MUTE

Representation of Social Groups

Social Groups Within Mute

The social group that is within the opening sequence of Mute is teenagers.
This was done because its at the age of 13-17 where you are vulnerable to
people changing you for their own purposes and in this film the main
character is kidnapped at a young age and has to become mature very
quickly to cope with what's happened to her. We made the antagonist a male
because in the media they are represented as the dominate sex and
powerful. They denote masculinity which was an important factor in our
opening sequence because most, if not all villains in a thriller/horror film are
very masculine.
Making Hannah a girl was something that we all wanted because most
stories about kidnapping is about a female and its easier to change a female;
emotionally and physically. We also wanted her to be a female teenager
because the age rating for our film is an 18 so girls who watch this will
sympathise but also relate with the character.

Stereotypes of Teenagers
The representation of teenagers in thriller films is they are either
the child of the protagonist and is kidnapped or a tag-along who
eventually dies in the end. For example in Taken the protagonist
has to save his teenage daughter from a group of foreign men
using her as a sex slave. This can be said for other age groups
like children and elderly people who are seen as vulnerable,
useless and annoying. At the start of our opening sequence,
Hannah is a teenager but still posses the attributes of a child e.g.
innocent, vulnerable and careless but soon takes on the
representation of adults; brave, sexual and mature. In horror
films its conventional for teenagers to be the victims and adults
to be the killer as it will appeal to the younger audience as they
will feel more empathy for the characters because the situation

Gender Representation

In a thriller/horror film; men are usually portrayed as the antagonist and

the protagonist. This is because stereotypically, men are more powerful,
brave, dominate and strong. Films like Final Destination 3, Flightplan
and The House at the End of the Street challenge this convention as the
antagonist is a woman which some people might disagree with because
they are seen as the prize/princess for the male protagonist. In our
opening sequence, we decided to use a female protagonist because it
would be interesting to see how the convectional role of a female in a
thriller/horror film (Hannah at the beginning) changes to the
unconventional role of a female in these genres (Hannah at the end). For
us choosing a male antagonist was a definite because we felt that to have
a successful and believable story, we needed to trust the conventions of
the genres we chose. For example, the 1996 film, Scream, included a
male antagonist killing female from he very start, adding to the
conventions of horror films that girls die first because they are weak, lazy
and slow. However, a female antagonist isnt taboo in these genres as

Conventional Representation

Hannah:
At the beginning Hannah is a conventional young teenager in a thriller/horror film;
beautiful, innocent and vulnerable. The clothes she wears reflects this her clothing is
plain and white which connotes purity and innocence. She is seen sucking a lolly which
connotes innocence and childish behaviour but also foreshadows her change in
personality as it can connote sexual availability too. She later becomes the victim
which is conventional of thriller/horror films as females usually get kidnapped or killed
first. When Hannah is kidnapped she becomes a very sexual, dark and rebellious
character which is conventional of teenagers who think they are mature. Her clothing is
all black which denotes she's grown up and changed for the worse. The use of red
lipstick has connotations of love, lust and also death and blood.
Kidnapper:
In most thriller films, the antagonist is a foreign male because in recent years there
have been many terrorists attacks and news stories about sex trafficking and they are
all done by foreign men. The words he says are quite inspirational so we know that he
is smart and educated which is conventional of thriller antagonists. Even though you
cant see him, you would expect him to be 20-30 as his voice is quite young and young

Unconventional Representation

Hannah:
Hannahs character is a female antagonist which in thriller films
doesnt happen often. She is represented as strong, independent and
mature at the end which is also unconventional of females in
thriller/horror films as they are stereotypically represented as weak,
innocent and delicate characters and never taking on male attributes.
Its very unusual for character to go through a drastic change so
quickly as the audience will be confused getting to know basically two
character so this elements is unconventional.
Kidnapper:
The kidnapper is roughly 25 years old and in the media they are
generally not portrayed as kidnappers. We did this because we
wanted to think outside the box and the whole idea of thrillers/horrors
is to shock them and make them think about what they have just