This document provides contextual information on several horror directors: Jordan Peele, Stanley Kubrick, and Alfred Hitchcock. It summarizes their backgrounds and styles. For Peele, it notes his background in comedy and how his films reference classic horrors while including diverse leads. For Kubrick, it discusses his unique directing style and character portrayals. For Hitchcock, it outlines his background in silent films and reliance on visuals and plot twists. The document also presents brief theories about common horror themes and definitions of genre. The proposal expresses interest in researching these influential directors to inform a new horror film project.

1. Contextual Research

2. Jordan Peele
• Jordan Peele is an actor, writer and director. He has been reffered to as
'This generations Alfred Hitchcock' by the New York Times. Best known
for his comedy work with Keegan-Micheal Key he made his directorial
debut with the horror film Get Out. Peele has expressed his love for the
horror genre ever since he was a child. After directing Get Out he went
on to create the psychological horror Us and produced Candyman, which
is due to release in 2021. Peele often references classic horror films such
as the Shining in his work.
• Peeles 2 films are very similar in the way they are both psychological
horror films, including POC actors as the main roles, which is rarley seen
in the horror genre. He also deals with topics like white-on-black
violence, and the comodification of their bodies, especially in Get Out.
Peeles mix of comedy and horror is also one of his main things that
make his films unique to him, as this concept is not new, but the way he
does it makes the films enjoyable to watch.
• Cinamatography wise Peeles films leave you feeling like something
deeper is going on. You get a sense of things happening out of shot that
you don’t really get with other films in this genre, eventually this is
revealed later on. The framing of the shots is often intense and often we
experience a main character POV, which makes us feel like we are
alongside the character throughout the film, which again is done a lot
better than most films in this genre.

4. Stanley
Kubrick
• Stanley Kubrick was an American director, producer and screenwriter.
Born on the 26th July 1928. Before creating film, he worked as a
photographer for Look magazine in the late 40s. Whilst his career in
photography was short, it inspired him to create films, in 1956 he made
his first major Hollywood film, The Killing, after a series of productions
on a much smaller budget. Although Kubrick didn’t make horror films,
he created genre defining thrillers in films like The Shining.
• His directing style was very much unique, especially at the time. He
didn’t like to show his own personal views in his films, and showed an
inner struggle through the characters, and this was often seen from
different perspectives. He said his films were like popular music, that
they could be appreciated by everyone. "Emotions and subconscious are
far more similar than their intellects."
• The way he portrayed characters in films was definitive for the time too,
with many defining personalities throughout his films, such as the way
Jack is shown in the shining. He also explores the objkectification of
woman in his films, especially in Lolita and Clockwork Orange.
• Kubricks use of camerawork makes his films unique too, with his use of
zooms, often in strange places, or very fast or slow. Wide angle
shots were also commonly used in his films, to show the veiwer more
than what they would normally see in a regular film.

6. Alfred
Hitchcock
• Sir Alfred Hitchcock was a British director, producer and screenwriter. He
was most known for creating horror films such as Psycho and The Birds.
He was nicknamed The Master of Suspense. He didn’t have that much of
an educational background in film and aspired to become an engineer.
He worked as a technician for Henley Telegraph Company to support his
family before becoming a title card designer at Famous Players-Laskey.
• Hitchcock started making very low budget silent productions at the
beginning of his career, then moving onto bigger productions like Psycho
and The Birds as he gained more notoriety in the film world. His film
Vertigo has now replaced Citizen Kane as the best British film of all
time.
• His style of directing is known as the Hitchcockian style, and
includes heavily relying on visual aspects, due to his time in silent film,
where all he must rely on was visuals. He often includes a major plot
twist throughout most of his films, which made them stand out from
much more linear plots of the time. He also liked to make the main
character seem very normal and regular, so the viewer could relate to
this, and then put them in situations that were life threatening or very
dangerous, Physico is an example of this.

8. Horror Genre
Theory
• Thematically horror is one of the most repetitive genres of film,
with the main plot being murder or paranormal activity, lots of
death and often no happy ending. Filmmakers often use
empathy as a tool to engage the viewer and make them feel
guilty or bad for the antagonist, usually giving them a sad
backstory as to why they are doing what they are doing, such as
domestic abuse, or vengeance. Whilst most murder-based
horrors are dealing with revenge, paranormal/ghost driven films
tend to deal with loss and broken bonds. The whole genre of
horror is very susceptible to being a cliché, but directors now
use that to twist and play with the audience and show them
things they don’t excpect.
• "If movies are the dreams of the mass culture... horror movies
are the nightmares" Stephen King (?)
• "There are many ways to define a genre as there are theories of
meaning, but three are most commonly used. The first defines a
genre by a shared set of conventions" Grossberg, p.160.

9. Contextual Proposal

10. I have chosen to research these directors because they have
made classic horrors that have gained cult followings or created
horror films that have pushed new boundaries in the genre. Some
of the scenes from the director's films that drew me to research
them was the scene from Kubrick's Shining where Jack breaks the
door down with an axe. The famous shower scene from
Hitchcock's Psycho and the sunken place scene from Peele's Get
Out. The current situation with Covid could affect my work in
many ways, especially if we are in a full lockdown at the time
because it would be very difficult to film with others, which is
necessary. I am going to plan for all eventualities, so I have a plan
whatever happens at the time. I was attracted to this project
because its genre is something new that I haven't explored at all,
and I think it would be interesting to create a good horror film.

11. Bibliography
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1443502/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/jo
rdan_peele
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000040/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Stanle
y-Kubrick
https://www.biography.com/filmmaker/stanley
-kubrick
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000033/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-
Hitchcock