Saturday, 29 March 2014

AS-A2 Progression: Vampire fictions

Dark Shadows/ Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
  •       What conventions of vampire fictions are followed in your chosen text and which are ignored, or adapted?

Dark Shadows: The look of the main vampire on the film is the typical look of a vampire you can think of, where they have pale skin, they wear dark clothes, they have vampire teeth, and they cannot go under the sun and greasy hair.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter: The main looks of the Vampire for this movie are pretty much the same or the usual vampire we see, where we can find them having vampire teeth, and pale face; however, for this film most of the vampire are dress in a casual clothing unlike Dark Shadows where they were wearing almost all black clothes. On the movie Abraham Lincoln vampires were dressed like a normal person. On this movie vampires were allowed to go under the sun and not get burned as well as getting to go to church without getting burned as well. The thing that can kill them on this movie was an axe with silver tip, silver bullets etc… Anything that is made by silver vampires can be killed.

  • How would you describe the atmosphere and the tone of the texts and how is this created.

Dark Shadows: The atmosphere of the film is the typical atmosphere you can find a vampire living it; the atmosphere is dark, windy, and cold. The tone of the text is mainly about love, curse, mixture of American culture and British culture. The atmosphere is created on the colours that they used in the movie for example the colour black is the most dominant one. The locations of the movie, the forest, fish port, and most of the scenes on the movie were all filmed at the mansion with secret doors, basements.  (Sounds)

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter: The atmosphere of this movie was very intense considering the fact that there are a lot of actions going on for example, wars, killing and so on. The atmosphere consists with darkness, windy, eerie feel and fire.  All of these atmospheres were created by the situation that they were in (characters). The use of colour, location, objects that were used contributes to how the atmosphere was created.

  •  How would you describe the audience for the texts and how do the texts ensure that they appeal to these particular audiences?

Dark Shadows: The main target for the text/movie was 15 and over people, the movie contains a bit of violence and some inappropriate actions (sex). The movie is basically based on jealousy, the character named Angelic has a crush on the main character Barnabas who happened to be in love with another girl. Angelic was a witch and she hypnotised Barnabas love interest named Jossette, which lead her to her death (fallen off the cliff).  Barnabas was then cursed to be a vampire and put into a coffin 10ft below for 200 years until he escaped when local guys/construction workers opened the coffin.  The movie evolves different kinds of love for example; love for family, love for belongings, couples in love, and one true love. They appeal to their target audience by explore all sorts/types of love.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter: The main target audience for this movie is very similar to Dark Shadows; it is aimed at people loves to watch vampire movies with a twist about all sorts of love; love such as family love, mother and son, father and son, young couples and love for the nation. They ensure that they will appeal to their target audiences by telling a story somehow on the target audiences they are aiming at for example they have a section for this and that target audience.

  •  Can you summaries the plot (the narrative structure)?

Dark Shadow: The movie is about love, jealousy, revenge and anger. It’s like a love triangle in a way, Angelic wants Barnabas to love her despite he is love with someone else.  The movie is also based on family value, family possession it depicts how money can change the family’s attitude. Barnabas is the main character in this movie; he was cursed by this witch whom he had affection for before he (barnabas) met the right girl for him. Angelic is the witch in the movie, she used to be a servant in the Collinwood’s family.  Even though her name is “Angelic” she is the opposite of what we think her name stands for. When Angelic saw Barbanas kissing the one who will he marry, Angelic hypnotised Jossette (Barnabas fiancé) she hypnotised and order her to walk through this gloomy forest all the way up to the cliff which lead to Jossette’s death. Barnabas tried to save her by jumping off the cliff or also for him to die along with her; however, Angelic made Barnabas a vampire. Vampires lives forever unless they are killed using a silver knife or bullet, garlic or holy water.   Barnabas was then locked into this coffin and lay below the ground; he was locked there for about 200 years until some people who worked at this road construction opened the coffin and unleashed him. Barnabas came back to his mansion, then find and fight to Angelic for his revenge for Angelic to pay all of the things she have done to him; this act at the main goal or Barnabas.

Who is the Hero? Barnabas, Jossette and all of the rest of Collinwood’s family
Villain? Angelic
What is the Hero’s goal? His goal was to be with the one who is loves in the end and be happy together as well as putting back their family business the fish port.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter: The movie is basically about revenge; Abraham saw who killed his mother; it was a vampire, he had this urge to look for the person who killed his mother for him to get his revenge and kill the one who killed his mother. He met this guy named Henry at a bar all of a sudden they became really close friends after Henry saved Abraham to the vampire who killed his mother when Abraham tried killing him. Abraham begged Henry to teach him the skills that he has (what Abraham saw when he saved him), and Henry asked Abraham if he wanted to be a vampire hunter, Abraham said yes.  Then he started training and soon enough he was killing vampires; Abraham worked on this shop to earn a living, he was also living to a spare room which can be find inside the shop. At this shop he met the love of his life Mary, he wanted to be an attorney and serve people; later on he married Mary and he became the President of the United States and had a child(boy) later on died because a vampire bitten him. This then created anger and eagerness for Abraham to make a plan on how to kill the entire vampire family; he succeeded by using silver a form of weapon which vampires dislike the most. 
Villain?: Vampires
What is the hero’s goal? To kill all of the vampires

  • This is the most complicated question; what do you think the text suggest about the ideologies of the people who made them, and the people who watch them, and the society which produced them? Think about whether the things you see on screen suggest any kind of beliefs or values or attitudes. This might have to do with the women, or race, or family, or friendship, or any number of things?

Dark Shadow: Different people have different beliefs about vampires; most people who are religious see that vampires are demons or devils.  Kids are the one who are more likely to believe that vampires are true. People assume that vampires cannot go outside when there is a sun, they cannot go inside the church, they will die or get hurt if you pour them holy water and as well as the use of garlic to make them go away. Most of the time vampires are men who desire to be love and get power to control other people. I think the main reason why there are less women who act as the main character of a vampire movie/film is because women as seen as the useless one, not the tough one and the one who does not get the power or example at home.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter:  They didn’t use as sorts of traditional weapon instead they used silver, this kind of weapon does not really go to the typical weapon used when battling vampire; they are usually holy water, garlic and they cannot go outside when the sun is up. On the film the vampires can freely wonder around even when the sun is on. Both of the films have the same viewpoint in a way which is to kill people for food/blood.

  •  Finally, research your particular texts. Have there been any interesting critical responses to the texts? What have newspaper, magazine and internet sites said about your particular texts?

Dark Shadow:
“It is all perfectly decent, more relaxed and less self-conscious than the madly overdone Alice in Wonderland, and perhaps more approachable than Burton's musical Sweeney Todd. Depp always delivers funny lines with intelligence and charm, and between them Bonham Carter and Green are two of the most distinctive female leads in the business. Yet the Goth, jokey "darkness" of Burton's style is now beginning to look very familiar; he has built his brand to perfection in the film marketplace, and it is smarter and more distinctive than a lot of what is on offer at the multiplex, but there are no surprises. There are shadows, but they conceal nothing.” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/may/10/dark-shadows-review)

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter



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