SEX SELLS

We often think of ads using sex appeal to sell clothes, drinks, shoes and so much more. But in watching the slasher films for my presentation i realized that a lot of sex appeal is used to gain a bigger audience. When I watched the Texas Chainsaw Massacre(1974) and its remake from(2003), I saw this more clear then ever. In the images below we see Pam from the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, approaching leatherfaces home where she will soon meet her death. Although it is a very tense moment i couldn’t help but look over to my male companion watching the film and notice his goo goo eyes as we see a shot of her short shorts and backless shirt. This even more so when we were watching the remake to Texas Chainsaw Massacre where Jessica Biel is running around escaping death in her white wet t-shirt, which manages to stay neatly tied around her waist showing her flat stomach throughout the whole film. But in the image below we see a omage to the original with Erin approaching the house and another shot of her backside and leather faces home in the background, truly a sex appeal omage to the previous film.I think the directors were clever in their approach to not only appeal to their young audiences through gruesome, gorey techniques but also to appeal to them through sex. I think this is used as often as possible in most films, even though movies have become alot more complex than the simple slasher movies, they still contain the “hot” girl running away from the killer, or a very muscular model looking young man who is supposed to be the “guy next door.” All i can say about this is that it’s a great technique to gain audiences of all ages who not only want the protagonist to survive but to also move next door to them.

Obviously the backless shirt and the view up the short shorts is necessary

Erin
This looks familiar

eww blood….i mean yayyyy blood!!!!

As we discussed in class many video games reflect the zombie movies of our time. But a videogame which has done the opposite is the Resident Evil franchise. This videogame has inspired movies to be produced reflecting the gameplay. Resident Evil started off in 1996 on the sony playstation, and was noted as being one of the most terrifying games of its time. the plot consisted of a t-virus spreading around Racoon City, turning the living into walking zombies that devoured living humans around them. This game has evolved throughout time, and currently there are 5 parts to the game.The last installment takes place in Kijuju,Africa and deals with the same virus but it has been changed and the zombies are now manjini whose fury and craze causes them to savagely kill uninfected humans. The games have not only changed in their location but also in the way fear is invoked in those who play the game. Even just by the trailers we are able to see how far the game installments have come. The first resident evil game i played was resident evil 2 on the n64 and from then i have been hooked on the games. Here i have two trailers, one for resident evil 2 and the other for resident evil 5.[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/ey6eCImoHJk" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /][kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/UX89tmpiuDA" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

As we see in these trailers although both videogames deal with lots of blood and the idea of zombies taking over cities, the trailer for resident evil 5 is much more advanced then the one for resident evil 2. aside from technological advances i think the underlying factor as to why the resident evil crew hasnt kept the same type of zombies and the same simple storyline is because of the fact that as the years pass the game must age along with those playing the games. i know that as a 8 yr old kid resident evil 2 terrified me and i could not play it alone in the dark as the trailer suggests, but now when i play it i get annoyed as to how slow the zombies are in resident evil 2 and how my weapons are so limited. but as we see in resident evil 5 the game is no longer a game in the same sense it almost become a movie in which you feel you control the characters fate. the characters no longer hold static personalitites, instead they hold dynamic ones which reflect the people we meet in our everyday lives. also we see how the speed and intelligence of the enemies has changed drastically. in resident evil 5 the manjini run at about the same speed as a healthy uninfected human and hold weapons which they can aim and use very effectively, making them that much more menicing. but also in comparison the weapons the good guys can use in resident evil 5 are much more advanced and varied .the first resident evil installments i feel used our childlike imagination to play on our fears, alot of the scenes of death although they contain much blood do not show actually stabbing or impalement of the good guys, but in resident evil 5 we see how this has changed drastically leaving us with little to imagine, and although i feel imagination is a great thing i really do enjoy actually seeing how the deaths take place because it gives me this front seat view to something i will hopefully never see in real life, yet i still feel it being real because of how advanced the cinematographic scenery is and how lifelike the characters look and act. In these two videos we see the difference in death scenes of resident evil 2 and resident evil 5.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/Z5V10iTam8g" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/aL6NsdNhoYo" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

As you can see for yourselves the deaths in resident evil 2 are almost comical compared to the gruesome ones we can see in resident evil 5. although both use blood as a fear inducer, the deaths in resident evil 5 are far more advanced. i think this can clearly be seen in movies we look at today compared to those shown 10 or even 5 years back. in class we discussed night of the living dead, and although the lighting of the movie does tend to scare many people, to me, it can not compare to zombie movies of our time such as dawn of the dead(2004), a scene which is very similar to that of night of the living dead which is present in dawn of the dead is that of a small girl killing a grown man. this can be seen in both movies but to me the second movie does it so much better and actually provokes fear in me.i think the idea of movies changing along with their viewers is also prevalent in this case. not only do technological advances help to achieve this but the more relevant issue of viruses causing the spread of this transforming infection hits closer to home for us then would the idea of a nuclear leak causing zombie mayhem.the ideas in movies are much like those in video games especially when it comes to zombies, the more blood and the more the director can show without going over the top the better. and as time has passed its easier to make a zombie death look more realistic and that much more pleasurable (weird i know) for those of us who love zombie movies/videogames.it is safe to say that zombie videogames have changed from having slow moving, polygonal characters, into being almost life like actors and the games are becoming more movie like (hence the extremely long trailer for resident evil 5 and the really short one for resident evil 2). and as for movies we see how the zombies themselves can now run at the same(if not faster)pace as that of a normal human, and they are not as easily pushed away as in earlier movies. for many people these movie ad video-games can be too much because of how realistic they are, as for me i cant wait to play resident evil 6 which is in talks to be release in 2017,,,lets cross our fingers that it is released much sooner then that.

femme fatale

In watching the films assigned to us in class i find myself looking constantly at women who are portrayed as the source of trouble in our leading protagonists lives. Even though the women are downplayed in a large way by the heroic man, their roles serve of grave importance but not in a pleasant light most of the time. In movies such as The Lady From Shanghai we see how the beautiful Rosalie uses her charm to “force” Michael to stay with her, eventually we see that she did this for her own benefit and seemed to have no regard for his life. In Double Indemnity we see how Phyllis also uses her looks in order to “force” a man into doing as she pleases. In movies like these and in others that we have seen such as Detour and D.O.A. we see how woman are placed into roles that are completely opposite of the damsel in distress and instead are women with no emotions who seem to just be interested in money and material goods. Although i believe a damsel in distress isn’t the best way to portray a woman, it seems equally offensive to see these heartless women representing women. It confuses me that women in the end of these films were seen as the bad ones because they “brought the leading man down with their seductions and deceit” when it is obvious that no man can be FORCED into doing anything, none of these women threatened to kill these men if they didn’t make out with them, it was the mans own fault for choosing to chase these women. I believe it all comes down to choice just as Adam could have chosen not to bite the apple Eve gave to him so could these men have chosen not to listen to these women, for falling for these women and getting themselves into a whole mess of trouble i think they should be seen as fools and not be shown sympathy. I believe Julie Grossman sums it up perfectly when she states that these movies serve to portray women as these dangerous being that should be TAMED by institutions (which means by MEN), and this doesn’t come as a shock considering that these films were made by men. Although i dont think directors of movies did this intentionally, i believe it does reflect the times in which they lived in where women were either seen as innocent creatures that needed a mans guidance in order to have a happy life, or they were seen as these “femme fatale” characters who were way out of control and needed to be stopped by the all knowing man.