Slasher films

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Σωτήριος Πετρίδης

Keyword(s):

Αυτή η διατριβή διατυπώνει ένα θεωρητικό πλαίσιο που αποτελεί τη βάση μιας στοχοποιημένης αφηγηματικής ανάλυσης των ταινιών slasher. Έχοντας ως βάση μια σημασιολογική και συντακτική προσέγγιση, η διατριβή διαχωρίζει και ταυτοποιεί τα τέσσερα βασικά σημασιολογικά στοιχεία αυτών των αφηγήσεων που υπάρχουν καθόλη τη διάρκεια της ύπαρξης του υποείδους (Κανονικότητα, Άλλος, Τελικός Επιζώντας και Θύματα), ενώ γίνεται και μια μελέτη των αλλαγών του συντακτικού των αφηγήσεων, που βασίζονται σε τρεις κύριες κατηγορίες (η προϊστορία του Άλλου, η σύνδεση του Άλλου και του Τελικού Επιζώντα και η σχέση της Κανονικότητας με τα υπόλοιπα τρία σημασιολογικά στοιχεία). Μέσω αυτής της ανάλυσης, η διατριβή αποδεικνύει ότι το υποείδος έχει εξελιχθεί σημαντικά και μπορεί να χωριστεί σε τρεις κύκλους ταινιών: τον κλασσικό (1974-1993), τον αυτοαναφορικό (1994-2000) και τον neoslasher κύκλο (2000-2013). Η έρευνα αυτή βασίζεται σε ένα σώμα ταινιών από ολόκληρη τη διάρκεια ζωής του υποείδους. Το ερευνητικό δείγμα αποτελείται από τις ταινίες που κατάφεραν να μπουν στις πρώτες 100 θέσεις του ετήσιου box office των ΗΠΑ μεταξύ 1974 και 2016.

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Some ‘R’ points: Repression, repulsion, revelation and redemption in South Korean horror films

Horror Studies ◽

10.1386/host_00020_1 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 221-242

Author(s):

David Scott Diffrient

Keyword(s):

Horror Films ◽

Military Dictatorship ◽

Cultural Attitudes ◽

South Korean ◽

Box Office ◽

The Social ◽

Park Chung Hee ◽

Productive Function ◽

Formal Properties ◽

Slasher Films

This article examines some of the formal properties, stylistic motifs and thematic preoccupations of classic and contemporary South Korean horror films. As a genre that has enormous box-office appeal and crossover potential for western audiences, horror might seem to be little more than a commercial platform for young filmmakers to exploit popular tastes and cash in on derivative stories offering scant insight into the social conditions faced by modern-day Koreans. However, even the most cliché-ridden, shock-filled slasher films and ghost tales reveal the often-contradictory cultural attitudes of a populace that, over the past three generations, has weathered literally divisive transformations at the national and ideological levels. As such, the genre deserves scrutiny as a repository of previously pent-up, suddenly unleashed libidinal energies, consumerist desires and historical traumas, as well as a barometer of public opinion about such issues as class warfare, gender inequality and sexual identity. Specifically, I explore some of the most salient features of Korean horror cinema, including filmmakers’ tendency to adopt narrative analepsis – typically rendered as flashbacks – in the course of plotting out scenarios that, though far-fetched, are rooted in unsettled (and unsettling) real-world problems. Historical return, I argue, truly is a horrifying prospect, especially for anyone old enough to remember, or to have experienced firsthand, the brutality of a military dictatorship or an ongoing abuse of presidential power resulting in severe rights violations (e.g. the Park Chung-hee [1961–79]) and Chun Doo-hwan [1980–88] administrations). But historical return simply must be dramatized as part of the regurgitative ‘purging’ for which the genre has been singled out by theorists who recognize horror’s socially productive function.

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Forecasting US movies box office performances in Turkey using machine learning algorithms

Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems ◽

10.3233/jifs-189120 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 39 (5) ◽

pp. 6579-6590

Author(s):

Sandy Çağlıyor ◽

Başar Öztayşi ◽

Selime Sezgin

Keyword(s):

Machine Learning ◽

Global Economy ◽

Learning Algorithms ◽

Forecast Model ◽

Machine Learning Algorithms ◽

Gradient Boosting ◽

High Stakes ◽

Box Office ◽

Industry Forecast ◽

The Impact

The motion picture industry is one of the largest industries worldwide and has significant importance in the global economy. Considering the high stakes and high risks in the industry, forecast models and decision support systems are gaining importance. Several attempts have been made to estimate the theatrical performance of a movie before or at the early stages of its release. Nevertheless, these models are mostly used for predicting domestic performances and the industry still struggles to predict box office performances in overseas markets. In this study, the aim is to design a forecast model using different machine learning algorithms to estimate the theatrical success of US movies in Turkey. From various sources, a dataset of 1559 movies is constructed. Firstly, independent variables are grouped as pre-release, distributor type, and international distribution based on their characteristic. The number of attendances is discretized into three classes. Four popular machine learning algorithms, artificial neural networks, decision tree regression and gradient boosting tree and random forest are employed, and the impact of each group is observed by compared by the performance models. Then the number of target classes is increased into five and eight and results are compared with the previously developed models in the literature.

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Dancing in Early Productions of The Beggar's Opera

Dance Research ◽

10.3366/drs.2015.0136 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 33 (2) ◽

pp. 143-158

Author(s):

Jeremy Barlow ◽

Moira Goff

Keyword(s):

Political Corruption ◽

Italian Opera ◽

Box Office ◽

The Many

John Gay's The Beggar's Opera was accepted for production by John Rich, manager at the Theatre Royal, Lincoln's Inn Fields, and received its premiere in January 1728. With its twin satirical targets of Italian opera and political corruption, and its fresh approach to musical entertainment, the opera had an unprecedented success during its first season and continued to be performed every year in London for the remainder of the century. Alongside the many songs, the libretto indicates three contrasting ensemble dances, introduced at key moments of the drama. These dances have been overlooked in most studies of The Beggar's Opera. The article investigates the significance of the dances within the ballad opera, the dancers who may have performed them and what they may have been dancing. Each dance and its music is analysed in detail, and placed within the context of the dance repertoire and wider theatrical background at Lincoln's Inn Fields. The authors also demonstrate the importance of dance in attracting audiences at Lincoln's Inn Fields; and show how, as box office receipts for The Beggar's Opera eventually declined, Rich stimulated demand by introducing divertissements and entr'acte dances unrelated to the show.

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‘A war film with a difference’: Adrian Brunel's Blighty and Negotiation within the British Studio System of the Late Silent Period

Journal of British Cinema and Television ◽

10.3366/jbctv.2015.0255 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 151-171 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Josephine Botting

Keyword(s):

Silent Period ◽

Home Front ◽

World War ◽

War Films ◽

Box Office ◽

The First World War ◽

Studio System ◽

To Come ◽

First World ◽

War Film

The creation and viewing of war films was one of the elements in the process by which Britain attempted to come to terms with the horrors of the First World War. During the interwar period, war films took two main forms: those which reconstructed famous battles and melodramas set against a wartime backdrop. However, the film Blighty, directed by Adrian Brunel in 1927, took a slightly different approach, focusing not on military action but on those who stayed behind on the Home Front. As a director during the silent period, Brunel trod a stony path, operating largely on the fringes of the industry and never really getting a firm foothold in the developing studio structure. He remains well regarded for his independent productions yet also directed five features for Gainsborough at the end of the silent period. Of these film, his first, Blighty, is perhaps his most successful production within the studio system in terms of managing a compromise between his desire to maintain control while also fulfilling the studio's aims and requirement for box office success. Brunel's aversion to the war film as a genre meant that from the start of the project, he was engaged in a process of negotiation with the studio in order to preserve as far as possible what he regarded as a certain creative and moral imperative.

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Beautiful Beach Bodies and Muscle Heads

California History ◽

10.1525/ch.2020.97.2.112 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 97 (2) ◽

pp. 112-123

Author(s):

John D. Fair

Keyword(s):

Juvenile Delinquency ◽

Southern California ◽

Good Life ◽

Physical Culture ◽

The Good Life ◽

The West ◽

Guise Of The Good ◽

Beach Boys ◽

Box Office ◽

Age Of Aquarius

Uneasily situated between counterculture images projected by James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and the dawning of the “Age of Aquarius” a decade later, there emerged a motion picture interlude of innocence on the beaches of Southern California. It was fostered by Gidget (1959) and then thirty “surf and sex” movies that focused on young, attractive bodies and beach escapades rather than serious social causes.The films, argues Kirse May, “created an ideal teenage existence, marked by consumption, leisure, and little else.” Stephen Tropiano explains how their popularity helped shape “the archetypal image of the American teenager” and, reinforced by the surfin' sounds of Jan and Dean, the Beach Boys, and other recording groups, “turned America's attention to the Southern California coastline,” where “those who never set foot on its sandy shores were led to believe that life on the West Coast was a twenty-four-hour beach party.” This study examines a notable film of this genre to determine how musclemen were exploited to exhibit this playful spirit and how their negative reception reinforced an existing disregard toward physical culture. Muscle Beach Party illustrates how physical culture served other agendas, namely the need to address American fears of juvenile delinquency and to revive sagging box-office receipts within the guise of the “good life” of California.

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