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 could happen to them too.

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 films like Insurgent, Ouija and Mama all contain female antagonists.

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 antagonists feature in horror films that are
centred around teenagers and young adults.

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 watched.