Representation Essay

Representation is when it constructs meanings about the world we live in, for this to make sense; we need to think about how society functions.

For example, the theorist, Mulvey had a theory called the male gaze, which is where the women are controlled by it. A woman’s body is displayed which makes the view a voyeur who experiences erotic pleasure. The males are forced to view the film in a heterosexual perspective. The male gaze is generally shown in slasher films like the film, Psycho. The iconic shower scene shows the female character naked and showering, which is where people are at their most vulnerable. By having her naked shows the viewers her body features that she has as well as the sounds she makes, for example, she sings in the shower and screams when the killer comes in to the shower. These sound effects all tie in together and make her a ‘woman’. In my summer trailer, the male gaze is not present as explicitly as it usually is but shows it vaguely when the actress is staring into the camera at a medium shot. By this being a medium shot, we are able to see her figure and body which allows the male audience to watch.

Clover, another theorist had a theory that refers to the last female alive who generally confronts the killer. This girl is usually virginal and pure and has not participated in drinking alcohol or taking drugs, making her seem like a saint. She is usually dressed in darker and bleak clothes that cover her up to make her seem masculine compared to other girls in the film like the ‘Slut’. Furthermore, another feature is that the girl usually has a unisex name like ‘Sydney’ in the Scream films. In our trailer, the final girl is visible at the end of it as we see one of the characters hiding and from what we can tell, she has survived. To further link to the final girl theory, she also has on dark coloured clothes as well as dark, brown hair. This shows that she is the hero/survivor of the film.

The next theory is about religion and sexuality. This theory says that the idea of possession has sexual connotations as the evil spirit is usually characterised as a male and the person getting possessed is generally a female. The representation of evil spirits links to religion, in a horror films case, Christianity is use more than any other religion; this is because the devil is spoken about the most in Christianity. Religion usually occurs in supernatural/psychological films where the antagonist is usually an evil spirit or demon. Furthermore, props are used very frequently in films that have religion in it, for example, crosses will be very significant to kill the evil spirit, Bibles can also be used. The protagonist usually uses these props in order to get rid of the evil antagonist. In my summer trailer, it is evident that religion occurs because of a medium shot of one of the actors, he has a cross round his neck, suggesting he has attempted to banish the demon that is in the film.

In addition, teen punishment can be identified in horror films. It suggests that teenagers should pay for any "sins" they have played a part in like, sex, drugs and alcohol. This usually can be seen in slasher films for example, Scream as it is mostly teenagers who are drinking, having sex and doing drugs are being killed, Sydney (the final girl) survives this, as she does not partake in any of these. However, in my summer trailer, this theory can not be seen as our main genre is supernatural, therefore it would make more sense for it to be in a Slasher film.

Derry, another theorist focuses on haunting, possessions and the human monster. The only part of this theory that is relevant to our summer trailer is the possession, our film genre is supernatural which means that a possession is present. We made this obvious by having an actress stare in to the camera for 2 seconds with no speech at a medium shot. Her costume is a white top (indicates innocence) covered in blood which destroys her innocence, suggesting the demon has destroyed her.