Skip to main content

Key Text: Kiss of the Vampire (1963)


Kiss of the Vampire (1963)



Horror genre - Vampire subgenre

British horror film  

Disequilibrium: The bats are used as a symbolic code for vampires and horror. The fact it is biting the woman shows that they are in power and she is trying to escape and protect the man on the floor from their presences. Her stance is a symbolic protective gesture - raising her first to the bats only to be bitten to protect the man beneath her. Hermeneutic code is that we are presented with a clutter of confusing characters archetypes.

Representation of women - sexualisation. Male gaze theory - woman exposing her neck and breasts.

The use of connotive features
- The dark castle is implied as the setting for the film (why would it be included otherwise?) 
- The use of costume 
- Dramatic gestures and expressions connote conflict 

The element of time
- Gothic horror and Romance were popular
- Women portrayed as weak socially


Social meanings


Character archetypes
- Helpless woman, damsel in distress
- Scared male
- Angry woman
- Helpless male, damsel in distress situation - defies conventions

Generic conventions


Audience appeal/pleasures 
- Excitement from being scared


Mise-en-scene
- Long shot 
- Equal males and females in power/weakness
- Bats emerging from dark castle 






Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Henry Jenkins - Fandom & Textual Poaching

FANDOM - HENRY JENKINS  Fandom refers to a particularly organised and motivated audience of a certain media producer franchise Unlike the generic audience or the classic spectator, fans are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings Fans appropriate texts and read them in ways that are not fully intended by the media producers ("textual poaching") Examples of this may manifest in conventions, fan fiction and so on. Rather than just play a videogame or watch a TV show, fans construct their social and cultural identities throguh borrowing and utilising mass culture images, and may use this 'subcultural capital' to form social bonds. For example, through online forums like Reddit and 4chan. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Mainstream Magazine - Woman (23-29 August 1964) - Set text

Mainstream Magazine - Woman (23-29) August 1964 Weekly magazine by IPC, started publishing in 1937, still publishing today. 1960's sold 3  million copies per week in 1960. 80p in modern money, 7p in that day. Cheap - aimed at working class and some middle-class women. Women magazines became very popular post-war selling around 12 million per week. Perhaps this is because women aspired to be stereotypical housewives and go back to how things used to be and conform to traditional? As they sell 1/4 of the 12 million it is a best selling magazine. A market leader. Capitalist. Consumerism. Ad's everywhere, promotes spending. Layout and design:  Font size, type, colour and connotations:   Called "Woman" implies specifically for females and is a broad, inclusive word e.g. lady formal and fancy while girl is child whereas woman is every grown female. Large font in white to stand out but cursive implying sophistication. "Seven star improvements" imp...
Post a Comment
Read more

Key Text: Water Aid: Claudia sings sunshine on a rainy day

Water Aid Advert: Claudia sings sunshine on a rainy day Water Aid context Established in 1981 as a response to the United Nations campaign for clean water, sanitisation, British advert primarily aimed at British people. Set in Zambia. Closeups positions us directly with her. The use of extreme closeups is to make us like or dislike something and here it is used to make us like her. Shot with lots of buckets shows just how much they need - surrounding one fountain. Lots of work needs to be done to get them the water they need. Bright pink flowers vs dull pink shoes. Positive compared to other charity adverts - progress and positivity. They are grateful and joyful for the resources they have been given from Britain. Advert: Preferred - Sympathetic to those in poverty/those in need in Africa. Get them to donate. Dominant - Opposition - Disrespecting African people by stereotyping them as poor and impoverished. Romanticising poverty. Stereotyping black people as ...
Post a Comment
Read more