Source 1
Citation
Erdem, Hüseyin Cenk. “The Fear of Technology in Horror Movies: A Comparative Film Analysis Through the Lens of Sociotechnical Imaginaries.” Proceedings of the 33rd International RAIS Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities. Scientia Moralitas Research Institute, 2023.
Annotation
Hüseyin Cenk Erdem, affiliated with the Department of Science, Technology and Society at Istanbul Technical University, has written this piece with the intention of comparing three horror films depict the fear of technology, specifically artificial intelligence. The analysis of the film is more like a summary though, in my opinion. The source does two major things for me: (1) it discusses horror films that would be great for me to discuss, specifically the remake of Child’s Play and (2) it provides a lot of discussion about why analyzing horror films is relevant to society and how the fears of artificial intelligence are present in media. It reflects the motive of this research paper, while also giving me films to argue about. One limitation of this source is that it doesn’t really do any analysis of the film but rather presents the synopses of the film and says: “See? I’m right! Horror films reflect society!” which is relevant to my paper, but I don’t consider that to be interesting or new information.
Source 2
Citation
Tudor, Andrew. “1. Genre”. Film Genre Reader IV, edited by Barry Keith Grant, New York, USA: University of Texas Press, 2012, pp. 3-11. https://doi.org/10.7560/742055-004
Annotation
This source serves as background knowledge, both for myself (although I already have some) and so that I can explain genre to my readers using a reputable source. It’s a chapter out of an essay written by Andrew Tudor and Barry Keith Grant. The chapter in question was written by Tudor, a Graduate Student Researcher at UCLA who has written many works about how films influence society as well as the sociology of fear (a lot of his works are in Google Scholar!). His main argument is that genre is what society decides it should be, as well as that film critics use the term ‘genre’ too loosely. I will try not to use it loosely as he suggests. It is limited because it only serves a background purpose, but I think that is still useful.
Source 3
Citation
Murphy, Paula. AI in the Movies / Paula Murphy. 2024.
Annotation
Paula Murphy is an Assistant Professor at the School of English in Dublin City University. The purpose of her book is to demonstrate and analyze trends of how AI has been depicted over time in films as well as help others understand how AI has been depicted in films. This source is immensely useful. It provides me with background as well as presents me with many exhibits that I could choose to analyze. It could also provide me with a theory/tool (the timeline) depending on how I choose to construct this essay/where my research ends up taking me. The main limitation is that genre isn’t really discussed as a topic throughout the book.
Source 4
Citation
SHARMA, NANDINI. Representation of Artificial Intelligence in Cinema: Deconstructing the Love Between AI and Humans. Diss. Doctoral dissertation, Ambedkar University Delhi, 2019.
Annotation
I found this source when I was searching for resources about AI in romance films. This isn’t precisely what I was looking for, but it brings up the topic of how AI experiences love and romance rather than just the genre itself, which was something I hadn’t even thought about and it intrigued me, so I think it’s worth keeping down. Besides, it still serves the purpose of directing me toward romance films to write this essay to find more analysis/research of and then write about. Chapter 2 is probably the only chapter I will reference (and the only I’ve gotten a good look at as of now), but since I don’t know, all the chapters are included in my citation. The author is Nandini Sharma, who was awarded a Master’s Degree in Film Studies as a result of this paper from Ambedkar University Delhi. In the conclusion, her paper calls for more research and asks questions about why AI must always be humanized in films and what that means for the future.
Note
After doing some more research, I’m not sure if this topic fits into my interests/what I was hoping for, so I might try to do something different or look at this paper from a different angle. Maybe instead of genre, I could focus on a specific theme in films (humanization, mortality, gender)?