Characteristics of the Postmodern Horror Film

Characteristics of the Postmodern Horror Film In our valet de chambre today, box offices be flooded with giddy teenagers seeking a shaking from crime word-paintings. Horror movies date back wholly the way to the 1890s so what is it exactly that keeps viewers wanting more? According to Isabel Cristina Pinedo, on that point be four key divisors to the success of the contemporary disgust film. instantlys successful films constitute a violent disruption of the normal world, transgress and violate boundaries, throw into question the inclemency of acuteity, and repudiate news report clo authentic.The movie concluding speech (2000) is a more recent horror film that consists of three out of four of Pinedos divisions. While the movie does not apply to all four members, the characteristics of the three present are strong enough to allow the film to still be considered a horror film. last-place finishing is loaded with affright tactics that nigh resemble the characteristi cs described by Pinedo. The film is based off of a series of finiss that are unexplainable and unpredictable, matching the first element of characteristics of the postmodernist horror, horror constitutes a violent disruption of the everyday world (Pinedo 17).More specializedally relating to this element are the mysterious tragedies that take place finishedout Final Destination. In this film death comes at random times violating our laying claim that we live in a predictable, routinized world by demonstrating that we live in a minefield (18). Death is except that, a minefield. The characters feel they have no control over their lives beca put on while Alex, the main character, figures out that in that respect is an put to these deaths, nobody is accepted exactly when their time will come. Also l hold back to the students constant fear is the way the deaths are occurring.One boy, Todd slips in the bathroom and is incidentally hung from the shower clothesline, another girl, T erry, is hit in the middle of town by a speeding bus, and a teacher is killed from an unlikely house explosion. each(prenominal) three deaths treat violence as a constituent element of everyday life (18). The incidents occur in ordinary settings involving items typically utilize on a daily basis, creating fear that one apprisenot escape. Not notwithstanding are the deaths strange, they are extremely violent and gory. Pinedo states, the disruption takes the form of somatogenic violence against the body (18).Blood is prominent in the death scenes as rise as mutilation of the bodies with the use of sharp objects, knives, electrocution, and hanging. Pinedos idea that death can happen anywhere does not lack in this movie and the practical gore provides more evidence to support the idea that this film is without a doubt, a horror film. In horror films, confusion is a striking way to create even more fear. The deaths in Final Destination are dramatic and in our world unheard of and fall make up into place when exploring Pinedos characteristics of recreational terror.The way these deaths happen throw into question the validity of rationality (17). The model of irrationality is Pinedos third element and is vast in her eyes. She claims characters who survive must come to terms not tho with the irrationality of the situation only if also with their own ability to be as single-mindedly destructive as the hulk (24). Final Destination begins with Alex and his classmates boarding a plane for a school devolve on however, that trip is short-lived due to a fatal explosion that oddly enough, Alex had already seen in a terrifying premonition.Alexs premonition makes little to no sense but he chooses to turn over it and is able to cheat death. This is just as Pinedo explains. The rationality of Alexs world is gone and his premonition devotes him to interrogate what is true in his life. The other characters throughout the movie continue to say Alex is crazy for hav ing these ideas that death is happening them. They insist upon rational explanations in the baptistery of evidence that does not lend itself to rationality and are destined to pass victims of the monster (24).Throughout the movie Alex makes it very clear that he believes there is a specific time and place for each characters death. Alex does not doubt himself or his premonition once and is able to remain subsisting until the end of the film. This is just what Pinedo means when she claims the ones that survive necessarily suspend their rational presuppositions and trust their gut instinct (24). There may be a more rea comeic explanation for these deaths or, there may be no explanation at all but one thing is for sure the characters who choose to not believe anything at all is happening, are gone by the end of the movie.In this film Alex would be considered the protagonist or the hero. When discussing the hero, Pinedo claims, postmodern horror compels its heroto rely on intuition it requires the protagonist and the monster to be both violent and to trust their gut instincts (25). Alex fights hard to get the others to believe in his original premonition as he tries to stop the direct in which it will come. He figures out who is next on the list and uses all power to save the stay students. Generally speaking, the most chief(prenominal) part of a horror film is the completion.Viewers wait on the demonstrate of their seats in fear that the protagonist will not prevail. nevertheless according to Pinedos fourth element of postmodern horror, it repudiates narrative mental block meaning that the film may come to an end, but it is open ending (29). Throughout Final Destination viewers watch Alex try to shed light on the mystery of death. At one point in the movie, Alex and his friend visualize their late classmate Todd where a mortician tells them in death there are no accidents, no coincidences, no mishaps, and no escapeswere all just a mouse that a cat ha s by the tail. Alex is certain that now that he knows death has a plan, he will be able to solve the pattern within his high school. Although, by the end of the movie, there is still no resolution. Death continues to seek prey and we are left with this open ending, unable to determine where the nightmare begins or ends, or whether it ends at all (33). Alex cheats death one more time and the remaining students are finally able to take their trip to Paris but in the final scene of the movie a hotel sign swings calibrate and comes right for Alexs head. The audience never does find out whether or not Alex survived or if death is stopped.Pinedo is right on target with this element and this horror film almost identically matches her characteristics. Violence is a concept easily recognizable in this film, however, does not seem to directly follow what Pinedo describes as horror transgresses and violates boundaries (17) where she goes into depth or so the importance of a specific monster . Pinedo states the monster violates the boundaries of the body in a two-fold manner through the use of violence against other bodiesand through the disruptive qualities of its own body (21).In Final Destination the monster is unexplainable. The monster, death, does use violence against other bodies by murdering the students in very violent manners although it does not disrupt through the use of its own body. The feared monster in Final Destination does not come in a physical form thus creating a more complex mystery for the characters without harming itself. Another point Pinedo makes is that it is only when the monster is truly dead and subject to decay that it ceases to threaten the social point (22).Because death is the monster in this movie and is not an animate object, it is unable to be subject to decay. Alex discovers that if the order of death is disturbed, the pattern will be rearranged and he who cheated death is placed at the end of the list instead. He seems to have ac complished total destruction of the monster by declaration its mysterious death pattern however, alive or dead, it is impossible to debar threat to the social order thus proving Pinedos point wrong in this case.In classical horror films an audience got a little scare yet left the theater with the comfort of a closed ending. As discussed in Pinedos fourth element of postmodern horror, movies today leave their viewers wondering what will happen next. Perhaps the fourth element is the most important because it is what follows the audience into their everyday lives. A successful horror film gives the viewer a chilling fright and then leaves an refer on their life after the final scene.It is those movies that leave us terrified to look under the bed, afraid to walk alone at night, or afraid of certain sounds and images. Pinedo does an excellent job of going into detail about well-done modern horror films. Although, Final Destination does follow Pinedos characteristics and leaves vie wers with one agonizing question Can you cheat death? Works Cited Final Destination. James Wong. New Line Cinema, 2000. Film. Pinedo, Isabel Cristina. Recreational Terror. capital of New York State U of New York P, 1997. Print.