Terror in the castle
Genre remixing is creating one genre from another. For our genre remix project, we will be making the Disney movie, Beauty and the Beast, into a horror movie. We are combining two very different genres. A genre that is based on bringing joy to children and teaching morals and a genre that is made to scare the audience. In our remix, we have made a trailer for Beauty and the Beast that will showcase it as a horror film.
This is a collection of just a few Disney songs.
The writers for Disney movies use a great deal of pathos in the films. There is always some sort of emotional appeal in the Disney movies. The main character usually only has one parent in their life and this could cause the audience to identify with them and even feel bad for them. The main problem also appeals to pathos. For example, in Beauty and the Beast, Belle is locked in the Beast’s tower and separated from her father. This could cause the audience to feel sadness for her and her father. Disney writers also use Ethos well. All Disney movies teach some sort of lesson or moral. In Beauty and the Beast, one of the morals is outside appearances can be deceiving. Both the Beast and Gaston were different from how they looked. The Beast was actually a good guy even though he looked scary and Gaston was an awful person even though he looked very attractive. This use of ethos is appealing to the audience’s character. There are many ideologies and cultural assumptions made in Disney movies. One of these is, the man must save the “damsel in distress.” This specific ideology is more apparent in older Disney movies than the newer films. Disney movies are expected to have songs, a happy ending, and humor. These expectations are what the audience is looking for when they watch Disney films. The main purposes of Disney movies are to teach morals and bring happiness to children.
Official Trailer
There are many different characteristics for Disney movies and horror movies. Some of these characteristics are even found in both genres, such as the hero versus villain situation. In the genre of a Disney movie, there is light-hearted humor, happily ever after’s, magic and morals for the audience to learn. The audience is focused towards young children, although many different age groups enjoy the movies. There is usually a large amount of singing, a hero versus villain situation, and a problem that is solved at the end. Disney is usually full of light colors and has very happy outcomes. The setting for most Disney movies is a castle, small village, or forest. Beauty and the Beast takes place in a little town where all the villagers know each other.
"Outside appearances can be deceiving"
Some of the most well known movie villains- Freddy Kreuger, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, and Pinhead
The audience is focused towards people who want to be scared so there is no age range for the audience. Although, usually small children aren’t allowed to watch horror movies until they are older. Pathos is the main rhetorical device used in horror movies because it appeals to the audience’s emotion of fear. Appealing to the audience’s fear will cause them to become more invested in the movie and also make them more terrified. The audience will become invested in the characters and worry about if their favorite character will survive the movie. Horror movies usually take place in a creepy town, a haunted house, or scary woods. The audience of horror movies have the expectation that they will be scared and if a movie doesn’t scare the audience then it’s not meeting that expectation.
In the genre of horror, there are eerie noises, villains who are trying to kill other people, and the movies play on the audience’s fears. The villains in these movies can be crazy people, ghosts, or monsters. Horror movies also have foreshadowing, lots of suspense, and many people die. Suspense is used to make the audience feel frightened and the movie’s purpose is to scare people. Horror movies usually have dark colors. Many horror movies also play music so the audience knows that the killer is coming. For example, in the movie Halloween, there is always music played before Michael Myers shows up. This creates suspense for the audience and makes them become tense. Again, this shows how the main purpose of horror movies is to scare the audience.
Accurate representation of me
Gaston describing Belle's father
In our new trailer, Terror in the Castle, the basic storyline is that Belle is taken by the crazy man because she finds out what bizarre things he’s doing and so he locks her away in a castle with a frightening monster. The hero, Gaston, is trying to save her from being killed by the two villains. This trailer takes the happy Disney movie and changes it into a suspenseful, scary, horror film. The use of dark backgrounds, creepy music, and villains showcase the genre expectations for a horror movie. In this new trailer, most of the scenes include dark settings. The scary forest and creepy castle both support the characteristics of a horror movie.
The trailer also plays eerie music and this can give the audience a sense of fear. By playing that specific music, we were able to set the tone for a horror movie. If we had played happy, upbeat music, then the audience would not feel the emotion of fear. The new trailer shows a hero versus villain situation, which is a characteristic of both Disney movies and horror movies. Someone is always trying to save other people and themselves from the crazy killer in horror movies. In our trailer, this hero is Gaston. This trailer gives a scare factor because the audience does not know if Belle will make it out alive or if the monster and the crazy man will kill her. This scare factor also causes the audience to feel suspense, which is a key component in horror movies.
More horror movie villains
By choosing two genres that are drastically different, we were able to create a remix that changes one genre into the other. Overall, our new trailer shows how we took a happy, love story and turned it into a frightening horror movie through the use of eerie music, dark backgrounds, and scary characters.
Here is a remixed picture of Ariel from "The Little Mermaid" with the face of the character from the "Saw" movies.
Author's Note
To represent the horror movie of "Beauty and the Beast," I felt it was only fitting to have some very spooky and creepy woods as my background. I laid out the words by having them alternate sides so that it would keep my reader's eyes moving across the page. I placed the multimedia in the blank spaces so it would give the audience something to look at while reading. The pictures and videos also correlate to my genre remix. I wanted to represent both the Disney genre and the horror movie genre so I added both of those elements in my digital composition. I also added hyperlinks to keep the reader's attention while they are reading through my assignment. These hyperlinks lead to other pictures or videos. I used the faint boxes behind my text so it would be easier to read the words and I also think it adds a kind of "foggy" element to the page. I used white for my description's font because it was easier to read then the black font color.
This project has taught me how almost anything can be remixed with something else. There are so many genres out in the world and it is very easy to try and mix them together. I also learned that almost everything is just a remix of something else. Whether it's movies or music, many of them share the same characteristics as previous works. I really enjoyed doing this piece because it was so interesting. Taking something I love, like Disney movies, and making it into something that scares me was extremely fascinating. Making the trailer was the most difficult part though because it was hard to find an app or site that would allow for cutting and putting together a whole new video. I would say the digital composition part was much easier than the written portion because everything was already done. I just had to organize it in a way that was interesting and creative.
Works Cited
Beauty and the Beast. Dir. Gary Trousdale. Walt Disney Pictures, 1991. Film