are not actually doing anything to change the current situation, or to give up the privilege they’ve been born with.  

Overall, this movie is a great tribute to its genre and does a great job reflecting national anxieties and problematic attitudes.  Watching this movie again after in class discussions about zombies and Haitian culture, I was able to notice a lot of parallels between Get Out and movies like White Zombie.  A lot of the ideas and theories presented in Freud’s The Uncanny, are revealed in this film.  Peele does a great job of building suspense in this movie while delivering a powerful message at the same time, and I would recommend this movie to any fan of Horror.

Work Cited

“Putting the Undead to Work” David Inglis

“The Uncanny” Sigmund Freud

“Ghostland” Collin Dickey

[toastmaster20-blog]

Essay 3: Jeepers Creepers

I must admit, that finding the right horror film to dive deeper into was a challenge. Just what type of horror film would I choose? Slasher, monster, physiological, and demonic were only some of the many options that we were given, yet I had to choose something that stood out and most likely wasn’t taken by others in the class. I’m sure some people chose or even thought about choosing Stephen King’s IT since the remake just recently hit the big screen again. I was unaffected by this film since I did not see the original IT until I was in my twenties. Others might have chosen the standard horror films like Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and Hellraiser so it was obvious that I choose something not very popular these days. However, due to the advancement in technology and the ability to watch and read about their favorite horror story or villain with the click of a button, I decided to revisit the horrifying and menacing film by Victor Slava’s 2001 film, Jeepers Creepers.

           Technically, the film is labeled as a Mystery/Thriller movie, but I can’t deny that it scared the bejesus out of me as an eleven-year-old kid being introduced to the horror genre. It was at this time in my life where I was finally given permission to watch rated “R” horror flicks by my parents. Being the first child, my parents were extremely over-protective of what the outside world had to show me in terms of horror. I can recall a moment when I was about four and dared to sneak under my parents’ bed just to watch the movie Jurassic Park (1993). This was also not a pure horror film, yet it scared me just the same. They eventually caught me when I gasped at the site of a Tyrannosaurus-Rex munching on a completely surprised character during the film. This would lead to them greatly restricting what I would watch, especially when it came to gore and scary movies. Aside from that tangent, the year 2001 would be the year I was finally able to watch horror films and Jeepers Creepers (2001) just happened to be the first one. Since then, I have seen the sequel and will watch the third installment once finals are finished. But what exactly drew me to these films in the first place and what anxieties could be lurking within this terrifying flick? I’ll be examining the first two films since they both contain minute details about the origins of the creature and what makes him so hideously unsettling.

           In the first installment of the series, the “Creeper” as he is called, makes his first appearance behind the wheel of an old rusty 1941 Chevy COE used to haul barrels of hay. Instead, the Creeper used it to haul the bodies of his victims. The Creeper eventually becomes aggressive while driving behind siblings Trish and Darry Jenner played by Gina Phillips and Justin Long. Thinking it’s just an aggressive driver, Darry waves the truck to pass him, but not until the truck driver toys with them a little before passing them. This is when Darry notices the license plate on the truck reading, “BEATNGU.” He reads it out loud as “beating you,” however the plates would later be examined into other words which we’ll get to later. We never actually get to see him until he is seen dumping a body bag (with body inside) down a large drain pipe under an abandoned church on the side of the road. He’s not clearly made out but is shown to have a large wide-brimmed Stetson, and tattered trousers to pass for human. Key phrase there, “pass for human.” Later at a gas station, Trish and Darry see the truck drive by away from the church. This gives the siblings a chance to head back to the church and look deeper into what they just witnessed. They eventually reached the abandoned church and while Trish stayed topside to be lookout, Darry made his way through the pipe which lead to a basement with the body bag laying in the middle of the room. Darry later realizes the walls are made from the skin of hundreds of human victims and both him and Trish frantically drive away.

           Eventually the Creeper makes his way back to his basement and realizes it had been tampered with by someone. This is where the chase for the siblings begins with several other people becoming eventual victims for the Creeper. During one scene as Trish and Darry are escorted by police back to the church, the Creeper manages to wind up on top of the police car and decapitates the driver with a medieval axe after throwing the other officer out the window. As Darry and Trish watch in horror, the Creeper begins whistling the song Jeepers Creepers as he finds the decapitated officers head and rips out the officer’s tongue with his teeth. Up until this point, the audience only knows that this guy is seriously messed up after killing both officers, having dead bodies decorate his walls, and having some major road rage issues. However, we finally realize what type of creature this thing is. Like the IT (1990,2017) movie’s the Creeper feeds on those who wreak of fear. He smells your fear through a third nostril located on the center of the nose. In addition to this freakish abnormality, the Creeper also carries a set of needle-like teeth, long, curly white hair and spawns two gigantic bat-looking wings which explains how he ended up on top of the police car. His body, though covered up mostly throughout the first film is covered in dark green/gray scales. His most shocking trait is when his time to feast has ended and he sprouts webbed, insect-like appendages from the back of his neck as a threat display. 

My first thought towards what he could be was that of a gargoyle, but a more analysis throughout the years determined that he is some sort of demonic entity. This entity has provided some sort of background into his origin. Every film states that “every 23rd Spring for 23 days it eats,” signifying the Creeper awakens from his slumber to feed and replenish his body every 23 years, like the new origins of Pennywise the Clown in IT (2017). Wait…how does he replenish his body you might ask. In the first two films, we know that the Creeper needs to feed on humans, but a frightening twist is revealed at the end of the first film and throughout the second. In order to replenish his body in case of decay or injury, the Creeper first eats/swallows the selected body part, removes the old one and somehow allows the new one to become a part of him. We see this at the end of the first film as we hear Justin Long’s character scream in agony then (SPOILER ALERT), he is seen with two holes in his head where his eyes used to be only to see the Creeper peeping through one of the holes with the eyes of Long’s as his own. I believe this is what frightened me the most. It’s not just that he’s killing you or eating you, but that he eats then absorbs whatever body part he needs from you. This creates a new outlook on that license plate discussed earlier. The plates were not presenting the words, “beating you,” but instead, “be eating you.” Nope, nope, nope! I give this creature a big middle finger in every sense of the gesture.

My first conclusion as to why this would strike fear into me and how it parallels our own world was that of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, but the movie was released only ten days before the attacks. This lead me to believe that the public had not seen this kind of horror since the novel of Stephen King’s IT (1986) with some different aspects and new ideas. We were so used to slasher films in the 90’s that the thought of a demonic humanoid eating you was kind of a relief or terror depending on how you viewed the film. At first the Creeper toys with you, maybe he’ll kill you or just wave you off since you don’t have something he wants. If you do, then there’s no stopping the Creeper’s hunger for you. In the second film, we see the creature picking and choosing who he likes out of a group of high school kids on the bus. The scene is both enticing and beyond terrifying at the same time as the Creeper creates a “move out of the way” gesture to the kids he doesn’t like, but when he does like someone, he winks, smells, licks the window, and even has his eyes roll to the back of his head signifying that the person he’s focused on is undoubtedly subject for consuming. The real terror of this creature comes from the fact that he doesn’t just immediately kill you or devour you, but that he creates stressful situations and brings out the fear in you so that it makes the meal that much sweeter. He observes what you will do and if you are someone who can push through and fight back or if your fear will get the better of you so that he can focus on you over others who are just as scared as you. If that doesn’t make you want to get up out of the theater or leave the room, then you might just be as twisted as this thing. Another factor that I believe was necessary in describing how this thing is so unsettling, is how in the first two films, there is at least one scene where there is a light behind the Creeper as his menacing dark figure blocks the light and prevents you from seeing what he is. The fear of being consumed for your fear is what makes this demonic creature truly frightening and remains the scariest film I have ever seen. While it may not have the same affect as it used to, no other film has created that same level of fear that I had nearly two decades earlier.  

     “Creeper.” Jeepers Creepers Wiki, jeeperscreepers.wikia.com/wiki/Creeper.

 Millican, Joashua. “Here's What We Know So Far about the Origins of ‘The Creeper.’” Horror Freak News, 17 June 2017, horrorfreaknews.com/heres-know-far-origins-creeper.

[maiakhme]

Blog Post 11: Night of the Living Dead

The movie Night of the Living dead was the first black and white movie that I have ever seen. I really like how those types of movies take away from the distraction of color so that you can focus on the story. When Barbara was running through the cemetery towards her car and then the house, she looks scared but not as scared as she was when she saw Ben for the first time. I thought that was a little odd that she was more afraid of the man standing in front of her than the zombies trying to kill her. I think that speaks to the racial tensions of the time, people were so scared of the people who had different colored skin that they failed to notice the events that were happening around the world. Events like Vietnam and the Cold war, both of which were substantial political issues at the time. The Harry Cooper was vulgar and selfish, he only cared about his family and Barbara and not Ben. Ben was just trying to help the situation, but the Harry was being a jerk and blaming Ben for things that he had no control over. Like that couple that died in the fire. In the chapter by Barbara S. Bruce called Guess Who's Going to Be Dinner, she focuses on what impact Ben or Sidney Pointier had on the facial tension in the 1960's. She quotes that the movie "has often been praised for never making an issue of the black hero's color," and yet Ben is still killed at the end by the white police. I think the ending scene says a lot about that time period, the white police wanted to kill all of the zombies, but they instead killed Ben for having a gun. Maybe they were trying to kill off the more than just the zombies? Maybe Ben was the real target? 

Night of the Living Dead - George A. Romero

Guess Who's Going to Be Dinner - Barabara S. Bruce 

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Blog Post 11: Night of the Living Dead

The film, Night of the Living Dead, it was a groundbreaking movie for the fellow African American, however during the time period it was released it still had issues with race and gender. Even though the movie started in African American it was still problematic. Women during the late 1960s and early 1970s they had problems for women too. Women being treated unequally and always obeying their husband. Although, it was the first ever “zombie” movie and it did star the first African American male ever during this time but after the movie was over and it was released, blacks still had a problem facing whites out in the world. They still called them names, spit on him, and called them the “N” word. During that time it seemed like it would never change. In the article by Barbara Bruce’s “Guess Who’s Going to be Dinner,” she mentions a guy named Donald Bogle who talks about how in “all his movies” that blacks are represented as “intelligent and educated,” and how they are well “tamed” and they act accordingly leaving their “African culture” behind to fit in our white society. How can someone one minute says that they are respecting blacks and turn around and say the complete opposite of what they really mean? Blacks weren’t acting “white”  they were acting properly just like any educated person would normally act around other people. It just shows that some people weren’t ready for change during that time but they eventually had to in the end.

Barbara character (the leading lady) in the movie, was very painful to watch. I honestly hated her. Barbara’s action was as if she had PTSD. She couldn’t say anything because she was traumatized by her brother and also what was happening out in the world. She was a total damsel in distress and she was pictured pretty pathetic, very useless. Unfortunately, during the film, they showed Ben punch or slap Barbara demonstrating that men want women to shut up. It also signifies that African Americas were violent human beings. Ben the African American male leader, is stereotyped that black people are supposed to save the white people. However, it would have been more appropriate if Ben didn’t die but it wasn’t just up to the director decided to make that call. It would have given blacks an opportunity to see a happy ending that didn’t involve a black person getting killed in the end. During the Vietnam War, who would see tanks and soldiers on the roads and the movie definitely shows that. When the zombie hunting/killing people came to rescue Ben, they showed the men all lined up side by side and the tanks were behind them. It just reminded me what we were talking about in class about what was happening during the Vietnam War. After the end of the film, there are two men who look in the house and did not realize that Ben was alive. But instead of checking to see if he was a zombie or not they just shot him anyway. They also used claws to get his body, they didn’t want to touch the body, probably to not caught the disease/radiation from the body. I don’t know if anyone noticed but they don’t call the zombies that we know today “zombies” in the film. They called them “growls.” 

Bruce, Barbara S. “Guess Who’s Going to Be Dinner: Sidney Poitier, Black Militancy, and the Ambivalence of Race in Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.” 

[audipop311]

Blog #11- Night of the Living Dead

Prior to reading and analyzing “Guess Who’s Going to Dinner,” and watching the film, “The Night of the Living Dead”, I can detect several aspects throughout both the film and text symbolizing the time periods’ fears of gender and race equality, as well as nuclear radiation and assassinations. The way that the main character, Ben, was portrayed was the first of it’s kind in a film during the 1960′s. “He was ‘the first black actor to achieve and maintain true star status within the industry.’” (Bruce, pg. 60). During the film, Ben is seen as a hero as well as very wise and knowledgeable. This shows the evolution of perspective people of that time period had towards the black race. Throughout the time period of slavery, many people believed that black people were unintelligent and inferior to whites, which justified many of the cruel and brutal actions of their plantation owners.  Another aspect of symbolism in the film that stood out to me was the gender inequality by the way women were portrayed during the 60′s. In the film, Barbara is the best example of a female character in the 60′s because after her brother is captured by the zombies, she is so emotionally ‘hysterical’ that she is a damsel in distress and completely useless to Ben while they are in the house together. It reminded me of our conversation in class because this is the epitome of the way women of that time period were viewed. Similar to the view on blacks during the time of slavery, this view also justified women’s non-existent rights and the way they were mistreated back then, and continuously are mistreated even today. A compelling statement that I found interesting in the film, “The Night of the Living Dead”, was the reference made by the man broadcasting the news on the radio. This was that zombies are referred to as  assassins, murders and cannibals. I find this interesting because today, zombies are viewed more as plagued, humans of the undead, rather than their actions being murderess and cannibalistic. This speaks to the fears and anxieties people had during that time towards racism, slavery, JFK’s assassination, and the fear of no longer upholding the superiority of the white population. During the film, The White Zombie, I found a compelling connection between slavery and zombies. Prior to the carriage driver getting yelled at by the newly wed couple for almost getting them killed by a zombie, the African American carriage driver said to the couple that there was a difference between getting killed and getting captured by the zombies. I think that this relates to slavery because when slaves were captured and then sold, they were no longer treated as humans, and in a way that part of themselves died. Slaves weren’t physically killed, they were captured, similar to the reference in this film towards zombies. Overall, both the text and the film support fears towards gender and racial equality, nuclear radiation and assassinations during the late 1960′s. “The Night of the Living Dead gives full vent to the anxieties permeating late-60′s American culture, offering a dark, cynical, anti-Hollywood look at ‘ordinary’ Americans and engaging race-based expectations without offering the panacea of a Poitier- like hero or readily identifiable and, therefore, containable black stereotypes.” (Bruce, pg. 61)  

Source-    

Bruce, Barbara S. “Guess Who’s Going to Be Dinner: Sidney Poitier, Black Militancy, and the Ambivalence of Race in Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.” Race, Oppression and the Zombie: Essays on Cross-Cultural Appropriations of the Caribbean Tradition 2011. 60–76.                                   

[kevcoy-blog]

Blog 7: Lemp Mansion

This episode of Ghost Adventures, was the first episode that I have watched of this series. The depiction of the Lemp mansion from that of Dickey’s story in Ghostland, is not only different but lacking so many details. The Lemp, mansion is called to be extremely haunted, eerie, that uncanny feeling throughout and the guys of Ghost Adventures base the whole episode mostly on the tunnels underneath the the Lemp Brewery, that lead to the house. The lack of history, family values and just plain respect is really lost in this episode. The one part that really got me, was when they are listening for voices and they type what they want us to hear on the screen, and then at the last one they say, “we don't want to program you into hearing what we heard” but it’s probably because you can't hear what was said, and why did you then show us what you heard on the voices before. I believe that this whole show is for fun, to have and almost make fun of these hauntings and disgrace the family past. The silliness, almost unreal ways they do things seem to show that thy really don't care. They next thing that bothered me was the way they shoot the whole episode in the pitch dark of the night. Why not go during the day, to shoot the outside scenes and then go in at night. The whole history around the Lemp family is lost, and the true reasons why most of the family members have killed themselves is not even spoken of. This show is entirely for entertainment, as you can tell with all the laughs of the class and the quirky things that were done. 

... and just for fun.

[augustwestforpresident-blog]

Blog Post 3: Amityville Horror

The role of indigenous people is not brought up until late in the movie when Kathy is doing research in the public library. After discovering similarities between her husband and the way that Ronald DeFeo was acting just prior to the murders, Kathy discovers the history of a man named John Ketcham. Ketcham was supposedly a “devil worshiper” and is rumored to have imprisoned and tortured Native Americans. While this is good story to be told and adapted into a movie, there is no solid proof that John Ketcham was a real man nor did he torture and kill Native Americans (The Property, n.d.). I believe that the director of the movie decided to go with the John Ketcham story to emphasize the idea of a murderous haunting because it obviously makes for a more exciting story. 

I find it odd that this home is labeled as one of Americas most haunted homes because there have only been two recorded instances of “paranormal activity”. Ronald DeFeo Jr. had stated that he heard voices telling him to kill the rest of his family, and the Lutz stated that they had experienced terrible paranormal instances to which they had to move out almost immediately after moving in. No other family or estate has admitted to experiencing supernatural or paranormal activity. After doing some research of my own, I truly believe that there is no haunting of this property and that Ronald DeFeo Jr. may have just been a drug induced, crazy person, and the Lutz family was simply trying to be famous. It has been stated by William Weber the former defense attorney for Ronnie DeFeo, that he met with the Lutz family and over many bottles of wine and going through case facts that the Lutz had reimagined these facts of the murders into their own paranormal encounters (S, 2017).  

I have my doubts about the home at 112 Ocean Ave. really being haunted and wish it was not a private home so that I could visit to get a first hand experience for myself. 

References 

The Property. (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2018, from http://www.amityvillefaq.com/property.html

S. (2017, June 05). Retrieved March 16, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZAm8yOS0LM

[selenateale-blog]

Essay 3: Found Footage Horror

Paranormal Activity is a popular horror movie that has created three direct sequels, with two of them being technically prequels, as well as a few spin offs. Paranormal Activity was the first movie to come out, but chronologically the third in the series. Paranormal Activity is based on a woman named Katie and her boyfriend, Micah, who lives with Katie. The two encounter a supernatural presence that is out for blood and feasts on the negativity and fear in the house. The presence is later identified as some sort of demon. In the later movies, it is explained that the demon is out for revenge and desire for the first born male child.  There isn’t much of a scare factor until the end of the movie when Katie gets possessed and ultimately ends up killing Micah in their bedroom. The leading up to it is mainly cabinets opening and closing on their own. Chairs moving on their own and ending up in a different position than they should have been, including on top of the table. The intensity of the paranormal activities increase over time as the couple gets more scared and angrier at each other, leading up to Katie getting possessed in the end.

Paranormal Activity is also the first horror movie to be shown through the lens of found footage. It is presented mainly through surveillance cameras that have a time stamp on them. The footage is saved and backed up somewhere, and someone ends up “finding” the footage and compiles it together to create the horror movie. The found footage with the camera stamps makes the movie feel more real. Today (and even when the movie came out in 2007) many people have some sort of surveillance system in their house. They were set up to create safety and to be able to catch any criminals who dared to enter the house. Catching a supernatural presence was not the original goal. However, after the success of Paranormal Activity many other movies have done found footage. Many have ventured to cell phones and skype for their fear factor and element of realness.

With technology becoming an ever-lasting imprint on society, the more classic horror films are becoming less scary and relevant. The culture fears that created these horror films still exist in many ways, but the way that they were portrayed are slowly coming out of date. That’s why many remakes of them are happening and that they are getting an updated and more modern feel to them. The updates in technology and how much they are in everyone’s day to day lives causes many anxieties in culture. Everything is somehow connected to technology. Pictures. Messages. Homework. School. Projects for work. Everything is connected and utilized. What happens when this technology that most of us has come to love takes a turn and captures something we didn’t want to see, but are at the same time extremely interested in? The found footage angle is perfect for this because it compiles everything that interests and scares society. The collection of data that gets stores and never erased as well as the presence of supernatural entities existing.

With the found footage horror genre, and Paranormal Activity, it is "the realization that we may not be able to change our circumstances and may well be stuck with what we've got" (Dance of Dearth) that creates the true level of horror and dread that is felt when watching the movie. Katie and Micah are forced into dealing with a demonic presence that they didn’t ask for. Typically, no one does. This presence was forced on them because of a pact that was made long ago, when they were children. The innocence of the child and not being able to change their fate because of something that their parent did a long time ago affects many young adults now, especially in the face of the current economy and job situation. They were supposed to leave a better world for the next generation to come, but like the mother in Paranormal Activity 3, it didn’t matter. She made a choice that would ultimately hurt her children and the people that they love the most later. It was a set of circumstances that couldn’t have been changed regardless of what Katie did or did not do. Even if the demonologist came sooner, he probably wouldn’t have been able to do anything either. There’s only so much a person (or a generation) can do to fix the past mistakes made. What gave the demon the ultimate power was when Katie and Micah realized that there was absolutely nothing that they could do to get them out of that situation. They were stuck. This created the necessary amount of fear, dread, and hopelessness that was needed for the demon to take over. The fear in society is that the next generation won’t be able to fulfill all the jobs in the work place after the Baby Boomers retire or to be able to save the economy and environment for the next generations to come. Technology is helping with everything to be digital for the environment but could hinder the economy and jobs. The realization that technology could be more harmful then good has not been made yet. There is still hope for the future generations, but it is quickly becoming diminished over time.

 For the found footage element "it's the thing that's left when you take everything else away" (Dread and Circuses). The footage is the only thing that survives the wrath of the demon possessed Katie. Micah, the only other witness to all accounts, is murdered. The demonic presence left the house with Katie and follows her wherever she goes, for the time being, until it gets what it desires and what was promised. The idea that the demon won’t leave the family alone until it gets what was promised "introduced an element of personal revenge" (Drive-Ins are a Ghoul's Best Friend: Horror in the Fifties). This element of personal revenge is common throughout most horror films in some way. The deliberation of seeing personal revenge through found footage and through the everlasting technology is what really creates the scare factor in the Paranormal Activity series. The idea that something would destroy everything you have because of a personal vendetta and leave the only traces through technology and found footage speaks to the fear of technology. There are many instance of cyber bullying and the internet in general causing more problems, especially with people pretending to be someone that they aren’t online. Everything that is done on the internet can be traced somehow, much like how the found footage was found. There’s no way to hide what is happening through technology, even with the best servers; there’s still a way to find it. The imposters who are wanting to hurt someone for whatever reason is another culture fear. It can’t be changed because of the way technology has been set up. The browser history is the only thing that is left after a personal act of revenge has been conducted. The online world and technology in general is becoming a scary place that many people fear but won’t admit to because of how beneficial it is to the everyday life.

  Technology is “still permeated by the stench of mass death, and the threat of more to come" (Drive-Ins are a Ghoul's Best Friend: Horror in the Fifties). Paranormal Activity was the first of its kind for found footage. It was successful for a reason, and many more films like the found footage aspect were created because it was so successful. Most of the found footage films have some sort of supernatural presence that ultimately ends up causing at least one character to die if not more. The found footage films have also considered of using lesser known celebrities or first-time actors to make it more believable. With this kind of first person point of view to drive home the realistic horror, the directors need to make it as believable as possible. Using an A list actor won’t drive home that sense of horror, since everyone knows that they were in countless shows or movies previously. The lesser known actors make it real and believable and become afraid of what is happening and afraid of the footage that they found. They become afraid of the deaths that surround them and the feeling that there are more to come. In the found footage lens, it is less public mass death and more friends and family mass death. Almost no one makes it out alive, and if they do, then they might die in the next movie. The demon won’t stop until it gets what it wants regardless of how much footage is left or how many people need to die. The footage adds an element of fear that is purposeful too. The demon knows it will be watched by someone somewhere and that fear just continues to add strength to the demon. It’s an endless cycle that will continue until everyone ends up dead in some way.

Technology is one of the greatest inventions ever created and one of the worst. It will either save us or destroy us. Only time will tell, and maybe the survivors will have the footage to remember the mistakes that were made.

  References

Dread and Circuses. (n.d.).

Drive-Ins are a Ghoul's Best Friend: Horror in the Fifties. (n.d.).

Joost, H. (Director). (2011). Paranormal Activity 3 [Motion Picture].

Peli, O. (Director). (2007). Paranmoral Activity [Motion Picture].

The Dance of Dearth. (n.d.).

[hoplop8998]

Blog Post 11

Night of the Living Dead puts onto display many American fears and anxieties of the 50’s and 60’s. Racial tensions were at a high and international relations were at a tipping point. In the film Ben, an African-American man, serves as our protagonist through-out most of the film, leading the rest of the characters to safety the best he can. This was a unusual choice at the time, as even though the civil rights act had already been passed there was still much inequality and bias. Yet even in the end our main character gets the short straw, being killed by the group of white men who were out exterminating zombies. They did not check to see if he was zombified or not, they just shot. They are shown having little care for what they shoot, especially if it’s a black man. Though to the movies positives the story told for most of the film shows Ben in a positive light. “All Americans, black, and white, are implicated in America’s "living dead” culture"(Bruce).  Everyone who is in this apocalyptic event is stuck all the same. The zombies had no preference, they just killed and ate. Mr. Cooper seems to be the only character with an outright bias against Ben and even leaves him to die at one point. Sadly, this conflict is resolved with violence, Ben shooting Mr. Cooper. This gives Ben, and by proxy all black men, an image of solving issues with violence. The zombies also represented a fear of communism and nuclear war held by Americans. The effects of radiation were still being researched so the idea of them creating zombies was not to far out of people’s minds. The zombies themselves represented an uncontrollable threat, be it the Soviets or prejudice racial beliefs, that surrounded and choked the house. The different groups all had different ideas of how to deal with this threat and different reasoning behind why they were right. This is repetitive of the American population at the time.

[duke-michael-blog]

Blog Post #11: Night of the Living (Racial Issues) Dead!

Night of the Living Dead is a bucket full of racial issues that come to light when the first every black man becomes he African American protagonist in a horror film. Sidney Poitier is like “a hero who busts white people on the jaw and more- although the horror film form reveals this dream-come-true to be a nightmare, no solution to (black) America’s problems (Bruce, 62). This is great for African Americans being able to release this negative energy and be able to go into this psyche that allows them to fight against the “white man”. Especially is this time period where blacks were still fighting for freedom and all the issue that are still arising. “For a nation trying to cope with the racial tensions and violence, as well as protests for women’s and Native rights and against the Vietnam War, daily news of wat casualties and American failure, the assassinations of white and black leaders, and the rise of the hippie counterculture, Poiter’s characters- integrationism, ability to solve (racial) problems with a relative gentility and ease, and nearly superhuman sense of restraint- were out sync with the times” (Bruce, 62). Having Poiter play this role of the hero African American in this film shows that he is able to stand up and make a choice when it comes to being able to fight for his will to live. But in a reality where it’s hard for that to come true. We are able to see in horror movie that we can fight for our own personal right to live and to be equal. Instead of acting on this need to please our current psychological addiction for horror films. This movie doesn’t repress the American Dream but makes it believable for all races in fighting for their own place in society.

Bruce, Barbara S. “Guess Who’s Going to Be Dinner: Sidney Poitier, Black Militancy, and the Ambivalence of Race in Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.” 

[chlopernicus]

Blog Post 5: Is There Truly a “Reason”?

The history of the Asylum in American history is not only one of darkness and horror, but one of deep significance as to how we live, view others, and the world around us today. History is a door into the past, but also serves as a mirror upon which to reflect the current state of our society.

The way Dickey explains that the architecture of buildings alone encompasses a deep hidden meaning, down to the materials used to create them, helping to further reveal the significance of space and place, and how history surrounds us in physical form. I find it extremely interesting how he walks us through intention. How the careful, purposeful, and detailed intentions that went into the design of these Asylums, became the very thing that signified their dark past, and the very thing that people now fear. This highlights how the physicality of spaces are horror-filled gateways into our past. I ponder our current state of hospitalization and the pharmaceutical industry and how it parallels the once rewarded psychiatric care, and ask myself if the buildings, medicine bottles, and hospitals we see today will be something just as feared in the future. The way we now, as opposed to locking mentally ill away into building, lock them away within their own minds. We numb and tame them through copious amounts of medication until they become what they were feared, something that is no longer truly human, but a zombified version of what they once were. 

Benjamin Reiss’ definition of an asylum as a “laboratory for the purification of culture and the production of useful citizens” resonates loudly. This is the capitalist, materialistic society working at it’s finest. Keeping everyone in-line, on-track, working hard, following the rules laid out, no questions asked. This idea of reason as a defining factor of human existence and how detrimental it is. The reasoning parts of our selves justify the commodification of everything in our society, the rules, laws, and regulations we place upon everything,and the separating and categorizing of every single thing. When we base our entire society and existence off of reason, and take something like religion, where at the core of it’s existence is about letting go of reason and holding onto faith, and use it to reasonably justify certain things, is when society and the human condition becomes extremely problematic. There are limitations and side-effects within reason. Asylums are the epitome of this.

“The asylums became host to the worst kind of neglect and abuse that had typified their precursors-precisely what they had been designed to address” 

Foucault and Dickey find interesting parallels in the roles we assign to the “madman” and the doctor. How really, there is no difference. How if you pack a room full of even the most “sane” of people under the same conditions these patients had to endure, anyone would go mad. How doctors would go to any measure to try and find a “cure”; which in the end, made them look like the madmen, the animals, the ones to be feared, no longer just the patient. 

When we become so obsessed with finding solutions for anything that does not fit our capitalist, hetero-normative definition of what it means to be “normal”, we end up embodying everything we tried so hard to fight against. When that which is potentially unachievable is attempted to be achieved, one will go to even the most extreme measures to accomplish such a goal. 

The other parallels I find between Dickey and Foucault's analysis on asylums is the idea of fear. How fear is the driving force that links the doctors and patients together, that links reason and insanity. It is our fear of the unknown, our fear of things that defy our homogenized definitions of normal, our fear of “the other”, our inability to deal with fear because it defies reason, that are the driving forces behind these incidents, and behind horror in itself, behind our fear of the mentally ill, and the mentally ill’s fear of the world. 

“fear no longer reigned on the other side of the prison gates, it now raged under the seals of conscience...by this guilt the madman became an object of punishment always vulnerable to himself and to the Other”  - Foucault