Subversion and Representation

Subversion is defined in the dictionary as: 

"To undermine the principles of; corrupt 
To overthrow something established or existing "

When applied to the media subversion refers to reversing common conventions, such as having a female action hero, or, as seen in 'Blade', a black hero against a white villain. Subversion can change the effect a film has and in mine, it shows that not all monsters are male. This is especially effective within my opening as vampires are traditionally undead males, such as Dracula, preying on helpless, young and generally beautiful women.

However my opening can be a very common representation of females, in that they are very vindictive towards males and use their "feminine wiles and sexuality" to entice men. This can be applied to my opening because one of the female vampires wears a very revealing outfit to lure her victim towards her, attempting to seduce him in the process. One representation of women that is not applicable is that women are weak and helpless. This is because my vampires do not hunt with a male; they are very independent and do not rely on a creator or even a Dracula-esque character to help them.


 It was also my idea that if the film were extended to have one of the female vampires fall in love with a mortal man, again subverting the tradition of a male vampire falling in love with a mortal female. This has been seen in many places, such as in film series The Twilight Saga, hit HBO television show True Blood and in the ITV drama series The Vampire Diaries.

Vampire Sexuality

Of all the monsters of fiction, the only one primarily associated with sex is the vampire. However, the vampire of folklore was not a sexually attractive figure; he was a dead man who fed on blood. Bram Stoker changed all that with his novel, Dracula.

Stoker used the vampire as a metaphor for the Victorian view of sex as dangerous. In Dracula, sex with the Count transformed women into seductive sirens and horrific murderesses – the opposite of the Victorian ideal of chastity and nurturing womanhood. Originally, only female vampires were especially beautiful. Other such spirit-like vampires were always ugly in their true form, but had the ability to shift their appearance to that of a beautiful maiden, in order to lure men to them.

An interesting aspect of the vampire’s sexual nature is their freedom from rules and social restrictions. From the earliest myths, creatures we now recognize as vampires, by their behavior and supernatural qualities, were female entities determined to punish men. Their raw, untamed sexuality gave them the power of seduction, where they used this to corrupt the minds of men, and send good girls into demoniac possession. In societies demanding sexual restraint, nothing is more frightening than a liberal minded women.

Final Synopsis

The camera follows a young male through a graveyard at dusk as he walks home. As he continues his journey he grows paranoid. Shot of him being followed are seen before he hears a noise and turns to see a pale beautiful woman not much older than he is wearing a very revealing outfit. Scared by her unearthly beauty he moves away from her, only for another, more conservatively dressed pale woman to move towards him from the opposite direction. He realises something is wrong and tries to escape them, only to be encircled by the two females. He is torn between survival and the mesmerising quality of the women. One puts her hand on his shoulder and pushes him to his knees with no effort. He only realises his mistake in not running when he sees them smile with unusually sharp teeth and the camera tilts up to the sky as the vampires (as the women are revealed to be) lean in towards his neck.

Original idea no. 2

My second idea was to have a two part opening. The first part would be a black and white version of my original idea, only slightly shorter and then it cuts to a colour scene with a one year later caption. What would then be seen is a young white male seen in church praying through gaps in the pews, to give a voyeuristic feel to the film. He would then walk to the entrance of the church only to be confronted by the victim from the previous scene who, after revealing her identity as a vampire tells him that she can indeed set foot on hallowed ground and that he shouldn't believe everything he sees in horror movies. 

This idea was scrapped partially for the same reason as the first idea, in that it would not be easy to film or seem very original. the other reason is that because my actors are religious, they did not feel comfortable filming such scenes in a church.

Original idea no. 1

My initial idea was to show how the character who would be my main "villain" became a vampire. The plan was to follow her through a graveyard where she would be attacked by another vampire. Someone would then scare off the attacker before they could kill her but by that point she would have already been infected with the vampire "virus" that would change her.


This idea was discarded as not only is it incredibly similar to the opening sequence of 28 Days Later, but also because a lot of vampire movies have scenes like that.

Target audience analysis

I have chosen my target audience for specific reasons. Horror movies are traditionally aimed at men, meaning that there is a definite gender audience. The usual age range a horror film is aimed at is 18-24, as they are also the the ages that people go to the cinema most. My film is also going to be aimed at this age because the certificate will most likely be an 18 due to a bloody and highly sexualised content.


My racial choice has been decided by the fact that the majority of cinema goers and major movie stars are white. Within that they are also male, making a clear audience that near enough guarantees viewers as they can relate to my characters more than, for example, a black man could. I also chose an urban collection of males as there are more people living in the cities that could go to the cinema to see my production.

Vampires are a horror monster most admired by the science-fiction and fantasy loving "geek", which is why they create my audience. Their lifestyle is probably likely to revolve more around computer games and perhaps the more traditional nerdy past-times of collecting memorabilia such as comic books or even just collecting games. They are the kind to stay up all night playing games like Call Of Duty or Halo all night on XboX Live. My audience is also most likely to be upper working class or middle class and are at the very least college educated and possibly in university.

Target Audience

Age: 18-24
Race: White
Gender: Male
Education: College/University students
Lifestyle: Geeky/nerdy, likes computer games and surfing the internet
Location: Inner city