ATEMPT 2

Does the found-footage sub genre of horror rely on repetitive conventions?

For my investigation I will be analyzing 'The Blair Witch Project' (1999) (1) and 'Unfriended' (2014) (2). "Genres are instances of repetition and difference"- Steve Neale (I3). 'The Blair Witch Project' is considered the first film of 'found footage' sub genre. Therefore many other texts have been influenced by this e.g. Paranormal Activity Franchise. I will compare and contrast both films and assess how far they have been influenced by the technological and social conditions of the time of their production. I will therefore focus upon narrative themes and gender representations to establish how far horror conventions have changed over the last 15 years.

The horror genre continues to change so that they can appeal to their audiences. This is because if they use the same conventions, cast, directors, iconography etc. then every horror film would be too similar and why would audiences pay to watch something very similar all the time unless it was a remake of an original film. This goes for many films however within the horror genre they need to be more inventive because it is harder to maintain and scare an audience if they have already seen something very similar happen before. For example in 'Jaws' as soon as you hear the iconic 'Jaws' music playing you know exactly what is going to happen because of the continuous repetition throughout all of the films and it then becomes embedded into your subconscious.

This is why with the development of technology horror film makers have started to incorporate technology more and more into their films. You can see this with the contrast between my two chosen texts 'The Blair Witch Project' (1) and 'Unfriended' (2). Because in 'The Blair Witch Project' (1) they only use video camera's however within 'Unfriended' (2) there is the use of apps, social media, mobile phones, laptops etc. showing the variety of technology that teenagers now use. This can also back up my secondary research of how much time people spend on the internet through use of technology (Item 5). My research allowed me to discover that teenagers are the most popular users of the internet and which apps they use the most. It shows that throughout modern society they are the most absorbent and influential to the internet. Looking at the results you are also enabled to see the similarities between them and 'Unfriended' (2) as the apps that are the most popular are used within the film. This then reflects the context in which these films were made as they have adapted from 1999 with 'The Blair Witch Project' (1) to 2014 with 'Unfriended' (2).

-NARRATIVE THEMES
The narrative themes of Unfriended (2) display a variety of popular things within society that are mainly targeted at teenagers and older age groups such as social media websites (Facebook). A wide range of people are familiar with these and it also has a lot of controversy on what it is used for, some share family pictures and happy memories like it is displayed within the Unfriended (2) trailer at the beginning and some use it for what can be called things like 'slut shaming' and it can essentially boil down to bullying within society on a wider scale across more than a simple street or school, but everywhere because of how wide the access is for everyone to be interlinked across the world. A common narrative theme of horror is to add in a popular game (usually recent) to add more fear to film because it is staying up to date with society for example Unfriended (2) uses the game 'never have I ever' in order to torture the teenagers and essentially kill them one by one. In The Blair Witch Project (1) which was made in 1999 was at a point where fear was most prominent because of the fact that there was a new millennium, therefore no one was sure what would happen which created a mass fear of the unknown like on the 21st December 2012 when the world was supposed to end. Therefore effectively the unknown 'Blair Witch' was created and it is never seen throughout the entire film which can mimic the society at the time with the fear of the unknown.

-REPRESENTATION OF GENDER

"The image of the distressed female most likely to linger in memory is the image of the one who did not die: the survivor the Final Girl" (6). In both of my texts there is a final girl Blaire and Heather. In Unfriended (2) Blaire is the last survivor out of all the teenagers and the fact that she has outlived the stereotypically more dominant gender (males) like the characters Ken, Adam, Mitch does become more terrifying for the audience as women are stereotypically known as weaker and more vulnerable.  Therefore when the online troll 'Billie' who the group assumes is Laura, their recently passed away friend, begins to count down to zero from 45. This is done within the social media platform of Skype using instant messaging creating dramatic tension within the audience. It is done by the use of the music and by the sound effects within the scene. The music is sad and calm, however added with the tension of the counting down it becomes scarier.

Tension is shown by the character Blaire, this is established by Shelly Hennig's facial expressions, they show that she is terrified and because she is terrified this then with the preferred reading will scare the audience as well. "Fear sells. Fear makes money. The countless companies and consultants in the business of protecting the fearful from whatever they may fear know it only too well. The more fear, the better the sales" (7). This shows that fear spreads fear and that by doing this horror films are able to earn more money because they are continuously updating and essentially keeping the fear fresh and up to date and as said by Daniel Gardner, fear sells.

Whereas in The Blair Witch Project (2) Heather is the final girl, just before the final scenes when they enter the house, she takes the camera and points it upwards giving a worms eye close up on her face. This then makes the audience feel uncomfortable because of how close they are too her, it becomes an invasion of space. Heather then proceeds to say "I'm scared to close my eyes, I'm scared to open them" This is more impacting on the audience because later on she will be the final girl. This then will be more worrying for the audience and create more fear within them because they already know she is terrified.

-TECHNICAL CONVENTIONS
The technical conventions in Unfriended (2) are interesting and have updated compared to how they were in The Blair Witch Project (1) because both of them are from the found footage genre they are essentially very similar however that 15 year age gap has aloud the technology to update, become more creative and adapted to human needs and this if used in the right way can be used to scare the audience. This is all to do with the fact that fear is mostly caused by fear of the unknown, therefore with the use of technology developing we really do not know where it is going to go next.

Additionally because a lot of the population are familiar with technology this is used to scare the audience through the use of point of view shots, especially in Unfriended (2) as you are purposely put into the position of the teenagers in the group chat so the sense of verisimilitude can further scare the audience. By putting the audience in the point of view of the main characters you are thrown more into the world of technology and social media and you can connect with the characters more as you are able to understand the fact of how hard it is to escape. "What makes the film work however is that if you are at home with the culture, at home with the online culture, then you know what it does is [it] says something quite interesting about cyber-bullying because many people have seen the trailer and are being 'okay, you're being stalked on the internet just log off' and the smart thing about the plot is at several points where they all tell each other just log off walk away but the point is they can't, why can't they, because they are addicted" (Item 4, Mark Kermode). Mark Kermode is a specialist in reviewing films and by him saying this shows how addicted people are to technology especially in terms of how it is established in Unfriended (2).

These diagrams (5) show that over two different age (2005, 2014) and (2012-2014) spans showing the rapid growth of how many people use specific pieces of technology and how many use specific apps and how many people use them. My research supports the fact that society has developed and through the use of technical conventions because the technical conventions have been adapted to adopt the similarity of the user of the technology. I think that this is also similar to how it is used within The Blair Witch Project (1) with the way that hand held camera is used in order to adopt the similarities and with the preferred reading to the text position the audience in with the teenage film crew. By the technical conventions of in this case with both of my texts camera work is key in order to display simple fears of not being able to escape and this is portrayed by younger generations being so engrossed with technology.


In conclusion after my research I think that my question 'Does the found-footage sub genre of horror rely on repetitive conventions?' is not true. I don't think that it needs to rely on repetitive conventions to continue on. Of course there will be some conventions that will be repeated otherwise it would end up being too different and not a horror film at all. However I think that my research shows that by horror films updating themselves to be more accurate within the times they are made makes them so much more effective and interesting. It can be clearly seen within my two texts The Blair Witch Project(1) and Unfriended (2) which are fifteen years apart. They are similar in the sense of the fact that they both have a final girl and they both are both established within the found-footage sub genre of horror, however other than that I think with the modernisation of apps and other technological sources both my texts have become something very unique themselves. Therefore I think that this particular genre doesn't need to rely on it's past history because it works better when it is constantly evolving and adapting to suit newer audiences.

-BIBLIOGRAPHY
Item 1: The Blair Witch Project (1999) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0185937/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Item 2: Unfriended (2014) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3713166/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Item 3: Steve Neale Quote https://prezi.com/3ewc87yoxddt/steve-neales-theory-of-repetition-difference/

Item 4: mark kermode quote (addicted to the internet no escape, from youtube clip)

Item 5: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/digital-media/11597743/Teenagers-spend-27-hours-a-week-online-how-internet-use-has-ballooned-in-the-last-decade.html 

Item 6: Quote from 'Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the modern horror film' by Carol Clover (1992) Page 35

Item 7: Quote from Daniel Gardner,  The science of fear