In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our sequence is the opening 2-3 minutes of a horror/thriller film. It follows Todorov's theory of a classic narrative pattern (an equilibrium, followed by a disruption). A girl is moving into her home when she is found by the killer in the basement (time 2:30).

This is the disruption at the start of the narrative following the equilibrium of her moving in. By the end of the film the equilibrium will be restored (albeit a new one). Our sequence also follows the usual form of an opening sequence; the setting is established, characters are introduced and the narrative begins.

However, many horror films (such as Jeepers Creepers and Friday the 13^th) end with the villain still on the loose and therefore the equilibrium is only momentary. There are also several binary opposites present that fit into Levi-Strauss' theory:

light upstairs in the world of the girl - the dark basement

good - evil

female – male

Although the villain is disabled, he is above her at the top of the stairs and therefore is dominating. It challenges the conventions of media products by having our villain being disabled, since usually the villains are more physically powerful than the protagonists in films.

Sometimes the victim is disabled in order to appear more vulnerable, for example in Rear Window and Misery. This, however, is far more common than the villain being disabled.

One case of a disabled villain is in Casino Royale, in which the villain is asthmatic. We have used the disability of the villain as a twist in the story and as a result have a created a more intelligent, methodical killer as opposed to one that is physically dominant (time from sequence). By doing this we have challenged the media convention that the villains are physically superior. We have taken inspiration to do this from films such as The Dark Night (the appearance of our villain, including make-up and clothes, is taken form Heath Ledger’s joker) and Se7en.

Of course, our background music is eery and spooky and therefore similar to that used in real horror films. The music is slow at first before building up as the tension grows before stopping sharply as the girl sees the villain; the abrupt ending to the music fits the action on screen.