Media Review

Media Review

Media Review (4-5 full length pages, 10% of final grade)
Goal: Evaluate a monster character and use three nonfiction or critical sources to support your evaluation
You will choose one text (short story, film, album, t.v. show, game, artwork, etc.) and review it, just as a journalist or critic would. You must choose a text that deals in some way with issues of monstrosity and focus on how the monster is portrayed. I encourage you strongly to focus on a small part of this text (one character, one episode, 2-3 scenes or chapters, etc.), rather than trying to cover an entire plotline. Do not summarize this text. Analyze the character instead. Don’t just tell your reader “what” happens; go on to explain what’s important, informative, disappointing, entertaining, and/or troubling, and why you think so.

In your essay, please cover the following:
*What makes this character a monster, as we have defined them in class?
*Are the monsters “sympathetic,” i.e., can a person identify with the monster and see things from the monster’s perspective? Does the monster have compassion, sensitivity, kindness, etc.?
*Do you think that the way the monster is portrayed is acceptable? If the monster is a person, is the portrayal realistic, offensive, etc.? Are there any prejudices you notice (race, religion, gender, sexuality, economic class, etc.)? Consider the genre and goal of the text—is this text meant to scare, horrify, make people laugh, make people think, etc.?

This assignment requires a Works Cited page (excluded from the minimum length) that lists the text you review as well as any other sources you may have used. The text reviewed does not count as one of the three sources.

You will support your thesis with concrete details and examples, which may include facts, logical conclusions, statistics, thoughtful analysis, critical evaluation, etc. Do not write about something only slightly related to monsters. For instance, don’t write an essay about how “bath salts” should be illegal because a Miami man took them and then acted like a zombie (fact check: the coroner found no evidence of these substances in the man’s body).

It is very important that you pick an obvious monster or monsters to write about. Do not create a persuasive argument convincing your reader that someone or something is a monster. That will result in a failing grade. Do not write about objects, natural disasters, cultural movements, politicians, real-world technology, or anything else that isn’t obviously a monster as we’ve defined the term. So: no monster trucks, no monster-brand energy drinks, no “monster” athletes, no atomic bombs, and no cute talking animals (unless of course they kill people).

This assignment must be 4-5 full-length pages and include in-text citation, a Works Cited page, and quoted material from at least 3 appropriate sources. By “appropriate,” I mean that the information found in these sources must have all of the following qualities:
1) clearly related to your topic and argument
2) contains written or spoken information that expands or enriches the understanding of the topic
3) is factually accurate and/or at least a logical opinion based on thoughtful analysis

The following sources are considered inappropriate for this assignment:
*conspiracy theories *rumors *personal stories *random comments on the internet
*interviews with non-experts *children’s and young adult books *Ask.com *About.com
*dictionaries *Wikipedia
If you have a question about any of the above, please ask! If you are writing about any of these topics (urban legends, conspiracies, etc.) and believe that these sorts of sources would actually help your analysis, we can discuss this.

Feel free to use visual images in your essay as a way of composing across media. Choose them wisely. Images should be used to explain and communicate information, not to make the page look cool. Any space allotted to images will not be considered toward the minimum page length. Do not neglect to cite the images within the essay (with titles or “image 1,” etc. underneath the images) as well as on the Works Cited page. Visual images do not count towards the minimum sources.

Avoid writing about documentaries and news articles. It can be very difficult to analyze the way a real-life human monster is portrayed by the media. Most of you are not prepared for this level of media analysis.

Please don’t write about Shrek or Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. There are dozens of other excellent versions of Beauty and the Beast, including La Belle et La Bete by Jean Cocteau. Do not write about Hitler (so easy; do better). Finally, do not write about the Illuminati. Several students have tried, and for some reason this never, ever goes well.

If you’re having trouble choosing a text to write about, here are some of my favorite monster texts outside of what we read and watch in class. Please keep in mind that the horror ones can be very frightening, and may include adult content:
“The Colour Out of Space,” a short story by H. P. Lovecraft (suspense / sci fi)
“Herbert West, Reanimator,” a short story by H. P. Lovecraft (zombie horror)
“Bloodchild,” a short story by Octavia Butler (horror / sci fi)
Mars Attacks, a film directed by Tim Burton (comedy / sci fi)
No Such Thing, a film directed by Hal Hartley (comedy/ sci fi)
Labyrinth, a film directed by Jim Henson (comedy / fantasy / family)
The Dark Crystal, a film directed by Jim Henson (fantasy/family)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a film directed by Jim Sharman (comedy / musical / lgbt)
Little Shop of Horrors, a film directed by Frank Oz (comedy / musical about a killer plant)
Party Monster, a film directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (murder comedy)
Killer Klowns from Outer Space, a film directed by the Chiodo brothers (comedy/horror)
Freaks, a film directed by Tod Browning (comedy / romance / suspense)
The Tingler, a film directed by William Castle (comedy / suspense)
Party Monster: Shockumentary, a documentary directed by Bailey & Barbato (true crime)
The Elephant Man, a film directed by David Lynch (historical account of a deformed man)
Mommy Dearest, a film directed by Frank Perry (true story of child abuse in Hollywood)
Dorian Gray, a film directed by Oliver Parker (horror/murder/comedy)
Psycho, a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock (horror/murder/suspense)
Nightbreed, a film directed by Clive Barker (horror)
The Hunger, a film directed by Tony Scott (vampire horror)
The Silence of the Lambs, a film directed by Jonathan Demme (suspense / horror/ murder)
Alien, a film directed by Ridley Scott (suspsense / horror/ sci fi)
The Thing, a film directed by John Carpenter (suspense / horror / sci fi)
Splice, a film directed by Vincenzo Natali (horror / sci fi)
The Cell, a film directed by Tarsem Singh (horror / sci fi/ murder)
The Fly, a film directed by David Cronenberg (horror/ sci fi)
Rosemary’s Baby, a film directed by Roman Polanski (religious horror)
The Exorcist, a film directed by William Friedkin (religious horror)

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