WEEK 10 - Cult Films

WEEK 10 - Cult Films (Trick or Treat)

Cult films are very complicated, not in the fact that the films themselves are complicated, in the fact that if you ask someone what a cult film is, their is never an exact answer, some people will argue that a cult film would be cheesy and humorous to people, but others may argue that a cult film has a small selective audience and some people may say they have an audience that interact with the film, a few examples of this would be "High School Musical" which contains some cheese and a huge audience of people who may walk around wearing the merchandise and singing the songs, "Piranha" completely cheesy and has a selective audience of people who enjoy watching cheese, and "Trick or Treat" a film from 1986 which has a small audience, this i know due to the fact that not many people i have asked know what it is let alone have seen it.

The Horror genre itself is classed as 'Cult' simply because of the fact that not many people watch horror films unless it's a hugely advertised one for example "Paranormnal Activity" had a massive advertisment and was also claimed to be a "true story", but the film however, other than it being under the 'Horror' genre and based around holloween night like most obvious horror films such as "Halloween", "Hocus Pocus" (childrens horror), "Night of the Demons" and "The Crow"
(you can find more films on this link)
http://voices.yahoo.com/13-movies-set-during-halloween--6573034.html

has other aspects of being a cult film, like the small audience, some of the scenes like one certain scene in the film where Lisa Orgolini  is listening to music (follow the link, couldnt get the full thing).

here is a trailer to Trick or Treat:

The audience have their share of favourate quotes from this film which you can you can see some of if you follow this link:

http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0221766/

this is one of the many types of fan interaction with the film (which is also one part of what a cult film is described to be). After watching and liking the film, you may also find yourself in love with Sammi Curr's character of a dead metal hero who not only makes great music, but also turns out to be an evil, demon loving, devil worshipping selfish guy, yet their's still something about him that the audience connect with and instantly love causing that small audience who are in love with the whole idea of the film, to want  to watch it over and over again, and want to listen to the music just as much.

In conclusion, my opinion on what makes a cult film is generally films that are redeemed less popular to people and have a selective (small) audience, like the film i have chosen to write about here, although despite the many different things that people argue about a cult film, like the fan interaction, the cheese, the small audience, etc. i agree with them all but my personal opinion is to agree with the small audience aspect the most. One could even argue that the deffinition of cult and mainstream films in a way is extremly similar to alternatative and mainstream things/people/styles in the fact that it's always changing and rediffining itself so that the meaning of it is completly different to what is was a year ago maybe?

WEEK 9 - The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec

WEEK 9 - The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec

A number of critics have suggested that while Adele Blanc-Sec is 'a gorgeous folly' and 'a tasty trifle', it is 'altogether without point'. I think that these critisisms are not very legitimate because they arn't very precise and are only focusing on the fact that the narrative is weak compared to most films. I think the critics need to focus more on the entertainment and unique side of the film, for example, the film comes accross as a good childrens comedy considering it isn't to complicated and has a simple humour aspect, so in that area, the fact that the film doesn't have a strong narative is perfect for entertaining children.

Escapism is a very common thing in films nowdays, some films give escapism at their full and others not at all, on a scale of 1 to 10 i reckon that films should be on a scale of 5 for escapism, offering both the needs of escaping from whatever stress your day to day life may throw at you, yet still keeping you in reality and making it more real at the same time. If it is an educational film, i think that it shouldn't offer any form of escapism and and just focus on the reality of the subject that it is focusing on.

The types of films i generally enjoy are Horrors and Comedys, these films usually have a narrative to them but sometimes it may pay more attention to the parts of the films like, who's gonna die or if it's a comedy, what humorous thing is going to be brought up next. When they do this it can sometimes make the film more entertaining than it would if the narrative was the highlight of the film.