In this Blog post I will be discussing In Fear and why it has a British Film production context and how this relates to genre and how that in turn effects the production context. I will be giving examples from the film as to why it is what it is. In Fear is a film about a young couple who go on a trip to have a romantic holiday in a hotel and on the way to the hotel they find themselves lost where a psychopath torments them in the countryside trails.
To begin with the genre of this film, I would say that it is horror/thriller as it uses different techniques that make people jump and that is iconic of a horror and thriller. As both of those genre's play make people jump and feel scared. The setting is in the dark and anything can be happening in the dark, this is a primal fear that people have because we cannot see in the dark as well as we would like especially when we want to. This happens in the film as when Tom and Lucy are running in the dark they can barely see where they are going and we as the audience want to see where they are going, as we cannot see where they are going we feel on edge as the characters do as we cannot see what is going to happen to them.
The music that has been used in the film is eerie and creepy, fitting the situation that is happening, this is creating suspense for the audience and this is what happens in horror and thriller films they use music as a way to get people scared, as well as what they are seeing on screen as without the music in the background would what you see in a horror film be as scary? One scene that shows why this is a horror film is, for example when Tom is standing by some bushes and Lucy is watching him in the car. It is dark and a man appears next to him unexpectedly causing the audience to jump and be scared for the character. But before that happens the music is setting the scene by starting up slowly and when something suddenly happens or appears it becomes loud to help make the audience jump. With horror and thriller films they sometimes have cliffhangers that will make the audience wonder what has happened. In this film they have a cliffhanger about whether or not Lucy runs over Max or not. The scene cuts to when the car Lucy is driving towards Max and the film ends before she reaches him.This gives the audience a sense of mystery as to what has happened, this may make some people think about the film more and with good horror films people can not stop talking about them. Also the location in which the film is set is a secluded location where nobody can help them and this is the case in horrors, it is secluded so that there is no help and people end up dying as there is no one to help them escape from the murderer.
In Fear fits into a British Film context as of the locations that are used and the language that they have used for the characters. As British films tend to be have a lot of swear words in them compared to other production contexts, such as Hollywood as if they do have swear words they are only a few and not as bad as the ones that are used in British films. The characters names in this film are common British names, Tom, Lucy and Max. The accents the three of them have are irish and british, there is no mistaking where the film is set. There is one location and it is in the countryside and it has a typical British weather in the rain, as it rains a lot in the film. But by having that british weather in that particular location helps set up the atmosphere of the film. As the darker it is getting the more creepy the woods are becoming and it is hard to see if somone is following the pair even though we as the audience know that there is because of the strange things that are happening to the pair. When it starts to rain it is mirroring the mood of the couple as they keep getting lost and are not finding the way out and are getting fed up and more scared. For example, the pair have a fire emergency map that they think will get them give them a way out but when they use it they are more lost, this is when it is growing darker and starting to rain. It could be interpreted that as the hope of their escape is dying so to is the light around them and the darkness is their fears creeping up on them. The budget that was used in this film is not a low budget but not a huge budget which means this film is nto independent otherwise it would have had a bigger budget.
The three stars in this film have been known in other productions before this film has come out, this can give the film more publicity by people who have seen the other productions and want to see this film because they are in it. The actress who plays Lucy, Alice Englert, played a leading role of Lena Duchanes in the 2013 film adaptation of Beautiful Creatures. The actor who plays Tom, Ian De Caestecker, played the role of Adam Barlow in Coronation Street, 2001-2003 but also could be recognised for his role as Ocky in the 2013 film Filth. The actor who plays Max, Allen Leech, is probably best known for his role as Tom Branson in Downtown Abbey. Having actors and actresses that people recognise will help the publicity of the film.
There is a simple narrative to the film a young couple find themselves lost and are terrorised in the countryside where they cannot find a way out. The simple narrative works with the few characters that are in it, as the film only has 3 characters in it. The location a secluded location as it is countryroads surrounded by woods, this helps communicate the production context as Britsh films tend to show british locations and in this film there are a lot of shots at how beautiful it is in Ireland. The dialogue used in this film are irish and british accents and British production contexts use a lot of swear words as when the characters begin to know something is not right about the situation they are in they become scared an swear to get their frustrations out. For example, after Lucy is almost taken by Max she responds when she is safely in the car by saying 'What the fuck is happening?' and repeats this as she begins to worry and freak out about what is happening.
Most film use some of the seven spheres of action set out by Vladimir Propp and it's only Hollywood that try and use all seven whereas other production contexts only use a few at one time. In this film there is the Villian Max is this character as he is the one who goes out of his way to terrorise Lucy and Tom by changing the sings so that they get lost and terrorises them by doing strange things, as pretending he has been attacked by who is terrorising them, he cut his own face to make it convincing enough, arguably his most crazy way of hurting them knocking Tom unconcious,putting him in the boot of Lucy's car and attaching a pipe from the exhaust to his mouth,making Lucy drive fast so that the exhaust fumes kill Tom, it breaks her as she killed her own boyfriend. It could be argued that Lucy is the Hero as she makes it to the end of the film, as well as she remains stronger than Tom is towards the end of the film.
The technologies that have been used in this film are similar to what was used in other production contexts. For example, at the beginning of the film it has a voice over explaining that Tom is taking Lucy to Ireland. It is an easy way of informing the audience a little backstory and starts the film instantly. After the voice over split screens have been used and this as well helps to tell a little bit of the story, as at a closer inspection the images shown on the split screens is Max making it so that people will get lost on the way to the hotel, he is fixing the map so that people will get lost and car crashes that he has caused. The story behind the car crashes is explained when he tells them a story about a kid who used to stand in the middle of the road making people swerve out of the way to hit the kid and die after they crash their car. There are a lot of scenery shots when Tom and Lucy are going to the hotel, this is a good use of technology that relates to the production context by showing the location the film is set in.
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