+

Evaluation Part II: Representation

+Representation of women

As in many horror films the protagonist in “Penance” is a young

girl in her teens with a small group of friends.

In her character profiles she is described as “Closed-

minded, tries to act older than the rest of the people in

her friend group. Can often be quite stubborn, likes to

be in charge and doesn't like doing what other people

tell her to do.” This very much keeps to the

conventions of the protagonists (and often victims) of

other horror films.

In keeping with the conventional paradigm of young girls in horror

movies, we established quickly to the audience the genre of the film and

the formula it was likely to follow. This was to give the audience a sense

of familiarity in watching the film.

+

This shot shows the female on the floor with the male figure

standing over her. She is shown to be in a submissive position

while the male is in a position of power. Her helplessness shows

the balance of power to be in favour of the man.

+

The aerial view of the girl lying on the floor was again to show

her helplessness, and also to show the scene to be a flashback

as the audience is looking down at the girl after this has

happened.

+

The present day scene puts the three female characters on the same

level as the audience, and all three are in an equal position of power.

There characters are represented in this shot as being very different.

One looking enthusiastic with the others appearing disbelieving or

bored. This contrasts the helpless girl on her own in the past with the

girls of the present

+Similar films with a female

stereotype

“Scream” is one of several horror/slasher

films in which a group of older teenagers

find themselves being picked off by an

anonymous killer. It was a later film using

this formula (released in 1996), but became

a staple of the horror genre in the way that

it took the stereotypes and conventions of

earlier slasher movies and heightened

them. Many horror films that followed took

this idea and creating different versions of

the story.

+The “young woman in distress”

convention is not just reserved for

teen slasher movies in the horror

genre. Films such as ours,

(featuring a paranormal, “haunting”

aspect can also feature a younger

female character. However, these

characters tend to be slightly more

sympathetic and relatable to a

wider audience.

+Representation of young people

The cast of our film, as in other horror films, is

female and of the ages of 16-17. They are

shown to be “average” teenagers, (telling each

other ghost stories, hanging out at the park),

and not particularly representative of one social

group.

+

All of the girls in the film speak in fairly

colloquial terms not particularly connotative of

a specific area or class of people; the only

thing unusual about the way that the cast

speaks is the fact that all have Northern

accents (this being a Northern

production), this is not in keeping with the

conventions of other horror films of this

time, which are generally set in America, or

even other British films which tend to be

Southern based.