Essay 2 choose one of the following two films, A or B
Horror Movie Assignment
A) Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is less an adaptation of Stephen King’s bestselling horror novel than a complete reimagining of it from the inside out. In King’s book, the Overlook Hotel is a haunted place that takes possession of its off-season caretaker and provokes him to murderous rage against his wife and young son. Kubrick’s movie is an existential Road Runner cartoon (his steadicam scurrying through the hotel’s labyrinthine hallways), in which the cavernously empty spaces inside the Overlook mirror the emptiness in the soul of the blocked writer, who’s settled in for a long winter’s hibernation. As many have pointed out, King’s protagonist goes mad, but Kubrick’s Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) is Looney Tunes from the moment we meet him–all arching eyebrows and mischievous grin. (Both Nicholson and Shelley Duvall reach new levels of hysteria in their performances, driven to extremes by the director’s fanatical demands for take after take after take.) The Shining is terrifying–but not in the way fans of the novel might expect. When it was redone as a TV miniseries (reportedly because of King’s dissatisfaction with the Kubrick film), the famous topiary-animal attack (which was deemed impossible to film in 1980) was there–but the deeper horror was lost. Kubrick’s The Shining gets under your skin and chills your bones; it stays with you, inhabits you, haunts you. And there’s no place to hide… –Jim Emerson, Amazon.com
synopsis: A married couple with a small son are employed to look after a resort hotel high in the Colorado mountains. As a result they are the sole occupants during the long winter. The hotel manager warns them not to accept the job because of a tragedy that occurred during the winter of 1970. Based on the book by Stephen King.
Assignment: 1) Write an essay explaining why The Shining is an effective horror film. What makes it an outstanding example of that genre?
Here is a link to the full film:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/s5h1yn62j4vt3al/The.Shining.1980.US.1080p.BluRay.H264.AAC-RARBG.mp4?dl=0
Please read this newspaper review from when The Shining film opened.
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/film/060880kubrick-shining.html
This review would be a source.
Horror Movie Assignment
B) Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Terrifying and darkly comic, Rosemary’s Baby marked the Hollywood debut of
Roman Polanski. This wildly entertaining nightmare, faithfully adapted from Ira
Levin’s best seller, stars a revelatory Mia Farrow as a young mother-to-be who
grows increasingly suspicious that her overfriendly elderly neighbors, played
by Sidney Blackmer and an Oscar-winning Ruth Gordon and self-involved
husband (actor and filmmaker John Cassavetes) are hatching a satanic plot
against herand her baby. In the decades of occult cinema Polanski’s ungodly
masterpiecehas spawned, it’s never been outdone for sheer psychological
terror.
Assignment: 1) Write an essay explaining why Rosemary’s Baby is an effective horror film. What makes it an outstanding example of that genre?
Link to the full film https://www.dropbox.com/s/np1p43rl4ddu83h/Rosemary%27s%20Baby%201968.mkv?dl=0
Rosemary’s Baby newspaper review from when the film opened.
https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/rosemary-baby-shockingly-captivating-1968-review-article-1.2251841
This review would be a source.
_________________________________________________________
• Read at least one of these web articles (sources to quote) for some context for whichever film you choose:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/201410/the-top-ten-things-make-horror-movies-scary
https://www.boredpanda.com/horror-movie-cliches/ with films the word “clichés” is often referred to as “tropes.”
https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/best-horror-movies-ever
You need five paragraphs: intro, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Use four transitionals altogether. Use an interesting beginning, starting with a quote, an anecdote, or a question.
• Include a quote from at least one of the above sources.
Please read the above web articles. Now respond to each of these points:
a) Write about how well the film represents horror films, how it
demonstrates or defies the conventions, the stereotypes (also called “ tropes”):
mysterious houses; dark, stormy nights;
odd children, or odd old people; and themes (mental
illness, fear of the dark,
fear of death, Satanism, etc.) that you see demonstrated.
Within your paragraphs, mention the following, blending in what you want to include without the need to devote a whole paragraph to each item:
b) What time of day do most horror scenes occur in, and why do you think that is typical?
c) What kinds of weapons, if any, are typical of horror movies and what kinds of weapons rarely appear? What weapons, if any, were in this film?
d) Is there any connection between religious beliefs and appreciation of horror films? (Some writers feel that there is a connection and that people who are religious tend to like horror films because they are receptive to concepts of spirituality and the afterlife—Heaven and Hell, of the existence of Satan because they accept the existence of God, etc.) Do you agree? Is it relevant to this film?
For your finished essay, use at least three body paragraphs, reasons it qualifies as a horror movie, or not. You may have three reasons for, two reasons for and one against, and so forth.
__________________________________________________________________________________
