The Sci-Fi Comedy: Ghostbusters

“Who you gonna call ?” In this 2016 remake of the pop culture favorite Ghostbusters (1984) directed by Ivan Reitman, Actor and producer Paul Feig directs the new Ghostbusters with a handpicked all Female lead cast. With the association of men playing the part of the strong and masculine role, by default Actresses are expected to play the loving, caring, and nurturing role expected by society. In this film, Dr. Abby Yates and Jillian Holtzman reunite with Abby’s childhood friend Erin Gilbert and together they study and investigate paranormal activities. After being called to a site in the subway metro station, they meet Patty Tolan an MTA worker , who officially join them and together they become the “Ghostbusters.” They also hire a dim witted secretary named Kevin Beckman who helps them shut down the portal and save the New York City population. Although this film is a female lead film, Reitman’s version of the Ghostbusters demonstrates its high quality through a praiseworthy cast , a reversed gender role, and marvelous visual and special effects.

In The film industry, females are viewed as delicate individuals that continuously rely on males for support. Instead of being educated, they are known for being oblivious to everything that is happening while men are both vigorous and knowledgeable of all things. The movie Ghostbusters (2016) challenges this idea by using role reversal to change how society views men and women and to prove that gender has nothing to do with a person's intelligence. For example, Dr. Erin Gilbert was one of the female main characters that was a professor at Columbia University. In the scene where Erin was in her office on her computer, the camera does a quick scan of the room to show all of her awards that she received from previous schools. The director includes

Horror can be defined as a genre meant to psychologically trigger individual fear with the presence of certain supernatural or abstract characteristics. The genre is dependent on people’s fascination with unrealism and the sensation that comes from experiencing fear personified into tangible elements on a screen. Horror films have thrilled audiences for decades, revealing stories of the more sinister parts of life. The popular allure that stems from the genre comes from the tension moviegoers experience when aroused by specific stimuli uniquely present in these cinematic features (Walters). Over time, as the genre progressed, the standardized elements found in a typical horror movie began to shift in different directions primarily due to changing societal circumstances and increasing consumer demand for cinematic innovation. The expansive nature of the different codes and conventions within the horror genre, coupled with the evolution of society’s fascination with these characteristics, has led to the mutation of the genre itself in order to allow for unique approaches to a familiar style in response to both economic developments and taste shifts within the consumer industry.

Horror has long been about tales of heroic men fighting monsters (whether it be human or inhuman) and saving damsels in distress. Women were mostly used as eye candy, victims of violence or only to further the plight of the leading man. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that women in horror movies started to have more power in horror movies. This was majorly due to the rise of feminism, the female protagonists were fighting back which lead to the rise of the ‘final-girl’ archetype – the ‘final-girl’ being the only one surviving at the end of the film having outsmarted the killer. The final girl not only promotes feminism but also a reflection of the values in our

Horror films have been around for over 100 years, petrifying people and bringing their worst fears to life but still they can’t get enough of this sick and gory genre that is unbelievably entertaining and captivating to the audience. Horror comes with many sub-genres from your bloody slashers like Friday the 13th to your Supernatural-Horrors like The Exorcist, but in the end they all seem to do their job by scaring you and leaving you with nightmares for weeks on end. Usually Horror’s films have the same character stereotypes such as the nerd, the jock, the slut, the virgin, the junky, the tough hero, the unlikely hero and last but not least the masked murderer, but yet they all play their own part in the making of these horrors movies whether it is the extremely slow walk the killer does but almost always catches the victim, or the unwise decision to split up and investigate where the unusual noise is coming from.

In contemporary horror films the traditional gender qualities have shifted. Female protagonist has masculine elements in her behavior, like has to act logically to beat the monster. The male monster on the other hand has feminist features in his behavior (Clover 1999, p. 203). The male monsters often have some kind of psychological trauma as catalysis on their actions. The male monsters often look funny and they were masks to cover their

Post-feminism in films can be a cliche,but the female protagonist in Kill Bill gives the role of feminism a better outlook.In the opening scene,it starts off with a non-digetic sound of a woman breathing heavily and then continues with an up-close shot of a brutalized bride on the floor and badly beaten.The scene jumps to an up-close shot of man walking towards the bride.The black and white scene indicates that a flashback is happening,and the low key lighting adds more mystery within the scene.Not yet knowing who the killer is,but the subjective point of view within that scene puts the viewer in the eyes of a murderer.Even though this man is not yet revealed,anyone could most likely guess that this man is Bill.For one,he uses what looks like

Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes! Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!....... NONE of this happened after watching this movie. Ghostbusters is undeniably entertaining, people young and old laughed together.

King Kong is not only one of the first classical attempts to produce pre-science fiction films, but also arguably it has become a classic in the development of film history. From its opening, showing us the emerging industrialized city of New York; to its greedy protagonist driven to produce his best film; its exploration and finding of a different parallel world; to its adventurer portrait of American society and obsession for discovering new mysterious lands —and its encounter with a giant deity in the form of a gorilla. King Kong exhibits all the major traits we have come to attribute to the genre, cycle, or series known as science fiction. King Kong has been re-made in different historical periods, but this essay will exclusively pay attention

We often think of science fiction as a science but in fact, it has more to do with destruction than anything else according to Susan Sontag in “the-imagination-of-disaster”. I think that scary movies give off a wrong interpretation by the way it is presented, many people see it as scary monsters that are only there to scare you but I think that a lot of people watch these movies bring out the little demon that is trapped inside them. I think that scary movies are misinterpreted at times because it gives the viewer that is enjoying the movie the impression that its only motive is to scare you, but there are many ways that these scary movies bring out the little demon that you usually are unable to let out.

Why do we fear the unknown? In the process of answering this question, science-fiction genre films successfully capture the history of American society at distinct points in time. The genre is so closely linked to social and historical contexts that its development relies solely on this connection. Sci-fi myths and conventions have remained static for decades, and the only measurable change in the genre lies in the films’ themes (Gehring 229-230). For example, Robert Wise’s The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) argues that fear of the unknown is a flaw in human nature and criticizes the social paranoia of post-war, 1940s America. Conversely, Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) views the human existence through more

This open letter is directed at the directors of Horror films. This letter will discus the over used gimmicks and the lack of creativity on their part. It will be written in a conversational way with the use of pathos of how these movies are faulty with a touch of humor, and rhetorical questions to emphasize certain points of my discussion of this topic. I will also use ethos through my time as a film fanatic who is passionate on all that is film especially horror film which is my favorite film genre, and is the largest genre with so many subgenres within it that have the ability to use so much imagination. I have crafted this conversation to be directed towards the directors of horror films with the use of film lingo that is used for this genre, movie examples they should look at, and a deep analysis of what and how this problem cause movie of today to lack in appeal.

The movies have always worked at staying current with or lead the times in which they are made. One way films accomplish this is by highlighting social tensions or cultural trends. These ideas are not new, and as the culture changes the movies we view and are interested in, change also. One trend that we have seen develop since the end of the second world war is the change in how women characters are portrayed. From grasping unnatural roles to powerful leaders of their families, women have shown that they have what it takes to survive in a man's world.

Horror movies throughout history have been known to have their cheesy storylines or continuous bad acting. Especially horror movies. People nowadays could easily spot the flaws in a film and judge them drastically in reviews. Yet, little do people notice the ongoing discrimination between genders. Horror films tend to portray males and females substantially differently because of stereotypical views. There seems to be a pattern in which each gender takes a certain role in a movie continuously. Females are shown to be “objects” such as sex and emotional symbols, while males are shown as strong or powerful and moreover as the main bad guy. Although some of the newer edition films of the horror genre are displaying each gender more and more equal throughout the ongoing years, the gender discrimination dilemma still exists and can be seen by the statistics in the movie industry in general.

The good thing about films is that we not only have the opportunity to choose from a wide selection of different genres, but also compare them and understand their purpose in the world. The Horror genre has used the basic principles throughout time, and as a result, films of this type have not proven to be as timeless as another genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy. At first, these two genres might at times seem similar as they have at several occasions been blended together, but their basic, common theme serves different meanings about humans. I shall compare and contrast these two genres and focus on both classic films and modern films. From the Horror genre perspective I shall discuss Psycho (1960) and The Mist (2007), while in the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre I will examine 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), and Serenity (2005). Although the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre and the Horror Genre share some similarities, the differences lie in their focus on human progress.