The mystery genre has captivated audiences for centuries, but how has it evolved? In modern days the mystery genre has developed by adding supernatural elements or by viewing the plot from the murderer’s perspective. This is exemplified two shows, Stranger Things and Fargo. Stranger Things and Fargo are both incredible mystery shows; however, Stranger Things is superior. While both T.V. shows are spectacular mystery series, their plots differ and overlap in many ways, they are set in different time periods, and use very different types of cast and crew. The show Stranger Things is about a young boy named Will who lives in a small town in the 1980s’ and goes missing. As the search for the boy continues, it is rapidly discovered by the audience, …show more content…
This is accentuated even more in Stranger Things due to the fact that it’s time period is set in the ‘80s’ they don’t have the same technology of modern day. However, Fargo’s town struggles as well, because the people live in such a peaceful small town a majority of the police force is portrayed as a bunch bumbling troglodytes who have absolutely zero idea of how to handle the situation and who to investigate. Another major thematic point is the time period. The directors did everything they could to make Stranger Things feel as if it had been filmed in the ‘80s’. I say filmed because it was in fact filmed a commitment the directors made to create even more of an ‘80s’ vibe. Furthermore, the characters are dressed in clothes from the time period, the same hair styles, bikes, and cars from the ‘80s’, and of course, the town is met with a serious lack of modern technology. Fargo, also does a great job of showing a small town in the early 2000s’. The audience will note a lack of modern technology such as cell phones and newer cars. Most apparent in Fargo is the lack of security cameras, which when do appear, are very outdated. While Fargo’s small town feel is much better portrayed than Stranger Things’, the latter does a better and more impressive job of creating the time period it is set …show more content…
In either show the viewer will be immensely impressed with the cast's acting abilities. In Fargo you will see a large group of famous actors. The main character, Lester Nygaard, is played by Martin Freeman. Freeman, most recently known for his role in the Hobbit movies, does an excellent job playing a meek, unsuccessful, citizen into a full-fledged, ruthless psycho. Lorne Malvo, the mercenary that turns our main character into a killer, is played by Billy Bob Thornton, well known for his role in Sling Blade, The Judge, and many others. Thornton also does an incredible job playing an anarchist mercenary. As he goes around town pushing people to do terrible things and creating a torrent of havoc everywhere he goes, Malvo not only becomes a main focus for the police but also the viewer. On the other hand, Stranger Things cast a group of mostly “unknowns” or actors and actresses who haven’t played in any major roles. The most well known would most likely be Millie Bobby Brown who plays Eleven, the character with the supernatural powers. Known for her minor roles in shows like NCIS and Once Upon a Time, along with one major role in a small BBC show called the Intruders. Just like Millie, the rest of the cast has only played minor roles in a few T.V. shows or movies. However, the acting in Stranger Things is fantastic. An amazing part of the show is how two unknown directors, made a
After watching Snowpiercer (2014) of Dir. Bong Joon-Ho, I found that this film is an interesting and typical dystopian movie, which has many same content and features as other dystopian films. The media artifact I chose, which is related to the Snowpiercer is call The Truman Show directed by Peter Weir. It is a 1998 American satirical science fiction film and has many elements that relate to dystopian.
The foils of everyday life make for surprisingly quality entertainment. This concept may appear quite counterintuitive, but it is constantly proven true in Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1996 film Fargo. Beyond the film’s oddball subject matter lies a surplus of middle class misfortunes and simpleton fodder. These seemingly extraneous components of the film are actually extremely crucial to the atmosphere the Coen brothers created. Despite having such a lack of regard for human life, the film still is extremely relatable to the common man and blue collar USA. This is exactly what Joel and Ethan Coen were aiming for with this film. They were trying to create as relatable and real of an atmosphere as possible. This persistence to creating a believable
Specifically, crime shows have given us, the TV audience as a whole, scripts or an expectation of what will/should happen in a variety of situations. It leads people to think about what is appropriate and what isn’t in terms of how the results of these situations play out. For example, in the CSI franchise, as the plot unfolds in each episode, it takes forensic evidence, such as DNA or fingerprints, to convict the villain. Before the technological breakthroughs made in the fields of biology and forensics, juries relied more on circumstantial evidence, and eyewitness accounts to prove someone was guilty. This is just one example of how crime shows have changed the general representations of what is the “correct” way to solve a crime.
Throughout my quest to find what interests me I have realized that only a few genres capture my attention. Genres such as action, sci-fi, adventurous, and especially mysteries are the most enthusiastic. I also like a little comedy but I don’t always enjoy the over exaggerated belly laughing. Mysteries, out of this selection, would be the genre that I love to read most because it leaves you wondering about
What then do we make of American horror movies? In the canon of horror pictures they almost always come second in respect to foreign horror movies and any American horror film that is considered to be artful is the one with the most aesthetic distance. Upscale slashers like Johnathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs (1991) or David Fincher's Seven (1995) are both gruesome and bloody borrowing many of the same shock techniques as their lower budget counterparts (for example, Russell Mulchahy's Sevenish thriller Resurrection (1999)), both focus on the body and its violation, either through sexual means or violent means, and both feature villains who fit easily into Carol Clover's assessment as "distinctly male; his fury is unmistakably sexual in both roots and expression."
This was no news to Hitchcock's fans. In a 1947 press conference the great director laid out his philosophy of the mystery-horror genre: "I am to provide the public with beneficial shocks. Civilization has become so protective that we're no longer able to get our goose bumps instinctively. The only way to remove the numbness and revive our moral equilibrium is to use artificial means to bring about the shock. The best way to achieve that, it seems to me, is through a movie."
Our society loves crime dramas. We have so many TV shows that focus on murder, police, and solving crimes - real or imagined. What’s always creepy about murderers on TV and in real life, however, is that they usually seem like completely normal people, and that makes their crimes so much more terrifying.
Film scholars around the world agree that all genres of film are part of the “genre cycle”. This cycle contains four different stages that a specific genre goes through. These stages are: primitive, classic, revisionist, and parody. Each stage that the genre goes through brings something different to that genre’s meaning and what the audience expects. I believe that looking at the horror genre will be the most beneficial since it has clearly gone through each stage.
People flock to horror movies each year. Usually to be scared. Another is to solve the question of Who done it? Unfortunately, a lot of these horror movies fail to scare people or make the killer so obvious the audience gets bored. Occasionally, there are a few horror movies that stick out. Scream, directed by Wes Craven, is one of them. Wes Craven is always toying with the viewer's fears. Always finding ways to scare the audience at every turn. He also plays with the viewer's head, and has them second guessing themselves. How does he do it? Well, as one of the characters in the movie exclaims, "There's a formula to it. A very simple formula. Everybody's a suspect!" This paper will discuss how Craven uses sound, camera shots, and mise en scene
The birth of classic detective fiction was originated just in the mid nineteenth century, and was producing its own genre. Classical detective fiction follows a set of rules called the ‘Ten commandments of detective fiction’. The genre is so popular it can bee seen by the number of sales in any good book stores. Many of these books have been created a long time ago and there is still a demand for these types of books. The popularity is still ongoing because it provides constant entertainment, and also the reader can also have a role of detective trying to solve the crime/case committed. Classical detective fiction has a formula, the detective story starts with a seemingly irresolvable mystery, typically a murder, features the astute, often unconventional detective, a wrongly accused suspect to whom the circumstantial evidence points, and concludes with a startling or unexpected solution to the mystery, during which the detective explains how he or she solved the mystery. Formula that includes certain elements such as, a closed location to keep the number of suspects down, red hearings spread around the stories to keep the reader entertained yet interacted.
(Photo: Gramercy Pictures/Photofest) “OK, so we got a trooper pulls someone over, we got a shooting, these folks drive by, there's a high-speed pursuit, ends here and then this execution-type deal.” In 1996, an indie movie called Fargo took Hollywood by storm. Directed by Joel Coen, written by Joel and his brother Ethan, and produced by Ethan—like all of the Coen Brothers movies—Fargo told the story of Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), a deep-in-debt car salesman, whose plan to have his wife kidnapped and then split the ransom with the kidnappers goes predictably and terribly wrong. Local police chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand), sporting a thick “Minnesota nice” accent and a belly full of baby, investigates three
Stephen King wrote a very brief essay titled "Why we Crave Horror Movies", in which he explained some of the reasons that people choose to go to horror movies to be entertained. In his essay, King goes on to explain that we as a people need horror movies as a sort of release; to feed the darker elements within all of us without having to sacrifice our humanity (also, civility). King does this by comparing people based on their levels of sanity whereas some societal "eccentricities" are completely acceptable, while some will get you thrown right into the loony bin. It’s summed up pretty well in this quote:
Genre- the genre of Murder on the Orient Express I think is a detective murder mystery as the murder seems as though it will never be logically solved.
The same pattern also applies to foreign horror. Foreign horror is "moody" and "atmospheric" while American horror is "cheap" and "exploitative." What many fail to notice is that both foreign and American horror use many of the same images and devices. In the distinct universe that is the horror film both the higher end pictures (in this case the foreign horror movies) find themselves amongst the so-called exploitative low-end (American horror). Frequently in film analysis it is, as Joan Hawkins writes, "overlooked or repressed...to the degree to which high culture trades on the same images, tropes, and themes which characterize low culture."
I recall a couple of years in elementary school where I read no book that did not fall into the category of either mystery or horror. Supern...