Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In Society

Our film opening shows two teenage girls taking a short cut through the woods; children and young children often go missing and are often found dead or never found at all. One of the girls senses that something isn't right and that they don't think they should be there, this helps to heighten the tension. Our thriller emphasises the dangers of being unsupervised, going to unknown/known dangerous places and showing how vulnerable teenagers can be.

Actresses

Both of the girls in the opening are of teenage age and the possessed girl is also of teenage age but is portrayed as being younger. Our opening is aimed at teenagers aged 15-18.

Music

Our opening does not include any age specific music. We decided to use generic copyright free horror music in order to heighten tension when needed.

Speech

The girls in our film speak clearly and both very similarly. This shows that the girls have been brought up in a similar environment and live in the same place. They also do not have any particular accent which means it is easier for teenagers of all backgrounds to understand them and relate to them.

Clothing

Both girls wear typical 90s style of clothing to help relate to the time that the film is set. Gemma is wearing a flowery, girly dress which suggests that she is the one out of the two that is scared and worried about going into the woods. However, this is juxtaposed as Rachel is the one who is worried but is wearing jeans and a greenish jumper. They are both wearing Doc Marten style boots which suggests that they are following trends and do like to be similar in some aspects. The possessed girl is wearing a dirty white t-shirt/nightie and wellington boots which suggest that she ran away from home during the night.

Behaviour

The two girls in the opening act as 'normal' teenagers with Gemma having a sense of adventure and wanting to take risks. Rachel is shown as being the inferior one of the two as she goes along with what Gemma is saying but really she disagrees with it. 

Comparison to other films

In the opening scene for American Horror Story: Murder House two young teen/tween boys (Troy and Bryan) are shown entering a house that is allegedly haunted. This scene is also a flashback like our opening and once one of the boys becomes in danger the behaviour of the other changes dramatically. Again like ours, the way that they are killed is not shown however, more blood and gore is shown in American Horror Story.