Phantom of the Paradise as a Postmodern Horror - Essay Example

The paper will lucidly look into some of the postmodernism aspect of films using the movie as the only reference. It will explain how the movie approaches traditional ideas in non-traditional ways. Some of the common features of postmodernism that have been portrayed in this movie are pastiche, metafiction, paranoia, maximalism, temporal distortion, and techno-culture and hyper-reality. To begin with, the character attire or dressing in the movie is quite different from what was there earlier on.

The main character of the film has put on a metallic gown. Others, especially the women, in most of these movies we watch have their own dresses. Most of the dresses worn by women characters are those that that have a close relationship to that of the current American dressing. This is a clear implication that the existing American dressing codes came about as a result of such places. Moreover, the characters themselves. The metallic robe symbolically worn by Roderick Heath represents obedience to the law, as well as, protection of oneself.

The different dressing models have led to the upcoming of different styles of making dressings in order to meet everybody’s expectations and desires. The current dressing system probably has its origin from the movie. The dressing is also symbolic on the counterculture nature of postmodern horror movies. The other aspect of the movie that brings to the light of the readers is about heroism in most horror movies. It is mainly found among men; however, hero is a woman. Heroes, in horror movies normally act as the main characters of the movies displaying their strengths of defeating a supernatural or extremely energetic character (antagonist).

Using various expressive cinema techniques, the director has managed to show certain repeating devices such as scenes and most of the time the entire movie. The cinema techniques originated or evolved due to the issue of postmodernism. Postmodernism brought with itself certain learning, as well as, artistic techniques that affected the entire world of artists, especially on the horror movies (Foster 41). Another technique related to the above is the use of temporal distortion. The movie’s plot is not well organized with certain events overlapping.

For instance, the appearance of Roderick Heath at the washroom where one of the music performers is taking a shower is a symbol intentional improper arrangement of the plot. Pastiche is another aspect found in films that have been affected by postmodernism. It refers to the imitation of certain or several works by other people or other genres of literature. Most of the events or characters in the movie have been imitated from other works of arts. The idea of Winslow becoming a terrorist and a killer of Swans is an imitation of certain works of history that have been saved in different historical materials.

For instance, being a killer of another person has another meaning altogether and can be compared to past war experiences such as world war II. Moreover, the image or the way the killing takes place is too simple and unbelievable to some extent. He stabbed him to death using a break of a bird mask from one of the dancers. This is a clear indication of the effects that technology has (Grant 76). Therefore, postmodernism is regarded as the epitome of all the recordings that are done seven today by highly respected printing and publishing houses.

Postmodernism is the source of high technology that affects the reproduction of