Comparative Critical analysis
The two films I chose
to compare and contrast is the Poltergeist and Sinister 2. The reason why I
chose to compare and contrast these specific films is because they clearly show
the developments of the Horror genre as well as the film industry as a whole
and they are both similar but at the same time differing to one another.
Firstly, the
representation of women has changed to certain extent. For example, in the 2015
film of Sinister 2 the female character, Courtney Collins is the lead female,
however she is the only female in the narrative. This shown in the significant
screen time that grows, changes and ensembles in any adventures faced which
clearly shows her significance in helping everyone eradicate Bughuul. This
contradicts to the representation of women shown in Poltergeist whereby the mother‘s
only source of power is when something is going to happen/or is happening to
her child and generally when it is given to her. This is shown through the
middle shot of the Diane Freeling is standing behind Steve Freeling with his
finger stopping Diane from saying anything whereby she speaks when he stops
thus showing his dominance and the extent of the ‘male gaze’(Mulvey) in showing
the gender hierarchy. Both of these films fall into the trap of hindering
women’s authority and indeed does show women to be ‘takers of shit’ as the
whole film industry works in a neoliberal approach thus we must go against the
system by to “encourage audiences to critique
the seemingly transparent images on the screen and to question the manipulative
techniques of filming and editing”.
Secondly, the narrative
of the Poltergeist is a family’s home is haunted by a host of ghosts whereby
they try to devour one of the children, Carol Anne. This is shown when she is
the only one that knows when they come by stating “They are here” near the TV
as well as saying “TV people” so casually and innocently. This is important
because the narrative is built on the “increasing disbelief in the idea of
innocence” (Christopher Sharrett), soon to be deceiving audiences and resulting
in complete opposite ‘truth-claim’. This narrative is very similar to Sinister
2 whereby a young mother and her two twin sons move into a rural house that’s
marked for death which the evil spirit, Bughuul wants to keep children for his
own purpose and wants to devour what makes them potentially children, their
innocence. Dylan, one of the twin brothers, is represented as “somewhat like
you and even act a bit like you and eventually, they come to replace you” (David
Leslie Johnson, screenwriter of the film, Orphan). Both of these characters
give the impression that they are the victim but in factor perhaps the title of
these films are a cinematic taboo through the little girl being the ‘poltergeist’
and Dylan causing ‘sinister’ to occur in the house. The effect Horror films
like this has on the film industry is that Horror films are ranked 7th
out of all the most popular genres with having a share of only 4.55% compared
to the 22% share Adventure films have shown the ‘moral panic’ Horror films have
on a clearly ‘passive’ audience. This is shown through the multiple child
killings that occur especially the abduction, torture and murder of James
Bulger by two ten-year boys clearly shows there is a growing ‘disbelief of the
idea of innocence’. This may explain why Horror films don’t dominate the box
office as much as other genres.
Thirdly, the setting of
the Poltergeist is set in the suburbia which worked to undermine the “white
flight” sense that “nothing could hurt you in suburbia”. When the trailer ends
with “Now… Steven Spielberg crosses a frightening minstrel… a world within our
own… its form is revealed… its focus is clear… and the games are over”. This
clearly makes us wonder what is going to happen as well as causing ‘moral
panic’ because this could possibly to any of us as they are a normal, happy
family shown through the cheery sister telling her brother with “You are so
nuts” whilst smiling. This film clearly follows Todorov’s narrative theory
where there is equilibrium at the start of the trailer but the narrator
foreshadows there will be a disruption by stating ‘… the one next to that... A
young couple live in it… with their 3 children…. And something more” with a
non-diegetic sinister music in the background when he says “and something
more”. Whereas, the setting of Sinister
2 is set in a farm house which already foreshadows what will happen. But, the
difference between the Poltergeist and Sinister 2 is that the setting isn’t
necessarily the most vital component of what makes the film scary which
compares to the importance of the setting in the Poltergeist. Therefore, it
could be argued that Sinister 2 makes the audience more active and they will
‘take on additional more active ideological dimensions’ (Stuart Hall, 1980) by
possibly learning how to eradicate evil through learning how to do so.
Therefore, Sinister 2 is for the audience “exhibiting varying kinds and degrees
of activity” whereas the Poltergeist is used to “believe social reality
portrayed on television”.
In conclusion, it could
be said the reason why these films are differed to an extent is due to the
Poltergeist being produced by the Metro Goldwyn Mayer as compared to Sinister 2
being produced by Alliance Films and Blumhouse Films. But they are so similar
through the female characters do not have “the slightest importance (Erens,
1990) even though it could be argued that Sinister 2 is better than the
Poltergeist through its female representation because the mother has more
screen time than the mother in the Poltergeist. The Poltergeist seems to cause
more of a ‘moral panic’ than Sinister 2 as it was set in the suburbia whereas
Sinister 2 was set in a farm house. The idea of movies set in the suburbia was
in the 80’s therefore the audience wouldn’t know what to expect. The whole
set-up of the Poltergeist allowed the audience to be more ‘passive’ than the
Sinister 2 which allowed them to have twice as much profit as them with the
Poltergeist having 121.7 million in the US compared to Sinister 2 having 52.9
million in the US. Therefore, this essay clearly shows how such theories have
such a great effect on the film industry having a more saturated audience and
if they aren’t used effectively like Sinister 2 they can have a negative
effect.
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