English Compare & Contrast essay

1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
NAME: RYAN KERRYJEE JINYIING
STUDENT ID NO: 0318715
FILMS SELECTED: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY& ORPHAN
WORD COUNT: 1330 WORDS
ENGLISH 2 (ELG 30605)
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: CONTRAST ESSAY
LECTURER: MS CASSANDRAWIJESURIA
SUBMISSIONDATE:5TH
DECEMBER2014

2. Films and movies play important roles in our daily lives especially in our daily
routines. We watch movies every now and then without actually realizing our specific or
preferred genres of movies due to vast varieties of genres different movies have to offer. One
of the most preferred, thrilling and breath-taking genres are the horror genre movies. So, for
this essay I would like to do a contrasting comparison between two movies with the same
genre which I love. The two selected movies which I will be doing is non other than the
renowned Paranormal Activity which is directed by Oran Peli in the year 2007 and also
Orphan which was directed by Jaume Collet-Serra which was released in the year 2009.
No doubt both the movies share the same genre in general, but both of their horror
genre differ from each other. For instance, Paranormal Activity portrays supernatural horror.
This can be clearly shown when supernatural presence can be felt and experienced in the
movie. This is portrayed through recordings which firstly captured minor occurrences such as
weird noises, flickering lights and also doors moving on their own. All of the supernatural
occurrences are stretched throughout the whole movie using footage recordings which
features weirder and weirder supernatural occurrences. On the other hand for the horror film,
Orphan, it clearly portrays psychological horror genre. This features psychological horror
genre which centers a couple who, after the death of their unborn child due to miscarriage,
adopt a mysterious 9 years old girl - Esther. Kate ( the mother of the family ) suspected
Esther's background due to her deep knowledge of sex despite her age. She was also further
alarmed by the head of the orphanage regarding unfortunate things that happens when she is
present. The genre of the movie is further strengthen when Esther murdered the head of the
orphanage using a hammer. She persuaded Max, ( step deaf mute sister ) to hide the body and
weapon and also threatened her to cover her bad doings.

3. Both of the movies shows differences in terms of their characters. The main antagonists
for instance shows different characteristics and personalities. For the film, Paranormal
Activity, the main antagonist is portrayed as the supernatural forces that constantly disturb
spandex causes trouble and peace of the couple. It started off by giving off strange signs like
doors closing by itself which is not directly realized by the couple but captured on the
camera. Gradually as the nights went by, the signs kept getting worse from causing small and
seemingly unnoticeable signs to dragging Katie ( main actress - Micah's girlfriend ) down
from bed and possessing her into killing Micah ( main actor - Katie's boyfriend ). This unseen
force strongly portrays itself as the main antagonist in the movie. On the other hand, for the
other horror film, Orphan, the main antagonist is being portrayed by the girl, Esther who is
actually a woman that is defined as a violent and deluded psychopath. She, being an innocent
little girl is actually a grown matured thinking woman who is suffering from hypopituitarism,
a hormone disorder that stunted her physical growth and who she spent most of her life
posing as a little girl. She is highly intelligent, manipulative, superficially charming when
needed. She can easily induce fear, empathy and also admiration towards other people when
it suits her ambitions. She is extremely talented in art and music. Due to her disorder it is hard
for her to have an adult relationship with a normal grown man, which is one of the things she
yearned for. Due to this intention of hers, she targets families into adopting her by charming
them. After that, she then tried all sorts of ways and tactics to seduce John ( father of the
family ), but then kill all family members and commit arson onto the family's property. This
portrays her being the moan antagonist in the movie.
The different happenings and occurrences in Paranormal Activity had been equally
distributed along the days and nights throughout the movie but the enticing part had been
focused onto the climax of the movie. The climax of the movie happened during the last night

4. around 3.05 am. Katie seemingly possessed by unseen forces, gets out of bed, stood up and
stared at Micah who was sleeping beside her for merely two hours. After standing there for
such a long while doing literally nothing, she then head downstairs. Suddenly, Katie
screamed Micah's name from the kitchen along with another inhuman voice, causing Micah
to rush downstairs. Out of a sudden, Katie's screaming stopped and heavy footsteps can be
heard coming u the stairs. Micah's body was then hurled violently against the camera which
knocked off the tripod. On the other hand for the movie Orphan, Kate was alarmed by Saarne
institute regarding Esther whose real name is actually Leena who was actually a violent
mental patient at the Saarne institute mental hospital. Knowing this, Kate immediately rushed
back home, but only to find the dead body of her husband, john at the foot of the stairs, with
Leena holding a gun at the top of the stairs which was used to shoot Kate in the arm. The
scene followed with her taking cover in the greenhouse of their house and at the same time
tracking down her daughter to protect her film the psycho girl. While Leena tried to shoot
max, Kate stopped her by knocking her down and then retrieving gun and leaves the
greenhouse with Max.
For the setting of both movies, it is obvious that both took place at different places.
Paranormal Activity took place in a suburban house owned by the couple in San Diego
California. The whole story took place in that house and it shows how the haunting of unseen
forces towards the main character of the story, Katie slowly builds. It serves as a place where
strange occurrences carried out by the unseen forces were depicted. Doors, heavy footsteps
against the wooden floors and also flickering lights in the house owned by couple were used
to further enhance the strange anomaly done by the unseen forces that has been haunting the
couple. As for the movie Orphan, the story is set at the house owned by the couple at the city
of Montreal, Canada. The house of the couple is placed at a remote hilly area and the

5. surrounding area is filled with incessant snow which kind of depict the blue, chilly and lonely
aura of the inhabitants of the house. Mainly the house is used as the main place to show daily
routines carried out by the family and the siblings along with the antagonist. The main parts
of the story surrounds the house to show the happenings and what is going on after the family
adopted the orphan. It is also shown that the orphan - Esther utilized some parts of the house
for instance the tree house to bury her secrets and evil doings from the rest of the family.
In a nutshell, both Paranormal Activity and orphan have many differences but they are
still thrilling in their own way. Paranormal Activity displays a different sense of horror which
was depicted by unseen forces whereas the movie orphan was portrayed by a psychological
distorted girl which is actually a grown matured women with a growth disorder. Besides,
paranormal activity portrayed thrilling plots using unseen forces creating strange occurrences
which gradually builds up, haunts and then causing possession and murder. On the other
hand, the thrilling parts in the movie orphan is shown using threatening, hurting and murder
by a little girl which gradually revealing her real color and true self as a grown matured
woman with stunted growth who also happens to be psychological distorted. In contrast, they
both shows different characteristics in terms of genres, characters, climax and also settings
despite the fact that both of the films are horror films