Realism vs. Anti-Realism vs. Verisimilitude

Realism vs. Anti-Realism vs. Verisimilitude

Realism described in the readings, is sort of an illusion of the real world. It goes off our combination of senses and our understanding of how the outside world works. An example of a movie conveying realism is the movie Rent because the characters, scenes and everyday lives of these characters are revealed as real and true to the audience. Anti-realism, just as it sounds is the opposite of realism and conveys the non-real, fanatic aspect. A movie / show example of anti-realism is SpongeBob Square Pants. We all know that a sponge and starfish cannot be best friends under the sea and live in a realistic like community. Verisimilitude is when a movie has fanatic or unreal characteristics but appeals to the audience as true and it sort of “tricks” us into believing that what is occurring in the movie could actually occur in life. An example of a movie with verisimilitude is inception. I believed that we could enter another world through dreaming while watching the movie, but my experiences in the real world override this fantasy like thought.

The majority of movies in the genre of horror depict a theme of a scared civilian vs. psychopath. When I think of horror movies, I think of a crazy person with some kind of weapon, usually a knife, striving throughout the whole movie to catch and kill somebody or somebodies. These movies get to us through realism. Because horror movies portray real people in real like situations, people often feel some type of fear off these movies. The women in these movies are often the alone helpless victims, often with a low cut shirt or sex appeal. The men in these movies are either the killer, the person brutally murdered, or the savior. The man who saves the day in movies are often seen as sexy, strong, and brave. The psychopathic killer is often looked at as creepy. The man who gets brutally murdered in the movie is often a wimpy, insecure, and typical “first to get killed” looking characters. The scenes in these types of movies are often associated throughout the genre. The dark stormy night is almost always portrayed in these films. Another scene associated with horror is the creepy mansion in the middle or nowhere that victims get caught. The typical “my car won’t start” or “the car is out of gas” let me go find help, is often a line heard in these movies as well. Wheatear it be the character type, or the scene, horror movies are generally easily distinguishable.