'The Girls' Amy Leadbitter Evaluation

Today we watched a short independent thriller film called 'The Girls'. This film focuses on paedophobia, and it could even be leaning towards schizophrenia. Stereotypes are broken in this film, and roles can even be seen as reversed.


To begin with, the mood was very chilled, and just like a normal day, but as it progressed we could see that the mood was really very disturbing and twisted. Despite all that was happening in the film, there was always a sense of innocence. This comes from the girls' attitude through 'playing with their dad' and the attitude the father had when he started playing with his daughters, which was light hearted, and he was just chasing them around the garden, just like a normal father and daughter would do.

Throughout the whole film, there was ambient lighting, as it was filmed outside. This did not add any tension or suspense; it gave the sense that this was just two girls playing outside. Even while the girls were hitting their dad and pushing him down to the river. The end of the film was the only time it was dark;the father was still outside after being pushed in the river.

The characters in this film have very conflicting personalities. The father is not expecting anything out of the ordinary, so he is relatively relaxed. The girls' personalities change throughout the film. At the beginning, they seem innocent when they are playing in the garden, but this changes when we see one of them playing with their dolls. She uses them to act as herself and a psychic, and she acts out a palm reading. She says "I see death and destruction" and drops the dolls without a second thought, like she is possessed. When they start playing with their father, they 'change' back to being innocent and care free, but soon change back when they start tying up their father and beating him with a rake.

The props in this film add to the feel of it a great deal. The rake plays an important role, since this is when we first see that the girls are not normal; when she hits the dog. They also use the rake to hit their father. The blindfold and hand ties are also very symbolic. This shows that he cannot see his little girls, only the girls that are hurting him, and he cannot do anything about it. The dolls symbolise innocence, and when they are dropped, so is the girl's innocence.

The role of the authority figure is challenged in this film. To begin with, the father is the authority figure, and is controlling what is happening and what games are played, but as the film progresses, the audience sees that the girls are taking over the role of the authority figure by tying their father's hands and blindfolding him, so he does not know what is going on. The authority figure also changes at the end of the film, when their mother comes home. The girls 'change back' to being innocent, and when the mother asks where their father is, they give an innocent answer and say that he 'decided to go and sit by the river'.

I think that this film adds a very disturbing twist to a perfectly innocent, everyday activity, and it also shows what people can be like when left alone. This has a very interesting feel and it is a very good example of a paedophobic thriller.