I am doing my film critique on “The Exorcist” which was directed by: William Friedkin. This movie is about a 12-year old girl Ragen, who all of a sudden starts acting really weird. Not only did she start changing they way she acts, but she even started changing the way she looked. It was just like evil things were happening to her. Over time she starts losing control and becoming violent against other people, its like she loses her temper. Ragen’s mother start worrying, and contacts a priest to help her. The main characters are Ragen, Father Dyer, Father Merrin, Sharon, and the Psychiatrist. In this movie the director evokes horror in many ways, first of all the theme is terrifing, I think everyone can feel fear from the thought of the devil possesing your body. Second the effect and acting were super well done, and the way the people act after gettign possesed was extremely terrifing. He also uses creepy music and scary shots. Like open space, slow pans, and shots from behind the person making you believe something else is in the shot. I think its scary that its based on true story, and that exorcism are real. Not only that but I think any religious person could have a problem with this movie, and get really creeped out. I think personally the scaries part to watch was the part with the spinal tap in the hospital. This movie is not only scary becasue of the severe and scary scenes and acting, but the whole part that it exorcisms exist. I think that is what really scares people. Its a disturbing thought and if you believe in the devil this movie could really freak you out. I honestly dont think I would change this anything, this movie was so well made and acted it made it seem almost plausible. I was definalty horrifed and had nightmares for a long time so the director did a fantaztic job at making his audience feel scared.
I am doing my film critique on “The Exorcist” which was directed by: William Friedkin. This movie is about a 12-year old girl Ragen, who all of a sudden starts acting really weird. Not only did she start changing they way she acts, but she even started changing the way she looked. It was just like evil things were happening to her. Over time she starts losing control and becoming violent against other people, its like she loses her temper. Ragen’s mother start worrying, and contacts a priest to help her. The main characters are Ragen, Father Dyer, Father Merrin, Sharon, and the Psychiatrist. In this movie the director evokes horror in many ways, first of all the theme is terrifing, I think everyone can feel fear from the thought of the devil possesing your body. Second the effect and acting were super well done, and the way the people act after gettign possesed was extremely terrifing. He also uses creepy music and scary shots. Like open space, slow pans, and shots from behind the person making you believe something else is in the shot. I think its scary that its based on true story, and that exorcism are real. Not only that but I think any religious person could have a problem with this movie, and get really creeped out. I think personally the scaries part to watch was the part with the spinal tap in the hospital. This movie is not only scary becasue of the severe and scary scenes and acting, but the whole part that it exorcisms exist. I think that is what really scares people. Its a disturbing thought and if you believe in the devil this movie could really freak you out. I honestly dont think I would change this anything, this movie was so well made and acted it made it seem almost plausible. I was definalty horrifed and had nightmares for a long time so the director did a fantaztic job at making his audience feel scared.
Act 1: The detective works on the "ex-doctor" case. A German guy gets a arrested and has a nose bleed. Later that day he is found dead in a puddle of blood. Blood came from his eyes, nose, and mouth. The detective went to crime scene and found a dead German girl in a tub. Her eyes, nose, and mouth also bled. He met an anthropologist at the crime scene. The anthropologist looks under the tub and finds a camera that reveals some useful information of what had happen.
Act 2: The detective and the anthropologist discover the website/web cast "Feardotcom.com". They also realized whoever views it dies two days later from their fear. The detective and anthropologist start a fling between them. The detective views the website and realizes where the "ex-doctor" is. Later on the anthropologist views the website and then goes to catch the "ex-doctor".
Act 3: They find the "ex-doctor" and stop him from murdering his victim. The detective killed the "ex-doctor" by showing him his website.
2. Main Characters: Detective and Anthropologist , Detective: (male) tall, brown hair, muscular, flirtatious with the anthropologist, daring, curious, determined , Anthropologist:(female), very long dirty blonde hair, very curious, flirtatious with the detective, tall, intelligent
3. lighting- use of shadows, dark room with only a few things lighted.. Angles/Shots: zoom in on the character's reactions, quick shots of two different actions but somehow connnected Ex: Detective at the station, girl freaking out in her house, house looks like a hurricane went through, she's writing numbers on the floors and walls, detective on his way to her house. (back n' forth shots)
4. Serial Killer is an ex-doctor who now tortures women. Concept/Storyline: anyone who views the website dies two days later from their greatest fear. Symptoms: bleeding from the eyes, nose, and mouth. Ex: a businessman is afraid of car crashed, his views the website, later on he starts to see a a little girl with a white ball and his nose starts to bleed. After the two days, the businessman dies in a car accident.
5. I would probably clarify teh two conflicts, it seemed almost like it was one movie but with two plots/conflicts, it kinda showed they were connected but you don't realize it until near the end of the movie. I would just simplify the connections a little bit.
CHARLIE BROWN
1. Describe the general plot of the film—a breakdown of what happens in Act One, Two, Three. Don’t forget to include the title and director!!
In the film “Shaun of the Dead” (Directed by Edgar Wright), a British man working a mediocre job is forced to save his loved ones during a zombie crisis. It’s a parody on all zombie films preceding it, namely “Dawn of the Dead”.
In act one, we meet Shaun and his two roommates. His best friend is a slacker who can’t pick up after himself and their other roommate wants to evict him. At the end of a day, it is revealed that the stern roommate (Pete) has been bitten by a mugger.
Act two begins the next day when Shaun and his best friend (Ed) are confronted by zombies, including Pete. They decide to go to the local bar, but must first pick up Shaun’s mother and girlfriend. The rest of the act details the group trying to survive. The climax occurs when Shaun and his girlfriend are just about to escape the scene for good, but must leave Ed behind, who has been bitten.
In the final act, Shaun and his girlfriend stay together, and the outbreak becomes successfully contained. Ed, who is a zombie, lives in Shaun’s shed secretly and they play video games together daily.
2. Describe the main characters.
Shaun is a lazy, but nice, middle class Englishman working a lousy job and not really enjoying life.
Ed is a slacker/marijuana dealer for a living who plays video games all day and contributes little to no money monthly for the rent.
Liz (Shaun’s girlfriend) is also relatively poor and is growing tired of Shaun’s lazy antics.
2. Describe how the director evokes horror-visually (camera moves/angles, lighting, etc) Give a specific example from the film.
More thought was put into the comedy aspect of this film rather than horror, but the director used some classic horror techniques to sharpen the horror edge of the film. Like in the scene where we find out Pete is a zombie. Shaun is going through the medicine cabinet, and when he closes it, we can see zombified Pete in the mirror. Classic.
3. Describe how the director evokes horror-conceptually (storyline, characters, conflict, etc) Give a specific example from the film.
Conceptually, the film is as expected. A zombie movie. Nothing really stood out in the story of the film that relates to horror. Zombies are taking over suburban England. That’s the extent of the conceptual horror aspect.
5. If you were directing this movie, what would you have done differently? Why?
The only thing that irked me was the direction given to Simon Pegg (Shaun) in the scene where his mother is turning into a zombie. It’s too long and dramatic for a comedy, and I could only think “Get on with it” while it was happening.
1) Resident Evil, Directed by Paul Anderson.
Act 1: A women named Alice, wakes up in a mansion with total amnesia. No sooner than she wakes up, the the house is stormed by troopers who force her down a secret elevator into a facility known as The Hive, which is owned by the Umbrella Corp., along with another one of her Co-workers, named Matt, that she remembers, and who also has amnesia. The Troopers' job is to disable the facility and report back what happened to HQ. They reach the mother computer and turn it back on.
Act 2: The group comes across a survivor but she attacks them… After firing several rounds the "survivor" is not dead and more start pouring into the room. They group attempts to escape the zombies and make it back to the surface. Along the way Alice and Matt begin remembering what happened at the facility. It is also revealed that the zombies were created by a virus known as the T-Virus, which was somehow released into the vents of the facility before lock down.
Act 3: Matt remembers that he is the one who tried to steal the virus and also who released it in the facility. After remembering that, Matt abandons the group heading for the train, which is the only way out. However he is ambushed by a mutated creatures and is killed. Meanwhile Alice struggles with the remaining survivors to escape the facility. After a narrow escape of the facility, Alice is then captured by more Umbrella officials. She then wakes up on an operating table with no one around. As she wakes out of the building a newspaper flies by with the headlines "The Dead Walk", she then grabs a shotgun and the movie ends.
2) Alice, until she remembers whats going on, is sort of a damsel in distress… It is up to the marines to do all the fighting. Matt, is self-centered and greedy. He cares nothing for the other group members and only looks out for himself.
3) The main thing that is scary about this film is the feeling of hopelessness… Such as numerous occasions when the team is surrounding by the hungry walking dead.
4) It seemed to me that the Zombies always knew where the team was… For example the teams goes through the sewers to avoid the zombies crawling in the hallways… But what'a ya know… As soon as they are in a one way hallway… zombies start pouring in from all directions. If I were directing this… I would have changed that.
1.The film Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood, is an eerily haunting story about Christine Collins battle with the LAPD to recover her kidnapped son. The police returned a boy that is not her own, and the movie delves into a gruesome story of what really happened to unfortunate Walter Collins
2. Christine Collins : The protagonist. She is a single mother living in Los Angeles. Her son Walter is kidnapped and the plot of the movie is her frantically searching for him. She is persistent, held together, and very strong. In many cases she is horribly brutalized by the police and these experiences only make her grow as a character.
Captain JJ Jones: He is the police man who oversees the Collins case. He is shady, and self centered, and also is very dangerous if one goes against him. In the beginning of the film he is a protagonist, but as it progresses his role very clearly morphs into an antagonist force working against Christine Collins.
Gordon Northcott: He is the antagonist in this film. This man is sadistic and twisted. He kidnaps children, keeps then in a chicken coop and then brutally murders them. This character is terryifying and completely evil.
3. Clint Eastwood used camera angles very affectively in this film. In the horror scenes he shot from the perspective of the trapped children, stuck in a chicken coupe. He also used a shot of the bloody axe swinging down into the camera, but made it not stereotypically horror, instead it is just sickening.
4. The storyline itself is rather horrific, honestly it is a worst nightmare situation. A kidnapped child is taken and brutally murdered, while the police all along are insisting that another random child is in fact that missing boy.
5. If I were directing this then I think I would have spent more time on Walter himself, so that the viewer feels more of an emotional connection to him when he disappears.
