Deconstruction of Actors - Bailey May

Deconstruction of Actors

The Conjuring

• In The Conjuring the actors are a stereotypical family. This creates insecurity within the audience as the common thing to think is 'that will never happen to me' so its giving immunity to no one.
• Additionally, the person who becomes possessed is the mother which conforms to common media conventions of women being victims.
• Also, the fact the whole family apart from the father are girls exploits the stereotype of women being victims but conforms to the social expectations at the time about women.

The Cabin in the Woods

•  Here the actors all represent a stereotype: The Athlete, Virgin, The Whore, The Scholar and The Fool.
• This generalisation makes it easy for the audience to relate and compare themselves to these stereotypes.
• The actors and their roles all conform to the media's common image regarding gender roles, the males are heroic and the females victims.  
• Although, the actor who is 'The Virgin' subverts the media's common portrayal of women as she saves the male 'Fool' on many associations. 

Insidious

• Again we have the common convention of the happy family moving into a new home.
• The victim in this case is not the woman/mother as expected, but one of the young boys which conforms to common media image that children are vulnerable.
• Moreover, the young boy who becomes the victim is the victim due to his childhood tendencies to dream and the demon possesses him through his dream world.
• This is designed to spook the audience as we have no conscious control of our dreams and with the young boy being possessed by powers he has now control over is unsettling.

Conclusion

A common theme in all of these films is families are very popular with film makers because its easy to manipulate and create insecurity within the audience as everyone has and is apart of  family. From this I think It would be interesting to use a single person from a family to have as the victim to emphasis that everyone can be a victim not just one member from a family.