LO1 B

Film: The Descent

Format: 1 Hour 49 Minutes

Genre: Horror

The rules of this genre is to try to make people scared and build up tension throughout the film by revealing either more information about the characters or the person trying to kill the main character if there is a person trying to kill someone in the film. The impact that this film will have is it will make people get scared and build character development throughout the film.

The rules within the horror movie when using a character to kill other people is that most of the time the character has to look scary to get a reaction of the viewer if it was a film like Hush you get to see the character that is trying to kill the woman without his mask on this might make the viewer watching the horror less scared when watching the film. In The Descent the characters are all women and they have to survive in caves against creature but as the film goes on you find out there is more within the caves there must’ve been around 10 or more creatures within the cave. The character gets seen as a distant person and as they go further into the cave they find out that the person they saw earlier was some sort of creature who kills.

The stereotypes within The Descent are final girl because there is at least one girl that survives at the end but she has illusions that she broke free from the cave. You also have a best friend stereotype because they are all friends within the film and they work together. Theres also another stereotype which is leader because within the film the girls friends follow the friend that knows more about the cave they went to then they did. Theres not really any other stereotypes used within the film because its not a slasher film.

The key iconography within the film is maybe the fact that the film has a cabin which could reference similar films like Cabin In The Woods. The iconography is tied within the genre horror because most the props within the film can be found in other horror films. The props that are mainly found within a horror film like this is probably cabins, a nice landscape like its set in the woods its a nice peaceful place and it seems like no one is around. There’s also trees on the scenes within the film which could build suspense because it could make the viewer think about all the possibilities that could happen like the characters getting lost and people wondering off into the woods not knowing what is going to happen.

In The Descent there is villains but there is more than one villain because there is multiple villains and you see this throughout the film as it progresses on. There isn’t really a hero within this film because everyone turns their back to each other and decides to leave them to die and they also get aggressive towards each other because the main girl who gets caught in an accident finds out her friend who she is close with died and she died to the person who got everyone into the cave which she was meant to of done some research of and the person was the main girls best friend too. There is a false hero within the film which is the person who led everyone into the cave this was because she was a leader at first to everyone she knew what she was doing but as the movie went on the woman decided to kill her friend due to an accident happening the person who led them down to the cave left her friend to die without trying to help she accidentally stab her in her throat and she still didn’t help her. I would probably say that there are a few innocent people within this film apart from the false hero and villains and the main girl. Everyone that gets drawn to the rock climbing doesn’t know what they are doing or what their objective is when they start their adventure.

I would probably say that this film has a non-linear narrative because at the end of the film you see different situations the girl could be in like getting out of the cave and imagining herself being set free and finally seeing herself escape. She also sees herself in a cave where she last was before she started imagining that she was free from the cave and the creatures within the cave.

Equilibrium – The beginning of this film the main woman is finishing an event with her two friends which was boat ride and the main girls one friend stares at her husband / boyfriend and the end of the event and her friend catches on to what is happening between them. The main girl has an car accident with her husband / boyfriend and daughter in the car all of a sudden she is in the hospital. The main girl meets her friend at this getaway cabin which helps her get over what happened so she can get help with her thoughts.

Disruption – The main woman gets stuck between some rocks with supplies when she is the last to come up to try to get through a cave system but as she’s trying to get up the rock starts to come loose as in to crush her and maybe kill her and her friend has to tell her not to worry and she helps her through without the bag due to the rocks about to fall and her friend also notices that there is no one or nothing stoping her from trying to get up.

Recognition – As they get through the cave and need to find a way and find how many entrances and how many gaps are within the cave the leader tells them its a different cave to what they was expecting this was because she wanted her and her friends to claim a cave and name it whatever they wanted but no one was impressed because of them potentially being stuck now. This causes them to be stuck within the cave and find different paths and to lose trust within each other.

Attempt to repair – The characters manage to find a way around the cave and see that the cave had an old hook to show that someone could’ve been in the cave and they helped each other get through the caves and find a way to get out and work together to support each other through the cave they also decide to be their own leaders instead of relying on one person. But them seeing the old hook made them think about someone going in the cave in the past and seeing that someone could’ve been in danger. The main character sees a person within the distant of the cave and its an unusual figure which leads them to another danger and situations.

New equilibrium – The main character remains all alone with no one alive and she finds herself stuck in the cave for the ending which shows this ended very badly and she has a new life of maybe becoming the creature she has been trying to get a way. Maybe the people who enter the cave never get out and turn into the creature who killed the main woman’s friends. The new life for her would be to eat people who enter the cave maybe because of the creatures that are living in there could be starting an new evolution.

I would probably say for this film the age range is for people who are 18 and women this is because the people within the film are women and usually in horror films the main protagonists are usually men and they are usually aimed at men but I feel like as this film has women as main protagonists its aimed at them I would think this is untypical because most the time in horror movies there is more men than women and in this film they make the women think more than the do at films aimed at men. I feel like the social class for this film is D because I feel like its for people who are either employed or unemployed and I feel like the film doesn’t require them to think about the situation they are in but they will see the obvious content within the film.

This film is different to any other horror film and it is very fair compared to other films because there’s women in this film as the main protagonists and they are represented in a good way compared to films like Friday The 13th which make the girls within that not really think about the situation they are in. The Descent shows that woman in horror films do think about what situation they are in it shows different content which makes the film more interesting. They make this more interesting because its not something you see in every film I feel like there should be more films doing these types of things like The Ghostbusters: Answer The Call movie the main protagonists were women and it made the film focus on more different topics.

In horror movies I feel like music helps build suspense because in movies after the music there is usually a jump scare sound that is played this is because it can make the viewer think nothing is going to happen sometimes if it is a film like The Quite Place. They just go on with the jump scare because everything is silent you could easily get scared it is like you don’t expect it but its easy to scare someone because you are used to there being no sound and all of a sudden a sound effect could come on with a visual. The Descent is good at doing this but I would probably say they are good at doing it when it comes to the scene where the main woman goes up to the window and hears something and the window breaks.

I feel like in this film there are only three stereotypes this is because there is a person who leads the way which would probably be the person who is the leader because her character is bossy and commands people she has to make some sacrifices like when she turned around and accidentally stabbed her friend in the throat this was because the leader was being attacked by a creature and she expected one to be behind her but it was her friend and she left her this was maybe because she couldn’t get her out the cave and they would’ve needed to communicate but she probably would’ve lost too much blood along the way. The second stereotype for this film is The Final Girl this is because at the end of the film the main character who has been the focus throughout the movie survives throughout everything that has happened like getting attacked from the creatures and making it through the rocks and surviving and the ending where she is still alive in the cave. The third stereotype in this film would probably be the best friends because everyone in the film are best friends and they work together to try to find a way out the cave but they also have a laugh with each other before they set out on the adventure. The villains in this film survive and usually in horror films they don’t unless they get lined up for a sequel. The reason why they are still alive is because there is multiple villains and they can’t all be killed at one time the other people around the final girl is dead. The reason why villains usually don’t survive is because the final girl always finds a way to kill the villain and walk away from the messy situation meaning her friends dying around her and her being at risk. The reason why the final girl manages to kill the villain is because they have went through a lot when the final girl survives the reason why they do is because they always go through a bad past or a bad situation and it makes them more smarter so they use a set of skills that they have gained from their past experiences. Sometimes the friends or family within some horror films don’t die mainly because they always stay together and they listen to each other to stay alive like in Friday The 13th Part V, Tommy Jarvis survives with his sister but that is because his sister distracts Jason whilst Tommy puts on make up to look like Jason’s Mom. The villains within the film would usually lose their body parts because sometimes they have been chopped up but in this film the final girl figures out how to stop the villains from killing her by knowing they are blind and they go off by sound.

Micro Analysis

Scene Breakdown Hospital

Scene Breakdown Cave

The Descent Film Review

I thought that The Descent wasn’t gonna be that good at first I thought it was going to try and copy other films like Friday The 13th but they took a different approach by making the main characters all women which made it more interesting. I feel like the done a really good job on cinematography and I feel like the film went perfectly together towards the end like everything started to come together that the cave was never theirs. The only thing I didn’t like about The Descent was the creatures they used because they didn’t look scary they looked really funny. Overall I liked The Descent I feel like it’s a whole new experience that more films should try out.

Distinction Questions

I feel like they did a good job at making the horror film have a main focus on women compared to most typical horror films. I liked that they switched the roles from the film just being focused on men for once and made it about women I feel like they should do this to more horror movies like maybe remakes of iconic horror movies like Nightmare On Elm Street.

I feel like the film did achieve it’s intended purpose because they must’ve got some awards for it because it seemed like it was the best film of that year but maybe it could’ve carried on if the sequels they were making was good. I feel like off this film they would’ve made a lot of profit from this film this is because of them getting recognised from The Descent.

I think this film did change the horror genre because it made people look at how horror films could be with women characters as main people it’s like the remake of Nightmare On Elm Street the film focuses more on Nancy than it does with the male character. This is amazing how remakes could include this type of content it makes it more interesting and shows that its not only men watching horror movies it’s women too.

I was very interested within this film and the narrative within it too because it took a lot of different approaches like it could’ve took a simple approach and made it about a group of friends who go camping in the woods but it took an approach where a woman lost her daughter in a car accident she was involved in. It builds up character development and makes the story more interested it leaves the viewer with more questions like is the woman going to be able to go pot holing when she’s just come from the hospital. I also feel like this film isn’t just for one genre it’s for two genres and that is sports and horror both combined together which is interesting it gives the film more audiences who could be new to horror and some audiences that could be new to sports.