Genre Research?! Bubblegum Horror!? The eye catchiest horror!!

 Genre: Bubblegum Horror?!

For my AICE media class, we are learning about different genres and how they have specific target audiences and different qualities to each other. Out of all the subgenres and genres to choose from, I decided to choose Bubblegum Horror/Slasher. Bubblegum Horror films are  horror that mainly focuses on the mise-en-scene and the aesthetics of the movie while including strong horror/thriller elements. Bubblegum horror films have usually have bright neon colors and glitz with glamour. These movie typically have a target audience of young teens and adults. More specifically, this genre appeals to gen-z and is niche popular in TikTok and social media and young women/teen girls

Genre Conventions Context:

The Aesthetics?

Directors of these films make a strong importance of the aesthetics of a piece, it has to have a style or look that the audience, which is usually young adults or teens, find interesting and attractive. Scenes will have very striking and colorful lighting, like the use of neon's and bright colors. "Last Night in Soho" uses lots of neon lighting giving in to the aesthetics of the film.

Plot & Characters?

The main characters in these films are usually female, which allows the directors to lean into more feminine aesthetics. Characters are usually in their early to mid twenties  and sometimes even high school age, making it easier for their target audience of young adults to relate or be interested on watching the film/show. The plot is like any other horror plot, but with added edition of aesthetics and looks. The best way I can describe it is it's like it's eye-catching horror.  

Costumes/Make-up

This genre is meant to appeal to a younger audience and by doing so the movies depict fashions trends and aesthetics in the characters costuming to strengthen the looks of the film. In "Liza Frankenstein", the depiction of gothic teen beauty and fashion is very apparent to Lisa's character. She wears more gothic clothing when she gains confidence through her relationship with creature and the murders she has committed. The costuming and horror elements go hand in hand to strength the theme in this example.

Marketing? Institutional Conventions

Marketing in bubblegum slasher are usually use social media tactics to promote the film. They also included famous music artists in their soundtrack. “Bodies Bodies Bodies” includes famous Gen Z icon, Charli xcx, in the soundtrack for the song “Hot Girl”.  The image, is alluring, flashy, and eye-catching. The image is even more so when using celebrities that are in public favor of the younger generation or gen z icons. You will find gen z lingo/slang specifically in ads or marketing campaigns of these movies.

Examples? Gasp!

Bodies, Bodies, Bodies (2022)

-This movie came out during 2022, as TikTok was on it's continual rise. The movie plot is a party of rich-twenty somethings being stuck together in a mansion during a hurricane while a murder takes place. The movie speaks a lot about Gen Z behavior and a satirical piece about the politics, technology effects, and language of progressives in our society today. This movie embodies the horror and aesthetic elements of the genre. This horror is in the obvious murder mystery plots of the film, and the “killer” amongst the party. The aesthetics are in the neon lights and costuming in the characters and the overall trendy vibe we see with the costuming and characters speech/dialogue.

Liza Frankenstein (2024)

-This movie came out during February of this year. The plot is about Liza Swallows encountering a alive corpse which causes chaos around her. The movie takes place during the 80’s and heavily lends on the eighty aesthetics. Scenes which include, the “tanning bed” which is used to attach body parts to “the creature” have bright neon's (look at the picture above). The bright neon colors used in the film heavily correlated with the supernatural elements in the film. I can’t really talk about horror elements without spoiling the film (sorry), but the horror elements is the killing spree that the Creature and Liza embark in, very zany and fun.

Other Fun Examples!

Scream Queens! (2015-2016)

Uses a lot of aesthetics and horror through the Chanel's and the murders they encounter/commit.

Jennifer's Body (2009)

The character of Jennifer is a true staple of the mix of the genre themes.

Last Night In Soho (2021)

Has neon's and bright colors, reoccurring color and lighting choice for the aesthetics of this genre

 

The Love Witch (2016)

Note: Aesthetics and looks are huge in this film, this movie came out in 2016, yet looks like it came from an older decade.

Promising Young Woman (2020)

Representation in the Media!!

                                          I feel like a really good example of representation patterns in a piece of media is the Barbie movie (2023). This movie is directed by Greta Gerwig and stars Margot Robbie as “Barbie” and Ryan Gosling as “Ken”. A brief summary of the plot is that it is when Barbie sets out to the real world to fix an issue she facing. I personally enjoy this movie, it isn’t my top 10, but it’s a fun watch.

                                     The reason I chose this movie to talk about when speaking about representation is my knowledge of the creator and the themes the story portrays. The movie director, Greta Gerwig, is known for directing movies with strong compelling female characters that differ from how most women are portrayed in the media today. Her creator bias shows up in the writing of her characters and in the themes her movies portray, in this case, the movie contains strong themes of female empowerment and feminism which are themes Gerwig stands for and advocates for. The Barbies literally fight the Ken Patriarchy. Her creator biases and beliefs are apparent in her world building and how she structures and represents her conflict, which is how the patriarchy effect on both men and women.

                                     Greta Gerwig represents Barbie and the other Kens and fellow Barbies by othering them from the “real world”, which Barbie ends up traveling to in the movie. This is both intentional to the plot and how we view Barbie’s character as a whole. By othering her and her world from our reality, it makes more sense to why she would be confused or struggle to fit in our real world. The construction of Barbies world as well also helps representing her character and world around her. It’s bright and pink, happy and perfect, nothing goes wrong; a stark contrast to our society/world today. 

                                     On the other hand, unlike Barbie, Gloria, one of the main characters from the real world and her daughter Sasha serve as characters that can be seen as more mainstream and easier for the audience to relate to. When they arrive at Barbieland, Gerwig decenters them from the real world to Barbieland, which as the story progresses develops both of there characters and bond as mother and daughter.

                                        Overall, I enjoy the representational patterns in this film! I recommend anyone who hasn’t watched it to watch it. I believe it’s on HBO Max (or just MAX now.)

(Barbie, Greta Gerwig) 

Note: Her costume design also others her from the real world as well.

Sound Project!!

                                           In the past few days in class, I have been working on my sound project for AICE Media. A quick rundown of the project is that my partner and me have to make a 1 to 2 minute scene using only sound/audio. We brainstormed a couple different scenes, but we both ended on making  an airport scene. We both created and edited a outline of our project, figuring out how we were going to divide our scene. Additionally, we also listed off all the sound effects we would use. This part was helpful since we got to create a checklist of all the audios we would need (also I just like planning things in general.)                                                                                                 

                                          Making and editing the project on Adobe Premiere Pro was the longest part, we first needed to find the sound effects from a website, the website we ended up using the most was https://pixabay.com. It had a great assortment of audios that helped build up our project. Then we had to create 4 different foley sounds, made using our own items/equipment. My partner used there suitcase to make a suitcase rolling sound, while I used my backpack to record and make the zipper opening and rummaging around the bag sounds. I also recorded a "typing" sound by tapping on the screen of my iPad. Editing the sounds was mostly figuring out which levels of volume each sound would be in depending on what we want the viewer to visualize. For example, if in the scene the protagonist was nearing the metal detectors we would slowly increase the sound of the metal detectors beeping and the machine humming. Premiere didn't crash on me this time! It was my computer... 

                                           Overall, I am glad with how the project turned out! I am not that experienced with editing audio, but I did pretty decent for my first time. Next time, I would definitely sprinkle in a few more sound effects to make the audio seem less stagnant in some parts, but I am definitely satisfied with the finishing result.

Here's a link to the project! AntonTorres_soundscape_per7