Extra research on the conventions of old age in horror movies

CONTEXT BEHIND AGEISM; ageism is referred to often as a 'social disease' fed into by stereotyping. Some believe ageism can be stereotyped in just the same ways as racism and sexism and hence, ageing actors and elderly characters create deep personas and relatable figures in the film industry. In politically correct terms, old age people are to be referred to as seniors, making them seem rather superior in contrast to the frail, weak and sometimes even feared and isolated stereotypes cinematic pieces flaunt. Often real life representations of age differentiate to stereotypes that come across in films, hence defeating the idea of hyper reality suggested by media theorist jean Baudrillard. In the real world exempt from the film industry one of the main categorization for the elderly is seeing them as helpless victims, sweet and vulnerable which is reinforced in these recent news headlines i found 'elderly woman scammed of life savings' 'police hunt driver that knocked down elderly couple' 'elderly man missing in..' reinforcing how the elderly are victimized and perhaps seen as inferior and incapable.

in the film industry the elderly are attributed a demeaning set of characteristics: senile, sickly, unattractive, greedy, cranky, and child-like. Particularly also- the elderly play pinnacle roles in sit coms and play an almost clown like roles. However, in our film trailer we will be completely contrasting some of the most generic cliche elderly stereotypes and using our ageing antagonist as the main point of horror and fear in the film.

THEORIST RESEARCH:  Elizabeth Dozois

Research suggests that most people (including older adults) do not understand the course of typical aging and grossly overestimate its impact. For example, one study found that 90 percent of elderly respondents indicated that the likelihood of them becoming senile was very strong. However, estimates indicate that dementia-related illnesses only affects about 10 percent of people over age 65…

We researched into Dozois' theories as it assisted in using the general public's views and stereotypes to craft our antagonist cleverly as someone who could be related to, and seem realistic to audiences as realistic horror is what creates fear and what truly scares movie goers. this idea of elderly people expecting to go 'senile' gave us a basis for the elderly woman's persona in our film who we wanted to have an aura of madness and not quite mortal saneness. this enabled us to craft the elderly character around real world stereotypes of insanity so we could create a ghostly, maddening and eerie old woman character to scare audiences and trigger a response.