Suicide Films

We've decided to further our research about the use of suicide in film, and have chosen these three films to look at. Because we are focusing on this sensitive issue, we want to handle it delicately by getting as many facts as we can rather that making it up for our sequence, and so we're looking at how other films have handled it.


1) The Virgin Suicides
Based on the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, the film tells of the suicides of the five Lisbon sisters in an upper middle class suburb of Detroit during the 1970s. The girls’ suicides fascinate their community as their neighbours struggle to find an explanation for the acts.

The Trailer

We thought the trailer handled the issue of suicide from a realistic point of view ("Clearly you've never been a 13 year old girl, doctor") and the music fitted the teenage setting. The titles were also hand-written and girly, as if jotted down in a diary, which relates to our theme of teenage depression. Overall the trailer successfully shows the audience what the film has to offer and its main subject, and if we were promoting our whole film, we'd go about it in a similar way.

2) The Happening

In Central Park, New York City, people inexplicably begin committing mass suicide. First they become disoriented and motionless, before resorting to the most convenient means of killing themselves. Initially believed to be a bioterrorist attack, the pandemic quickly spreads across the northeastern United States.

The Trailer

This trailer is very tense and uses a lot of blackouts and fades. This makes it seem epic and it matches with the music. There are a lot of establishing scenic pans, implying that it is a big issue. This is contrasted with close-ups of horrified faces, which gives the audience a feeling of helplessness. The trailer doesn't really explain what the story is, which on the one hand is intriguing, but on the other hand is a bit anoying as you have no idea what's going on. Mass death, but not necessarily suicide is shown in the trailer, which leaves the plot open-ended and you are left wondering what's "happening".

3) Heathers

Heathers is a 1989 black comedy film starring Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, and Shannen Doherty. The film portrays four girls in a trend-setting clique at a suburban Midwestern high school. The girls—three of whom are named "Heather"—rule the school through intimidation, contempt, and sex appeal. JD makes Veronica murder people, when she is just trying to get revenge by pranking them. To cover up her murder of one girl, they forge a suicide note, (which is how it relates to our film). They also shoot two guys in the woods, who are naked (with the promise of Veronica fulfilling a dirty rumour about herself), and JD and Veronica put gay porn magazines next to them and a forged suicide note saying the lovers had a suicide pact. These are the only elements that are similar to our film.

The Trailer

This trailer is really strange, which fits the genre as it is a black comedy. It uses a big voice over which is similar to other teen movies, however the actual subject matter is quite dark. I don't think it is a very good trailer, but I put it up there because it is roughly about the same things as our film.