The Crazies Film Analysis

The Crazies Film Analysis

The Crazies - 2010

The Breck Eisner film is a reboot of the original film 'The Crazies' which first hit our screens in 1973.

Like most modern remakes they follow the same story plot just with more CGI and and more advanced makeup. 

Main Plot:

The main plot depicts the story of Ogden Marsh's sheriff David (played by Timothy Olyphant) surviving a zombie apocalypse with his wife and friends. The actual infection and disease was spread by the U.S government 'accidentally' crashing a plan into their river and water supply infecting the whole town. The 'Trixie' virus cause the the town to burn down and be destroyed by the sheer chaos of the out break. Government officials and swat like mercenaries have to control the town and segregate the infected from the healthy as it has simple gone out of control. The virus causes humans to experience extreme mental and physical damage causing them to practically become living dead.

Unfortunately their friends pass and sacrifice themselves to save the married couple, to which to find out that the town they are travelling to for safety is next to be infected.

Film Codes and Conventions:

Todorov - 

Tzvetan Todorov was a Bulgarian man who came with the theory of a certain type of film structure. This film in question (The Crazies) fits the bill. 

It all starts off when everything's alright and there are no threats at all. Everybody is fine. This is called equilibrium. But in this film structure it shows that there must be an event to make the equilibrium become - disequilibrium. In this case the event is a massive outbreak of the 'Trixie' virus in the townsfolk's water supply. Once the event has happened it is up to our protagonists to either resolve the situation or escape it. But this will only happen towards the end of the film. But slightly going off the traditional structure, we have a flash back. The story tells us how and why the virus started. It shows us that the U.S government have crashed a plane into their water supply. But as soon as we find out the cause of the event, it goes back to the main story and our beloved characters. 

Then the structure changes to the resolution. This is when the characters try to resolve the event to establish the equilibrium back to when everything was fine. 

Time Duration:

Bordwell and Thompson - 

Every film will have an allocated time slot. But obviously in most, probably all films they will cover action and moments from days, weeks, months and even years. The Crazies depicts a story that continues over the course of around 3 weeks. The film only shows the story towards the end, where our characters try to resolve the event and establish equilibrium once again.      

     

            

History of Horror

Representation of Women in Horror

Representation of Women in Horror 

The stereotypical woman in a horror film is a dumb blonde with big breasts and a figure to make a man drool. This is your typical character who is the male gaze. The woman who will keep the attention of your average guy even if he's no interested in the movie plot. The male gaze character is a bit of a sinner; she'll have sex, do drugs and drink alcohol in the movie. And of course she dies. The perfect example of this character is Paris Hilton (Paige) in House of Wax. Okay so she doesn't have big breasts, but in the horror film her character just screams out male gaze. Paris Hilton's character (Paige) is extremely sexual in the film, whether its when her boyfriend is driving the car and she 'dropped something' which made he head bob up and down in his lap as she was looking or the strip scene in the tent, Paris Hilton (Paige) is pretty much guaranteed death.

Even Paige's death is an icredible piece of male gaze. She doesn't just die, Paris Hilton's character runs through the area in her bra and a loose shirt revealing lots of her body. If your average man isn't entertained by the awesome 'pole through the head' death then maybe he will have his eyes averted to something else.  


The Final Girl theory by Carol J. Clover shows that in a horror film the final and last surviving female is more than likely to be the educated one. She will mention some sort of career or achieving some goal in the beginning of the film. Also she will most likely be middle class, had a good upbringing, a nice family, a virgin, doesn't use drugs or drinks. For example Carly Jones in House of Wax is one of the survivors because of her intellect and maturity.
   

In the movie Scream, Drew Barrymore's character has all the qualities for a final girl but at the beginning of the film her character is killed off. (Even though she was still quite a famous actor) This went against this convention surprising the audiences watching it for the first time.

     

Questionnaire Results

Horror Trailer Analysis