An Analysis of Violence and Horror in Raw (2016) and Audition

This essay undertakes a comprehensive analysis of the horror movies 'Raw (2016)' and 'Audition (1999)', delving into their thematic elements, narrative structures, and the impact they have on the audience. The essay begins by establishing the significance of movies as cultural mirrors and educational tools, before narrowing its focus to the horror genre. 'Raw,' a French-Belgian horror film, is examined for its depiction of cannibalism, violence, and the psychological transformation of its protagonist, juxtaposing its use of lighting and cinematography with the film 'Audition,' which explores similar themes of psychological thriller and horror. The essay highlights the promotional materials used for both films, including trailers and posters, to illustrate how violence is presented to the audience. The comparison of both movies underscores the different manifestations of violence and horror in each film, with 'Raw' focusing on the transformation of a teenager and 'Audition' exploring themes of love and belonging. Ultimately, the essay concludes by considering the ways in which the directors of both movies engage the audience, develop the horror genre, and use the cannibalistic and emotionally psychotic natures of the lead characters to offer a deeper understanding of horror film development.

Running head: ANALYSIS OF MOVIES
Analysis of Movies
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ANALYSIS OF MOVIES
Movies are a source of entertainment to the people. However, these movies have a much
higher purpose to serve than simply providing entertainment. They are meant to be educational
and also be a mirror image on the current on goings in the society (Benshoff, 2017). In this
regard, it is highly essential to make an analysis of the movies which are being shown to the
people. Movies are not of the same kind, there are many genres of movies such as horror movies,
dramatic movies, romantic ones and thriller movies. All of them have a particular theme which
are common to the other movies in their genre and helps to distinguish among them. This essay
seeks to analyze the movie of Raw which was released in the year 2016 (Freeland, 2018). It is a
horror movie and the various aspects of the movie is discussed in this essay. In order to bring
about the special features of the movie Raw, it is being compared to other horror movies such as
that of the Audition, which was released in 1999 (Wright, 2018). All these movies is compared
and analyzed together on the issue of violence as portrayed in such movies. Therefore, the thesis
statement that can be associated with the essay is that horror movies have a significant impact on
the subconscious imagination of the people viewing it.
The movie of Raw was first aired in the year 2016("Raw (2016)", 2019). It a mixture of
French and Belgium casts. The movie has been categorized under the genre of horror (Gunter,
2018). The movie is based on a vegetarian individual by the name of Justine who has enrolled
herself in a veterinary school believing that she is following the legacy of her parents. However,
a strange fate awaited her in the school when she realized that something was amiss("Raw
(2016)", 2019). In the first day itself, her elder sister Alexia, who attends the same school, forced
her to eat meat. It was not cooked meat, but rather uncooked, raw meat. Alexia even showed a
photograph to Justine which had their parents in them, covered with blood. As such, from the
first scene itself, the movie started to give a vibe of violence and death (Nemeth et al., 2015). In

2ANALYSIS OF MOVIES
their class, the students were encouraged to eat raw rabbit’s kidneys which Justine tried to
profusely refuse. However, Alexia force fed her and from that instance onwards, she started to
crave for uncooked, raw meat. The incidents after that only revealed further violence and gory
details. The violence only continued to worsen when Justine tried to take bite off of her
boyfriend, Adrien("Raw (2016)", 2019). Situations became tensed and too violent till Alexia
murdered Adrien by biting off his right leg and stabbing him to death. Alexia was arrested while
Justine was sent home where her father revealed that he was aware of what happened in that
school as even her mother had the same urge to eat raw meat. Saying that, he unbuttoned his
short and shoed her his chest which had bite marks all over it with pieces of meat missing from
his chest("Raw (2016)", 2019). He reassured Justine that she will find a solution to the problem
and shall be able to live with that.
Amovie review done by David Fear states that the movie Raw definitely has a liking to
cannibalism (Weinstock, 2017). The story of a young woman who was a vegetarian and quite
innocent, turning in to a vicious person who only craved raw meat is very horrific and
traumatizing. She was a person who was agitated when even a small piece of meat made its way
in to the meal cooked in her home. All these tiny details in the beginning of the movie made the
audience calm and relaxed and they had no idea how such a woman could ever turn in to a
cannibal. The movie shows a young nervous woman asserting herself the more she consumes
blood and meat("Raw (2016)", 2019). David Fear makes reference to several psychological
issues such as that of trichophagia and bulimia which can be seen in underlined in the theme of
the movie.
Analyzing the movie from the promotion material used for the film, the trailers
released in YouTube showed a short clip of the most gory details of the movie where the people

3ANALYSIS OF MOVIES
actually chew on raw meat while blood drips from the corners of their mouth on to their chest
and clothes. The hair on their head is blood soaked and yet they pay the least attention to this,
such is their craze to eat raw meat (Nelson, 2015). No normal food is able to satisfy their hunger
and in their frenzy to eat meat, they at times, do not pay attention to their victims. Apart from the
trailer, other promotion material such as the poster of the movie showed the photo of the woman
Justine and blood surrounding her mouth while she had an intense gaze in her eyes, almost as if
she is not satisfied with her appetite. These promotional materials all try to depict the concept of
violence (Gutierrez, 2017). The trailer of the movie only showed a few snaps of violence and
blood lust while the movie poster had a very eerie vibe("Raw (2016)", 2019).
One of the biggest characteristic features that define a horror movie is the jump start
element in the movies and the lightning used for the development of the horror element. In the
case of Raw the lightning used throughout the movie mostly consisted of day time shoots. This
provided a proper understanding of the concepts and the manner in which the cannibalistic nature
of the lead characters had been developed. However, in the case of Addicted, the movie was
mostly dark and it was difficult to understand certain parts of the movie due to lack of proper
lightning in places. Moreover, being more towards the psychological thriller type, Addicted did
not provide the required jump start necessary for the development of the fear factor among the
people. This can also be attributed to the differences in the cinematography that existed
between the two movies. This was the biggest similarity between the two plots of the movie as
the psychological thriller concept was applied with the element of horror. However, Addicted
had a sense of humor in the movie by virtue of the audition role to find a “wife”. Such humor
was missing from Raw and people were more into taking the film on a more serious level.

4ANALYSIS OF MOVIES
This movie Addiction has been reviewed by many people. The critics of the movie has
highlighted this particular scene to a great extent. The torturing of Shigeharu Aoyama by the
person whom he thought would be the love of his life is the plot twist that all the audience could
not have anticipated. However, the mysterious disappearance of all the people with whom Asami
had come in contact with, gave a hint to the audience that something wrong was afoot. One of
the critics wrote from the angle of the existing power dynamic between the two genders of men
and women("Audition (1999)", 2019). A point of similarity in the movie was the fact that both
the movies had the lead character that was influenced by secondary characters. This can be
attributed to the fact that every horror movies possess similar context and due to this the two
movies can be considered as a mixture of violence and horror. Therefore, similar characteristics
in the form of violence and horror can be attributed to the development of the cinematography
and the plot twist associated with the movies.
The promotional material used by the movie also points towards the element of
violence in the movie. The trailer of the movie shows glimpses of the murders done by the
woman Asami although it does not state it specifically. The various pieces of the body found in
the sack in the apartment room of the young lady has also been shown. However, the trailer left
the audience kept wondering as to who could be the mysterious person("Audition (1999)", 2019).
The screams of Shigeharu Aoyama while he was being tortured occupy a significant portion of
the trailer but his face has been kept clouded and the face of the torturer has not been revealed in
order to intrigue the on lookers. Apart from the trailer, the promotion material of the movie
Addiction in the form of the movie poster is also quite eerie.
The element of violence which can be seen in both the two movies of Raw (2016) and
Addiction (1999) have a unique feature in themselves (Benson-Allott, 2016). In the case of Raw

5ANALYSIS OF MOVIES
the element of violence appeared when the people in the movie started to transform in to
cannibals. Violence was more in the case of the character of Justine as she was shown to be quite
an innocent woman in the beginning. In the case of the movie Addiction, the element of violence
was not shown right from the beginning. The audience were left to ponder on the mysterious
character of the woman Asami and it was until much later in the movie that all the
disappearances of the people related to her started to surface. This movie, Addiction is quite
violent when compared with that of Raw. This is so because of the psychological aspect shown
in the character of Asami. Cannibalism is one aspect of human kind which has been accepted
(Park, 2018). Moreover, the character of cannibalism is similar to that of a zombie. However, the
element of psychological imbalance of the character of Asami is terrifying and traumatic to the
people. This is because people can relate this to their everyday life. There can be anyone in their
life who is just as possessive and dangerous like that of Asami. As a result, the element of
violence although clearly portrayed in both the movies, take different forms of manifestation in
both the movies.
Therefore, conclusion can be made about the manner in which horror movies are directed
and presented to the audience. In the case of Raw, the movie deals with the transformation of a
teenager while in Addicted the movie deals with a sense of love and belongingness. These
movies focus on the transformation of characters and the manner in which the movie focuses on
them based on the development of twist in the plot. The directors are different in both the movies
yet the concept of entertaining audience or developing an interest to watch till the very end of the
movie intrigues the development of horror movie genres in movie universe. The cannibalistic
nature of the lead characters in Raw and the emotionally psychotic nature of the lead characters
of Addicted provide a sense of understanding of the development of the horror movie genre.

6ANALYSIS OF MOVIES
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