SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

THE DESIGN SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT

NAME: RYAN KERRY JEE JIN YIING

STUDENT ID NO: 0318715

FILMS SELECTED: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY & ORPHAN

WORD COUNT: 1330 WORDS

ENGLISH 2 (ELG 30605)

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: CONTRAST ESSAY

LECTURER: MS CASSANDRA WIJESURIA

SUBMISSION DATE: 5TH DECEMBER 2014

Films and movies play important roles in our daily lives especially in our daily

routines. We watch movies every now and then without actually realizing our specific or

preferred genres of movies due to vast varieties of genres different movies have to offer. One

of the most preferred, thrilling and breath-taking genres are the horror genre movies. So, for

this essay I would like to do a contrasting comparison between two movies with the same

genre which I love. The two selected movies which I will be doing is non other than the

renowned Paranormal Activity which is directed by Oran Peli in the year 2007 and also

Orphan which was directed by Jaume Collet-Serra which was released in the year 2009.

No doubt both the movies share the same genre in general, but both of their horror

genre differ from each other. For instance, Paranormal Activity portrays supernatural horror.

This can be clearly shown when supernatural presence can be felt and experienced in the

movie. This is portrayed through recordings which firstly captured minor occurrences such as

weird noises, flickering lights and also doors moving on their own. All of the supernatural

occurrences are stretched throughout the whole movie using footage recordings which

features weirder and weirder supernatural occurrences. On the other hand for the horror film,

Orphan, it clearly portrays psychological horror genre. This features psychological horror

genre which centers a couple who, after the death of their unborn child due to miscarriage,

adopt a mysterious 9 years old girl - Esther. Kate ( the mother of the family ) suspected

Esther's background due to her deep knowledge of sex despite her age. She was also further

alarmed by the head of the orphanage regarding unfortunate things that happens when she is

present. The genre of the movie is further strengthen when Esther murdered the head of the

orphanage using a hammer. She persuaded Max, ( step deaf mute sister ) to hide the body and

weapon and also threatened her to cover her bad doings.

Both of the movies shows differences in terms of their characters. The main antagonists

for instance shows different characteristics and personalities. For the film, Paranormal

Activity, the main antagonist is portrayed as the supernatural forces that constantly disturb

spandex causes trouble and peace of the couple. It started off by giving off strange signs like

doors closing by itself which is not directly realized by the couple but captured on the

camera. Gradually as the nights went by, the signs kept getting worse from causing small and

seemingly unnoticeable signs to dragging Katie ( main actress - Micah's girlfriend ) down

from bed and possessing her into killing Micah ( main actor - Katie's boyfriend ). This unseen

force strongly portrays itself as the main antagonist in the movie. On the other hand, for the

other horror film, Orphan, the main antagonist is being portrayed by the girl, Esther who is

actually a woman that is defined as a violent and deluded psychopath. She, being an innocent

little girl is actually a grown matured thinking woman who is suffering from hypopituitarism,

a hormone disorder that stunted her physical growth and who she spent most of her life

posing as a little girl. She is highly intelligent, manipulative, superficially charming when

needed. She can easily induce fear, empathy and also admiration towards other people when

it suits her ambitions. She is extremely talented in art and music. Due to her disorder it is hard

for her to have an adult relationship with a normal grown man, which is one of the things she

yearned for. Due to this intention of hers, she targets families into adopting her by charming

them. After that, she then tried all sorts of ways and tactics to seduce John ( father of the

family ), but then kill all family members and commit arson onto the family's property. This

portrays her being the moan antagonist in the movie.

The different happenings and occurrences in Paranormal Activity had been equally

distributed along the days and nights throughout the movie but the enticing part had been

focused onto the climax of the movie. The climax of the movie happened during the last night

around 3.05 am. Katie seemingly possessed by unseen forces, gets out of bed, stood up and

stared at Micah who was sleeping beside her for merely two hours. After standing there for

such a long while doing literally nothing, she then head downstairs. Suddenly, Katie

screamed Micah's name from the kitchen along with another inhuman voice, causing Micah

to rush downstairs. Out of a sudden, Katie's screaming stopped and heavy footsteps can be

heard coming u the stairs. Micah's body was then hurled violently against the camera which

knocked off the tripod. On the other hand for the movie Orphan, Kate was alarmed by Saarne

institute regarding Esther whose real name is actually Leena who was actually a violent

mental patient at the Saarne institute mental hospital. Knowing this, Kate immediately rushed

back home, but only to find the dead body of her husband, john at the foot of the stairs, with

Leena holding a gun at the top of the stairs which was used to shoot Kate in the arm. The

scene followed with her taking cover in the greenhouse of their house and at the same time

tracking down her daughter to protect her film the psycho girl. While Leena tried to shoot

max, Kate stopped her by knocking her down and then retrieving gun and leaves the

greenhouse with Max.

For the setting of both movies, it is obvious that both took place at different places.

Paranormal Activity took place in a suburban house owned by the couple in San Diego

California. The whole story took place in that house and it shows how the haunting of unseen

forces towards the main character of the story, Katie slowly builds. It serves as a place where

strange occurrences carried out by the unseen forces were depicted. Doors, heavy footsteps

against the wooden floors and also flickering lights in the house owned by couple were used

to further enhance the strange anomaly done by the unseen forces that has been haunting the

couple. As for the movie Orphan, the story is set at the house owned by the couple at the city

of Montreal, Canada. The house of the couple is placed at a remote hilly area and the

surrounding area is filled with incessant snow which kind of depict the blue, chilly and lonely

aura of the inhabitants of the house. Mainly the house is used as the main place to show daily

routines carried out by the family and the siblings along with the antagonist. The main parts

of the story surrounds the house to show the happenings and what is going on after the family

adopted the orphan. It is also shown that the orphan - Esther utilized some parts of the house

for instance the tree house to bury her secrets and evil doings from the rest of the family.

In a nutshell, both Paranormal Activity and orphan have many differences but they are

still thrilling in their own way. Paranormal Activity displays a different sense of horror which

was depicted by unseen forces whereas the movie orphan was portrayed by a psychological

distorted girl which is actually a grown matured women with a growth disorder. Besides,

paranormal activity portrayed thrilling plots using unseen forces creating strange occurrences

which gradually builds up, haunts and then causing possession and murder. On the other

hand, the thrilling parts in the movie orphan is shown using threatening, hurting and murder

by a little girl which gradually revealing her real color and true self as a grown matured

woman with stunted growth who also happens to be psychological distorted. In contrast, they

both shows different characteristics in terms of genres, characters, climax and also settings

despite the fact that both of the films are horror films