Analysis of Popular Culture - SLU Madrid

In the industry of cinema, the political, social and cultural aspects of society are often emphasized and represented in the making and production of films. It is important to consider the cinematic productions in a historical and cultural context as each piece of production reflects specific topics and issues related to the time and place in which they are set. As Brigit Cherry explains, the ability of films to reflect current political, social and cultural trends are characteristics of genre cinema. Especially, "horror" and "thriller" movies can be considered as a medium to help the audience digest and reflect on certain issues in their society and confront particular cultural and social taboos (Cherry, 2009). Moreover, as Cherry further argues, horror films can be viewed as a "set of universal anxieties." In this case, cinema acts as a barometer or indicator which reflects the cultural climate in which the film is set (Cherry, 2009).  The horror-thrille...

 One of the horror movies that I have watched and I think it qualifis as such is A Quiet Place. To summarize the plot, the movie shows how the Abbott family has to survive through apocalyptic times. Strange creatures have taken over the world and they hunt by sound. Because of this, the Abbott family learns to live in silence and communicate with each other through sign language. If they make any sound the monsters would come and kill them. Which is what is happening at the beginning with the family’s youngest member Beau, and during the movie giving birth to the new baby will be the biggest challenge. As Cherry states “horror cinema deals with anxieties that are of great concern to the culture can thus explain some of the pleasures for the audience that allow the viewer to also work through these fears, and further it can also explain why horror is so enduring and always popular.” (Cherry) I think this movie is relevant to what Cherry explains in his essay because we see how the...

 The film that I have selected is that of “The Silence of the Lambs”. It is a 1991 American psychological horror film directed by Jonathan Demme. According to Brigid Cherry - Horror-Routledge book she has noted something Wills who says there are grand narratives of horror. Some of the grand narratives of horror are: “social alienation, the collapse of moral and spiritual order, a deep crisis of evolutionary identity, the overt articulation of humankind’s innermost imperatives,a need to express the implications of human existence in an appropriate aesthetic”. In the Silence of the lambs, we see the character of Hannibal (“The Cannibal”) Lecter as the collapse of more order. While he serves as the monster in the story, but at the same time we have another character Buffalo Bill, feels unfit to inhabit his own body, his own skin. He murders young women and skins them to make a human suit. These types of horror films seem to be centered on the idea of something mysterious and the theme...

     Do you ever wonder why we are scared of scary movies? There's a lot more to making such a production than fake blood or editing. Oftentimes, cultural and political trends of our contemporary are reflected in the media. The genre of horror in cinema is a great example of the lense in which this reflection takes place. In Brigid Cherry's chapter, Horror and Cultural Moment , Cherry explains the implications of horror in society by bridging the genre to ideology of the contemporary, regardless of the geographical or historical setting of the work itself (Cherry, 2009, p. 167).       It Follows, directed by David Robert Mitchell premiered in 2014, and surely scares and reflects ideological anxiety within its subtexts. The film features a couple who are young and sexually active in the suburbs of Detroit, who are faced with a demon of a very peculiar kind; one that kills you after contracting it through sexual intercourse. In the film, the audienc...