The document discusses the representation of youth in British horror films such as Harry Brown and Eden Lake. It examines how these films portray young people as threatening normal social norms and conventional institutions through scenes of violence and conflict with older adult characters. The document also analyzes how these films position social class and the roles of couples versus youth gangs. Overall, the document is analyzing how recent British horror films have portrayed young people as monsters that undermine societal stability.

1. Contemporary British Cinema and the Representation of
Youth
Lesson 1

2. What is the dominant representation of British Youth in Harry Brown?
Who are the key characters that illustrate this?
What are the key scenes in the film that show this?

3. Make notes on the camera work, sound and mise en scene used in
opening sequence of ‘Harry Brown’.
Using these elements how does this scene represent young people?

4. (2008)
Director:
James
Watkins
Make notes on the trailer of ‘Eden Lake’.
• How are Jenny and Steve (the main couple) represented?
• How is this contrasted with the representation of the other characters?
• How important is the issue of social class?
• How are young people represented?

5. Horror and the Representation of Youth
 Film theorist Robin Wood argues that the basic
formula of the horror film is:
 “normality is threatened by the monster.”
 “I use normality here…to mean simply
conformity to the dominant social norms”.
 “The definition of normality in horror films is in
general boringly consistent: the heterosexual
monogamous couple, the family, and the social
institutions (police, church, armed forces) that
protect them”
 “The monster is of course much more
protean, changing from period to period as
society’s basic fears clothe themselves in
fashionable or immediately accessible garments”

6. Horror and the Representation of Youth
 Thinking of the previous quotes from Robin
Wood and the films and texts you have studied
so far:
 What is the significance of the emergence of a
cycle of British films in which the ‘monster’ is
young people?
 How do they threaten normality?
 What term could we use instead of normality?