500 word film review

Film review/Auetuership – US (2019)  by auteur director Jordan Peele (Spoilers)

Jordan Peele is a well known American actor, comedian, writer, director and producer. ‘Us’ is Jordan Peele’s latest horror/thriller. The film follows the Wilson family, being attacked by their evil doppelganger counterparts called “The Tethered”. Jordan Peele is best known for his previous, extremely successful, multiple award-winning, horror film “Get Out”. “Get Out” won Oscars, Golden Globes, Baftas plus loads more and was labelled one of the most successful horror films of our time. Having already showcased his incredible talent and ability to produce such high quality [horror] films with “Get Out” it set the standards for this film (Us) extremely high. Which I personally don’t think was met and was a little bit disappointed.

I believe ‘Get out’ and ‘Us’ is what established Jordan Peele to be an auteur director. Not just because he makes horror movies but also because he also has his own personal style by casting majority-black casts and incorporating themes of racism throughout. This creates a wonderful deeper meaning to his filmmaking process rather than just making a horror film to scare audiences and partly why he is so succesful.

I believe because of the incredibly high standards Jordan Peele has shown off previously, that it mistakenly leads critics and everyday audiences to watch ‘Us’ assuming it is going to be at the same standard, rather than watching it as a stand-alone film with an unbiased view. I believe that if ‘Us’ was directed by a new, unknown director and not Jordan Peele, audiences would have given it a lot more criticism and it wouldn’t have been nearly as popular or highly-rated.

To talk about the film alone, from an unbiased view, I would say that whilst the first half of the film is continuously scary, intriguing and eerie it was very dialogue-heavy and the pacing is very slow. There is almost no action or build up until an hour into the film. I felt like I was just anticipating for a major event to happen rather than it having any real meaning.

From the outset, we are merely introduced into the Wilson’s family’s life, only looking into their lives and not into any deeper development of the characters themselves as you would normally expect at the beginning of most films. Without this it makes me, as a viewer,  not feel a connection with or to be rooting for the family as much I would expect, especially in a ‘good’ v ‘bad’ storyline. This just made the beginning feel very slow-paced and boring for me.

During the action scenes, the families actions seemed so unbelievably unrealistic, pulling me, as the audience, out of being immersed in the film and thinking how stupid they are being. For example, the dad goes to the boat with a single flare gun as if its somehow going to help anybody out or when the daughter is scared for her life, running past a row of houses doesn’t even call for help or go into any of the houses or when the doppelganger father was able to get in the boat, immediately start it and drive, how does the doppelganger that lived underground his entire life know how to ride a boat or even start immediately without looking or questioning it. Once I had been pulled out of the world of the film and no longer immersed in it, I was realising how laughable the story was. My overall expression during the horror film was confused rather than scared.

I was disappointed in the second half as felt the film was leading up to a major event but instead was left with so many plot holes and ambiguity that you don’t get any satisfaction or conclusion. And with a twist, you could’ve almost predicted before watching the film made me realise that this isn’t a very scary movie and makes you not want to watch it again as it would be boring watching it knowing the twist whereas. I normally find watching movies again, once I find out the twist, really interesting. Some movies are even are more interesting watching it the second time knowing the twist. But in my opinion, the twist that (spoilers) the mum – Adeline was actually the doppelganger all along, doesn’t actually change anything. It doesn’t make anything scarier or more interesting, so that was a bit of a letdown, especially as the whole movie had been leading up to it.

Of course, when we watch films. we watch them with a pinch of salt, allowing and ignoring the unrealistic technicalities of what makes them unrealistic (i.e. unjustified passing of time/change of locations/plot holes/major coincidences etc.) because we know the film is for entertainment and not to convey real life. However, in “Us” the plot holes and confusion for the viewer are far too large and far too unrealistic to even overlook.  Whilst some ambiguity is normally great and even recommended in most cases, this film leaves so much ambiguity by the end that it is almost laughable.

In terms of the specific plot holes, the most obvious ones being the illogical almost ridiculous idea that there is one doppelganger for every person in the world and they live underground without anyone knowing about them.

They mentioned tunnels as if there’s enough tunnel space to for 300 million doppelgangers underground. Even if there was, who made all these tunnels? and without anyone from the real world noticing? Plus obvious things like how do they eat? get water? where do they sleep? or go to the toilet? where do they get the exact same clothes as their counterpart wears every day? They are seen wearing the exact same clothing as the real-life counterparts like a Micheal Jackson thriller top – where does a doppelganger get this t-shirt? and the same hair clips? and hairstyle? How do they even know what their counterpart is doing or what they look like?  It is just not possible if they’re living underground their whole life. How do they keep the same bodyweight as their counterparts? even things like when do they shave? or cut their hair to always look exactly like their counterpart? How did they come up with this plan to take over the real world when they can’t even physically talk or communicate with each other?, even if they could talk to each other, how would they let every single one of the 300 million doppelgangers know about this plan?  all of this with no one in charge of them?. Where did they get 300 million red uniform jumpsuits from? and 300 million of the iconic scissors from? and a right-handed leather glove each? Where did the doppelgangers even come from? Who looks after the baby doppelgangers? Do they reproduce and give birth in these tunnels?  How did they get up to the normal world? Is there millions of hatches on the ground to get from the underground tunnels to the real world? if so surely they would have been seen coming to and from these hatches?  In the flashback scene of the doppelganger Adeline Wilson kidnapping the real version of herself,  how did she take her to the tethered tunnels?  Was this through an underground door/hatch? if so, no-one at the carnival saw her dragging a body down a hatch underground? and even so, the carnival is on the beach, so this is then suggesting the underground tunnels are also under the ocean too? and this entire kidnapping scene happening in the time the dad plays a single game of whack-a-mole at the carnival without noticing his daughter has disappeared, been kidnapped and replaced again?

The rabbits underground suggest their only food source is these rabbits, which means someone must be there to kill (or even cook) the rabbits? which means they’re not doing exactly what their real-life counterpart is doing? even so, where do the rabbits come from, enough rabbits to feed 300 million people every day?  Who is feeding the rabbits? or breeding them? or looking after them? and with all that said, even if their only food source was rabbit,  that would easily, quickly lead to malnutrition!

And then ‘The tethered’ also mention they have been around for Generations which means pre-1900’s, this brings even more questions. Where do the dead bodies of ‘the tethered’ go when they die, or do they die? if the do die, do they die of the same cause their counterpart dies of? if so, how is that possible? i.e. if they’re counterpart got run over, what do they die of?

I am not saying it is a bad film, from a filmmaking perspective; Jordan Peele has delivered a well-directed, well shot (for the most part) and well ???? film and the performance of all the actors especially “Lupita Nyong'”  has to be acknowledged as oscar-worthy. Acting as both the doppelganger and her real self. And even though it is a very non-scary horror film, it at least does not rely entirely on Jumpscares or dramatically gory scenes to try and scare the audience which typical horror movies do.

Many people try and find a deep meaning within the chaos of this film but it is pointless because you can find a deep meaning in literally anything if you try to and doesn’t mean anything.

In short, the film is a Jordan Peele original, it has some great acting, it is thought-provoking and admittedly creates huge discussion afterwards (even if its due to confusion, but each viewers interpretation is different, which is extremely interesting and one of my favourite things about films). I would recommend watching  ‘Us’ to anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, the impressive acting performances alone is worth watching but at the same time, if you don’t want to waste 2 hours of your life, i would say that the 2-minute trailer is almost better than the film itself and saves you 2 hours of your life.

 

500 words on genre

500 words on horror films genre –

The horror genre are films intended to scare and shock audiences. Horror movies are constantly competing with one another to always be scarier than the last.  Horror is mostly associated with the dark themes such as blood, ghosts, death, nightmares, the dark, physiological fears and the unknown, jump scares, gory scenes etc. The horror genre crosses over with almost every other film genre, even comedy. (See below image) There are so many sub-genres of horror films and cross-over genres like: Gothic Horror (surrounding death), paranormal horror (ghosts, supernatural events), dark fantasy horror, survival horror, science fiction horror, comedy horror, physiological horror (fear), true crime horror and much more. The horror genre most commonly crosses over with science-fiction; sciene fiction is supernatural/speculative fiction. This Is when horror movies revolve around aliens, monsters, witches and the supernatural etc. Horror films are usually expressed through visual cues and dramatic sounds i.e. very dark night-time settings, the unknown, creepy sound effects, suspenseful silence, loud jump-scare sounds, witchcraft, monsters etc are all common traits of horror films.

5]

I personally view the horror genre in 2 ways, real life horror and supernatural horror i.e. Ghosts, monsters, zombies, witches, aliens etc. The earliest horror films being Dracula (1931)  and Frankenstein (1931) which are ‘fictional horrors’ as they are just based on stories rather than real life. However, I personally feel more scared watching a non-fiction film, where I can relate to the film more and therefore get more scared for example, real life people on earth, graveyards, night time, the woods, abandoned houses, crime stories with real criminals, i.e. murders, kidnappings, mysterious stories, real life objects such as chainsaws, or knives et. I find these more scary as I relate to these things and come across them in everyday life settings.

 

For example, the film ‘Blair witch project’ is set in the woods, woods are a part of everyday life that shouldn’t be scary, during the day even peaceful and calm and beautiful part of nature but because of horror films and stories like The Blair Witch Project, it has made going in woods, especially at night time a truly horrifying experience now.

‘The Blair Witch Project’ which is technically a documentary of ‘found footage’ following of a group of teenage filmmakers with camcorders filming themselves and each other talking to the camera whilst they are camping in the woods, but the as it gets dark and night-time it becomes very scary and scary things begin to occur. For me, it is so scary because it seems so real, there was no alien coming out of the woods or someone dressed in a witch costume.

This was also released pre-internet, pre-YouTube, pre-snapchat, pre-Instagram, pre-selfies, therefore this was a very new style of filmmaking that the audience hadn’t seen before (1999). There was no music, no jump scares, no script, no special effects, no crew, no lighting, no camera equipment (other than their own camcorders). That’s why it worked so well at scaring the audience so much as it felt so real. To make it scarier and feel more real, the film crew produced fake missing person posters, TV news clips, police reports and handed out the missing person posters of the teenagers before the films premier so audience would recognise the teenagers in the film and think they have actually gone missing.

[3]

 

[1] – https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-horror-fiction#quiz-0

[2] – https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/joshbillinson/blair-witch-project-halloween-horror-movie

[3] – https://www.eonline.com/uk/news/1056159/20-haunting-facts-about-the-blair-witch-project-hungry-actors-nauseous-audiences-and-the-scariest-sticks-and-stones-ever

[4] – https://www.britannica.com/art/horror-film

[5] – https://popcornhorror.com/genres/

1st Page of Screenplay

 

Screenplay – Student Poker Night (non-dialogue) Page1 

 

INT BRITISH STREET – NIGHT 

 

STUDENT 1  

Pushing along pavement on scooter, close up of foot pushing, pan up, showing the overflowing bins and student car. 

As he arrives at the destination, camera pans up to him taking his helmet off, putting on a poker night hat and glasses, carrying his helmet and scooter, walks up to front door with one piece of A4 paper “Poker night” badly stuck to door with masking tape  

(Rings doorbell) 

STUDENT 2  

opens door, wearing badly done bowtie and gestures for student 1 to come into the house 

STUDENT 1 

enters the house and takes off his shoes, camera pans down to 5 pairs of dirty air forces 

STUDENT 1 and 2  

walk into the living room, shot from behind 3 lads sitting around a poker table.  

STUDENT 1  

nods his head as if to say yeh this is so cool. And takes a seat. 

(Living room – 2 boys sitting on an ironing board as a chair, odd chairs, Dart board, beer cans, ashtrays, typical dirty student house, quite empty yet messy and dirty) 

STUDENT 3  

sitting at the end of the table, Puts brief case on table seriously, unlocks it tensely, opens it up, camera look into the briefcase, a kids poker set ‘for juniors’  

 

CUT TO: 

KITCHEN 

STUDENT 4  

pours apple juice into a whiskey glass tops up with a bit of water, grabs bottle of whiskey and walks into the living room taking a sip of the juice as if he is drinking whiskey.  

As he walks out of kitchen, notice on kitchen door is a picture of Theresa may with a cut out of his head and a moustache drawn on it.  

STUDENT 5  

shot of his face looking tense as the cards are being death, reaches down beside him, cut to shot of besides his chair and he reaches into a bag of Percy pigs, rules about and eats 2 Percy pigs. 

STUDENT 1  

rings the bell in the middle of the table, they all look at their cards, close up of their faces, very tense and confused.  

Suddenly noise from outside – binman looking into the window watching them, long take of bin man just looking into the window 

Shot of all the boys looking at the man confused and then at each other confused 

Shot back to the man not fused carrying on looking then casually slowly walking away again 

Shot to the boys looking at each other strangely again 

Carry on with the game 

BlogTask4 – 1 minute film

1-minute film on film::

Youtube—-  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jBYZA7KDiw

 

 

I made my 1 minute “film on film” about a couple of friends going out in Brighton with our cameras, we went out during sunset to get some footage of the sea and the boats in the marina and then went to Brighton pier to get nighttime neon light shots of the pier. My goal was to get the scenic background behind them with their cameras so it fits the criteria of film on film, whilst also getting some good footage whilst we were out. We also took photographs on our cameras and polaroids which i would like to include in another edit

Lesson 1 Glossary

Lesson 1 Glossary

Action – What happens in the film. The catalyst for the films plot to develop.

Mise – en – scene – everything you see in the shot from costumes, to prop placement to the background, the actors etc.

Continuity – Edit that creates continual story and makes logical sense.

Shot reverse shot – usually when 2 characters are talking to each other, shot of actor1 then cut to actor2 either talking or their reaction.

Eye-line match – cutting from someone looking at something to whatever they are looking at. i.e. A  man catcalling on the street, cut to the woman walking past. or Someone calling their dog and cut to their dog running back towards them.

Cross-cutting – cutting between two separate shots.

Pan – camera in the same fixed position but moving from left to right or up to down or vis versa. The camera isn’t moving the angle of the camera is moving.

Tracking shot – This is when the camera angle is the same but the camera is moving. (any direction) usually following a person i.e when they are walking.

Montage edit – this is done in post-production, editing sequences of shots normally quite fast-paced and normally shows the passage of time. Being able to show a lot of information in a very short period of time.

You could make a montage of someone’s life in chronological order from birth to death in a 2-minute montage. or a montage of a girl trying on 20 different outfits in a changing room in a one-minute montage.

Rhymtic – Cutting to a pace i.e. music.

Tonal – similar images different location e.g. water, tap then the ocean. Images correspond to each other/ link.

Intellectual – the contrast between shots to create a meaning

Diegetic sound – Sound in which both the audience and the on-screen characters can hear. Sounds from within the film. I.e. Footsteps, cars going past, if the characters turn on the radio etc.

Non – diegetic sound – Only the audience hears, not in the world of the characters, the characters on screen cannot hear it. This is usually a musical score.

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