This is a powerpoint on the representation in our opening sequence, The Book. This includes things such as age, gender, class, ethnicity and region

1. Representation in ‘The Book’

2. The Book
• In our project, we used two characters that
are shown in the opening sequence. This is
the Mother and the Daughter.

3. Age
In the beginning of our sequence, the
daughter is shown to the audience
only through pictures; one of which
reads, “In Loving Memory”. This
makes the audience begin to
sympathize to towards this character
and later towards the Mother.
Through only presenting the
daughter through photos, creates a
narrative enigma and makes the
audience want to continue watching
to fin out what happened to her.

4. Age
• The daughter is also represented
and shown to be quite innocent
looking. Using children, especially
daughters is a key feature of
horror films. This can be seen in
films such as ‘The Shining”
• The mother in the film is
represented as a stereotypical
middle aged house wife. This is
indicated by when she walks into
the bedroom to put away the
laundry. Conventionally in films, it
is the mother/wife who completes
these household jobs. This is also
seen when ‘Susan Jones’ takes the
dog out for a walk in the following
scene.
“The Shining”
Directed by Stanley Kubrick

5. Gender
• In our opening sequence, we have only
used female characters. A convention of
horror films is to have females playing the
victim, which often makes the audience
sympathize towards their character more.
• Typically in films the male character plays
the part of the hero and the female
character plays more of a victim. The use
of close ups and extreme close ups of the
female protagonist, Susan, helps the
audience to form a bond with the
character as well as allowing the audience
to see her facial expressions better e.g.
the pain and confusion.

6. Gender
• An example of this technique, using close ups and extreme
close ups of the female protagonists, can be seen in Black
Swan (another psychological horror)
• They mainly used in the movie poster, in order to get the
audience attached to the character before watching the film.
“Black Swan”
Directed by Darren Aronofsky

7. Class
• The family in our sequence can be depicted
as a middle class family. This is shown
through the location of house that they live
in.
• Typical representations of the middle class
are that they are ‘normal’ and ’have good
family values’/ are ‘normal’.
• This is subverted in a reserved way when we show the mother going into the
deceased childs’ room to put clothes away, whilst looking happy/joyful. This
subverts this stereotype as it allows the viewer to see that she potentially
isn’t ‘normal’, therefore fitting to the psychological horror genre.
• Referenced: Class and Status

8. Race and Ethnicity
• Stereotypically in horror films, the cast is
predominately white whilst having minority racial
groups generally playing the ‘villain’.
• In our production piece, we conformed to the
idea of having the main character as being of a
white racial background. However, we subverted
the idea of having the ‘villain’ or ‘monster’ played
by the daughter of the white protagonist.
• Reference: Race in Horror Films

9. Region
• Stereotypes of being English are that they are
shown as being traditional and posh or rich.
Stereotypes of being from the south are that they
are modern, clever and also traditionally posh or
rich.
• In our production piece, we neither conform or
subvert stereotypes of these. This is because of
the very limited budget we had and as we live in
the south of England we couldn't travel to a
another region if we wanted to portray a
different ‘regional identity’