Genre: Comedy

Textual Analysis of: The Purge: The Morning After


The Purge: the Morning After from Johnny Ray Gill on Vimeo.

This dark-humoured comedy is based upon the well-known thriller phenomenon, The Purge. In the film every crime is deemed legal one day a year in order to encourage crime prevention throughout the remainer of the year; this short focuses upon the possible issues that are dealt with the following day. Through the several different shot types, the attitude and personality of the characters is captured by showing their emotions to their surroundings and the conversation topics. The men wearing bright pink aprons automatically creates a comic effect due to their 'manliness' being played down by a predominantly stereotypical feminine colour. The dialogue between the three characters and the laidback approach to what usually would outrage and disgust people, for example, when Elmer tells how someone wearing a mask broke into his house, tied him up and proceeded to murder his entire family, Dan's reply, through a yawn, is simply "that sucks", displaying a sign of dark-comedy. The way Dan denies that the person who was involved within the crime is him, even though the security footage clearly shows his face, adds a large factor of stupidity on both his character denying clear evidence and for thinking that Elmer would believe him. The hypocritical views displayed by Elmer regarding disability are again shown when he tells the female character not to let her "disability define" her, yet when she replies with something along the lines of "I will define you with an ass-kicking", Elmer responds with "You cannot kick me cause you are paralysed", with the emphasis on the word "paralysed". Overall, the sensitive topics drawn upon in this short are transformed into a dark-comedy mainly down to the professional acting of the three main characters.

Treatment for a short in this genre:
Storyline/narrative: two unlikely best friends and flat mates, one incredibly smart yet socially awkward (Tom) and the other pretty dum (Dan) but a social butterfly, sharing a flat. Each character attempts to encourage the other to try activities that they are interested in, for example, Tom tries to take Dan to a sci-fi convention, and instead of paying attention to Tom's interests, Dan simply tries to pick up numbers from the girls also attending the convention and when Dan attempts to set Tom up with a girl at a speed-dating event at a local pub, he just stands at the bar being blunt with every person that approaches him.
Setting: Urban city, surrounded by everyday locations, such as shops, cafes and parks etc.
Characters: Tom - incredibly smart and socially awkward, does his best to avoid most social events other than those linked strongly to his 'geeky' interests; Dan - lacks most general knowledge yet proves to be a hit with everyone he meets and seems to have gained the reputation of a 'ladies man'. Dan regularly attends social events such as parties, pub crawls and gigs.