Wes Craven
Wes Craven was brought up in mid-western suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, Wes Craven has become well known with genre bending and innovative horror, challenging audiences with his bold visions since the release of his first feature film, The Last House of the Left, which he wrote, directed, and edited. In 1984 he produced A Nightmare on Elm Street, a film he wrote and directed. He then deconstructed the genre a decade later, writing and directing Wes Craven's New Nightmare, which introduced the concept of self-reflexive genre films to the world. In 1996 Craven produced a success with the release of Scream, and then onto do Scream 2 and 3. Between Scream 2 and Scream 3 Craven completed his first novel, "The Fountain Society," published by Simon & Shuster. Recent works include the 2005 psychological thriller, Red Eye. Over the last few years, Craven has also produced remakes of two of his earlier films, The Hills Have Eyes (2006) and The Last House on the Left (2009). Craven's most recent film, Scream 4 (2011) reunites the director with Dimension Films and Kevin Williamson, Craven again exhibits his knack for spotting important talent.
Wes Craven was also a well known theorist and we said 'best horror happens in safe places' e.g. a church, school. hospital, your house. This is proven in the Last exorcism 2 trailer as in the opening sequence there is a shot of there house so therefore you know that the film is going to be based in a house, and we know that the Last exorcism 2 is a very well known, successful and popular film, so we decided to use this theory in our opening sequence and film it in a house.
Wes Craven also said that a big theme in horror is the absence of parents or authority, and he also said another big theme in horror is misogynistic which is where there is hatred against women and in Last Exorcism 2 the possessed person is a women so it shows hatred against women. (IP)
Wes Craven was brought up in mid-western suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, Wes Craven has become well known with genre bending and innovative horror, challenging audiences with his bold visions since the release of his first feature film, The Last House of the Left, which he wrote, directed, and edited. In 1984 he produced A Nightmare on Elm Street, a film he wrote and directed. He then deconstructed the genre a decade later, writing and directing Wes Craven's New Nightmare, which introduced the concept of self-reflexive genre films to the world. In 1996 Craven produced a success with the release of Scream, and then onto do Scream 2 and 3. Between Scream 2 and Scream 3 Craven completed his first novel, "The Fountain Society," published by Simon & Shuster. Recent works include the 2005 psychological thriller, Red Eye. Over the last few years, Craven has also produced remakes of two of his earlier films, The Hills Have Eyes (2006) and The Last House on the Left (2009). Craven's most recent film, Scream 4 (2011) reunites the director with Dimension Films and Kevin Williamson, Craven again exhibits his knack for spotting important talent.
Wes Craven was also a well known theorist and we said 'best horror happens in safe places' e.g. a church, school. hospital, your house. This is proven in the Last exorcism 2 trailer as in the opening sequence there is a shot of there house so therefore you know that the film is going to be based in a house, and we know that the Last exorcism 2 is a very well known, successful and popular film, so we decided to use this theory in our opening sequence and film it in a house.
Wes Craven also said that a big theme in horror is the absence of parents or authority, and he also said another big theme in horror is misogynistic which is where there is hatred against women and in Last Exorcism 2 the possessed person is a women so it shows hatred against women. (IP)
Carol Clover
Carol Clover writes of horror films from "Men, Women and Chainsaws"Carol Clover argues that these films work mainly to engage the viewer in the plight of the victim-hero, who suffers fright.
Clover is a medievalist, Men, Women, and Chain Saws investigated the appeal of horror cinema, in particular the popularity of those "low" genres that feature female heroes and play to male audiences: slasher and rape-revenge films. Such genres seem to offer pleasure to their viewers, and not much else. Clover, however, argued the reverse: that these films are designed to keep spectators not with the male tormentor, but with the female tormented--with the suffering, pain, and anguish that the "final girl," as Clover calls the victim-hero, endures before rising, finally to defeat her tormentor. Carol Clover has different theories concerning the different aspects of horror films. For example:
Killers: They tend to have issues with childhood (for example Mike Myers from Halloween was a child when he started killing) or are sexually disturbed (for example Freddie Krugger from Nightmare on Elm Street was a child molester).
Terrible Places: They're terrible because of there physical state and/or the terrible families and histories inside them. Clover also states that the walls in houses which first seem safe by keeping the killer out soon become prisons holding the victim in.
Weapons: It is important to recognise that there are no guns in slasher films, sometimes the victim in horror films find fire arms but these never work.
Victims: Carol Clover uses Schoell's quote regarding women being killed in horror films when she says 'the only thing better than one beautiful women being gruesomely murdered was a whole series of beautiful women being gruesomely murdered'. It is important to notice that the victims of slasher/horror films are sexual transgressors. It is always the female killing that lingers on screen for the longest, not the male.
Final Girl: It is common to include the theory of a 'Final Girl' in slasher horror films. This final girl is not sexually active and noticeably more intelligent than the other girls included in the film. She is boyish, not just by her looks but by her name as the name of the final girl is normally unisex. (IP)
Carol Clover writes of horror films from "Men, Women and Chainsaws"Carol Clover argues that these films work mainly to engage the viewer in the plight of the victim-hero, who suffers fright.
Clover is a medievalist, Men, Women, and Chain Saws investigated the appeal of horror cinema, in particular the popularity of those "low" genres that feature female heroes and play to male audiences: slasher and rape-revenge films. Such genres seem to offer pleasure to their viewers, and not much else. Clover, however, argued the reverse: that these films are designed to keep spectators not with the male tormentor, but with the female tormented--with the suffering, pain, and anguish that the "final girl," as Clover calls the victim-hero, endures before rising, finally to defeat her tormentor. Carol Clover has different theories concerning the different aspects of horror films. For example:
Killers: They tend to have issues with childhood (for example Mike Myers from Halloween was a child when he started killing) or are sexually disturbed (for example Freddie Krugger from Nightmare on Elm Street was a child molester).
Terrible Places: They're terrible because of there physical state and/or the terrible families and histories inside them. Clover also states that the walls in houses which first seem safe by keeping the killer out soon become prisons holding the victim in.
Weapons: It is important to recognise that there are no guns in slasher films, sometimes the victim in horror films find fire arms but these never work.
Victims: Carol Clover uses Schoell's quote regarding women being killed in horror films when she says 'the only thing better than one beautiful women being gruesomely murdered was a whole series of beautiful women being gruesomely murdered'. It is important to notice that the victims of slasher/horror films are sexual transgressors. It is always the female killing that lingers on screen for the longest, not the male.
Final Girl: It is common to include the theory of a 'Final Girl' in slasher horror films. This final girl is not sexually active and noticeably more intelligent than the other girls included in the film. She is boyish, not just by her looks but by her name as the name of the final girl is normally unisex. (IP)
Barbara Creed
Barbara Creed states "the horror films obsession with blood particularly the bleeding body of a woman, where her body is transformed into a 'gaping wound' suggests that castration anxiety is a central concern of the horror film - particularly the slasher genre." This theory is practiced in films such as Scream and SAW as the deaths of the women are normally very brutal and gory. (IP)