Media Research (Horror Films)

Media Research (Horror Films)

·         *       Horror film:  Unsettling movies that try to bring out the emotions of fear, disgust and horror from its   viewers. They deal with the viewer’s nightmares, hidden worst fears and fear of the unknown.

·         -    They focus on pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable in terms of shock value and socially acceptable         fear

·         -    Audience Identification = unstable and fluid.

      audience begins by identifying with the killer. But later on are disloyal and change and identify with the final girl, Laurie (Halloween)

*    Examples of horror films: Insidious, Halloween 1-7,Scream 1-4, Paranormal activity 1-2, Mirrors 1-2, My Bloody Valentine, The Exorcist, Orphan, The Omen, The Ring, Child’s Play, The Grudge, Teeth, Hannibal, Texas Chainsaw of Massacre, The Unborn, The last house on the left, 30 Days of Night, Saw 1-5), Jennifer’s Body, Friday the 13^th, The Eye, Psycho, Black Christmas, I Spat on your Grave, I know what you did last summer, Prom Night, Devil’s Rejects

There are different types of horror sub-genres:

Ø  Slasher (Prom Night, Nightmare on Elm Street, My bloody Valentine)

Ø  Splatter (Saw, Human centipede, Hostel)

Ø  Vampire (Red Riding Hood, Twilight, Lesbian Vampire killers, Blade)

Ø  Zombie (Night of the Living Dead, The crazies, The walking dead, 28 days later)

Ø  J-Horror (One Missed Call, The Eye, Dark Water, The Grudge)

Ø  Thriller (Buried, Mirrors, The strangers, The shining)

Ø  Monster (Piranha, Jeepers Creepers, Jaws, King Kong)

Ø  Psychological (Insidious, Drag me to hell, Orphan, Paranormal Activity)

The Conventions of horror films:

-     They all have music and footages that create tension and help make the movie much scarier. For instance editing techniques such as jump cuts and POV shots are used to do this

-     They mainly consist of Dark/shadowy lighting (Low key lighting)

-     Usually set in Isolated locations

-     Many of them usually have a Female victim who is usually blonde with big boobs that runs from antagonist by running upstairs/hiding in a closet

-     Disruption of normality

-     They usually also have an innocent victim, who is usually attacked and killed.

-     Red is one colour you will definitely expect to find in any horror film weather scary or not as it depicts danger, horror or death

-     Another convention is having an antagonist (bad guy) otherwise the movie would not be scary

-     The antagonist is usually not shown/known of instantly

-     The antagonist often has a trademark tool for killing i.e. a claw, saw, hook or knife

-     The victims are often displayed in different colours than the text and monster to show innocence or neutrality. The lead character that is often the sole survivor (another regularly used convention of the horror genre) 

-     There is usually death in the first five minutes of the film

Three different horror films I’ve studied:

      Orphan (2009):  Psychological/Supernatural horror – This is the type of horror that attempts a certain level of ‘realism’ to inflict fear in its audience

After the death of their unborn child, a couple adopts a mysterious 9year old girl.

This film was shot in Canada and it grossed $78,337,373.

It was released on DVD and Bluray 27^th October 09 by Warner Home Video and on the 27^th of November in the UK by Optimum Releasing.

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra

Producer: Joel Silver and Susan Downey of Dark Castle entertainment and Leonardo DiCarprio and Jennifer Davisson Killoran of Appian Way productions.

This type of horror has become much popular over recent years, it attempts a certain level of realism to inflict fear on its audience and we notice that this is done in Orphan. In this case, it makes the audience think about the risks and consequences of adopting a child. As this type of horror sub genre is much more realistic, the concept is what scares or moves the audience the most. In the film we also notice that this type of sub genre focuses on witches, ghosts or demons. This is what makes these type of horror films seem to appear to be supernatural.

Orphan also shows that the characters fall prey to an evil force that is trying to victimise them somehow. This is usually vengeance because of something that happened in the past.

      Human Centipede (2009): Splatter- This is the type of horror that is extreme gore! It goes straight to the blood-and-guts and aims for the gross-out without hesitation

A mad scientist kidnaps and mutilates a trio of tourists in order to reassemble them into a new pet - a human centipede, which is created by stitching their mouths to each other’s rectums.

Splatter horror sub-genre films are extremely gore and aim to gross out the audience with no hesitation. Due to this high use of special effects and excessive blood and guts, these films tend to show an overt interest in the vulnerability of the human body and how it can be disfigured. The Human Centipede is one film that is highly gruesome as it does this with no hesitation what so ever.

The Antagonist in this film is an ex surgeon, he looks like a disturbed man in his late 40’s. His main prop is a hunter gun as he uses this on two of his victims and always seems to have it in sight. We get the impression this man is weird in the first opening scene that shows him in a car holding pictures of conjoined dogs. When he wipes the pictures with his hanky and strokes them this is when the audience are given the impression this man has an obsession with experimenting. Human Centipede portrays its antagonist as a crazy, demented psycho who is lonely as he lives alone and barely has any pictures of his family.

When the two girls appear at his door and when the police come to question him we notice that he acts serious and quite intimidating. The close up shots used during these scenes show this not only by his facial expressions but the way he portrays himself. The audience might also get the impression that he is a pervert as he looks the two girls up and down when they tell him they are stranded and would like to use his telephone to call for help. His tense body structure gives us the impression that he is strong built man. When he states “I don’t like human beings” this is when the audience as well as the victims sense some danger. This dialogue is effective as it makes the audience anxious to know what he will do next.  The setting for this film looks quite nice however the silence of the house allows us to get the impression this man is lonely and his house is situated in a deserted area. The pictures used to decorate the house could symbolise how the man is psychologically dysfunctional as they are pictures of naked babies conjoined in different places. Not only were these portraits in the living room but also in different rooms of his house, suggesting an obsession with Siamese children/people.

The victims in this film are two American girls, Jenny and Lindsey who look like they’re in their early 20’s. We notice that these two are lovely girls. Jenny is shown to be the one who is quite fragile and fainthearted between the two as she is the one who did not want to leave the car to go and look for help, whereas Lindsey appeared to be the brave one. This is shown especially when the antagonist is putting them under general amethystic and she escapes, making the drip attached to her skin rip through her arm. The other male victims are the Chinese guy and the other man who owned the van as well as the 2 police officers.

This film might be quite disturbing however, it does contain some sexual innuendo, showing how horror films do not always have to be serious but can contain some humour in them. What I realised from this film is that scenes that have the victim/s crying and screaming in agony are really effective in making the audience fearful. Another thing I noticed this film does is that it dehumanises humans, this is because it shows the victims being treated like dogs. For instance the Chinese guy who led the “human centipede” was fed out of a dog plate. This is also shown when we notice that he collects the men by going out and shooting them with a hunting gun used to target animals.

As shown in the Human Centipede, a good horror film depends on how good the actors are at responding to pain and torture, and also how they look while going through painful times. In other words the audience need to see the fear the actor has in order for them to be truly moved by the events that will be taking place. One scene that did this was when Lindsey was trying to escape and she fell onto the ground and was throwing up then the old man came and grabbed her by the hair and injected her.  Unlike many movies, Human Centipede does not really use as much incidental music as many horror films, this could be because the gruesomeness of the film moves the audience and makes them petrified itself. The scene that I thought was the most effective was the one where Lindsey struggles to escape with Jenny. While Lindsey was dragging her across the man’s house you could see that she was struggling but she did not give up. The fact you could see the pain in her eyes as she dragged the body, emphasised how the body was heavy, of which in real life a body of someone asleep or who has passed out would be truly heavy.  The thing that touched me was how she dragged the body through glass and stepped on glass herself.

Thoughts of this film:

     -         I love how the writer/producer allowed us to see how the antagonist is a demented psycho who has no remorse. This is because of the way he behaves, for instance when he forces the police to drink the glass of water and shouts out ‘I did it’ when his procedure is a success and how he starts to kiss his reflection in the mirror. This shows how he might have worshipped himself and thought he was God.

      -         I found the film disgusting especially when the man was crawling up the stairs and lick the victims’ blood of the floor and how he then got energy from that. I thought this was quite effective as this is a splatter horror film.

      -        As a Splatter the scenes that I found made the film live up to its subgenre was when the man was shot in the middle of his skull and the blood splats out onto the wall. Also when the two police officers are shot and they fall into the pool, changing its colour and making it bloody. Also when the first Chinese guy kills himself by slitting his throat, making blood come out of his back and gushing into the middle girl’s face.

     -         This film gave me the idea that when I’m working on my horror movie teaser trailer I should aim to make scenes that are quite realistic so that the audience find it easy to step into the victim’s shoes and feel their pain.

      -        I liked the fact that this film did not only make my guts flip and turn, but also managed to get me emotional due to some of the disturbing scenes such as when he was whopping them and cutting through their skin and removing Lindsey’s teeth one by one.

     -         I thought the film was not scary but just gruesome, therefore which is good as it managed to achieve its goal as a Splatter horror film.

     -         I felt like stopping but because of the suspense I kept watching, which is really good for the film as it shows it managed to not only scare me but also keep me engaged. 

There was a sequel which came out in 2011.

This film grossed £181, 467

Director: Tom Six

Producer: Ilona Six   

Prom night (2008): Slasher –This is the type of horror that involves a psychopathetic killer who stalks and kills a sequence of victims in a geographically violent manner, often with a tool such as a knife. 

Donna’s senior prom is supposed to be the best night of her life though a sadistic killer from her past has different plans for her and her friends. 

The film is a re-imagining of the 1980 Canadian horror Prom Night.

This film grossed $57, 197,876 worldwide

Director: Nelson McCormick

The films includes most of the elements that are featured in Slasher horror films. Like many of them, Prom Night is quite predictable. In the film there’s:

      The Killer: Like in most Slashers, the killer is a male and knows the final girl or has a past with her.  He has his small pocket looking like knife that he uses to kill his victims. As to disguise himself he wears a black cap and also cuts his hair short and gets rid of his beard and moustache when he escapes from prison. He is a psycho who’s has been obsessed with Donna since before he got fired from teaching as he started developing stalkerish behaviour towards her. He also got given a restraining order due to his behaviour towards Donna, therefore in the movie he kills everyone who gets in the way of him getting to her. Like many Slashers the Killer is always mute and hardly says anything and is strong.

      The Final girl: Donna is the Final girl in Prom Night. Like many Final Girls in Slasher films she is young, blonde and attractive. She has a lovely personality and has a group of close friend’s she always hangs around with. In Prom night we see Donna has a past with the killer as he was once a teacher at her school. As he became obsessed with her, he killed her family – mum, dad and brother and was imprisoned, however in the film we notice Donna struggles to cope with the death of her family and the fact that the killer is still alive. She has a counsellor which she sees and takes medication to help her get through the traumatic incidents in her past. In Slasher films the final girl is usually the one who lets the audience aware the killer is closer than she thinks, whether this is by her having hallucinations or seeing or feeling as if someone is stalking her. In Slasher films we also notice that the Final girl is the one that usually does not get involved in illicit activities such as sex, drugs, alcohol etc like her friends.

      The Victims: In many of the Slasher horror films, the victims are always young, attractive and closely related to the Final Girl. In this case Donna’s four friends and boyfriend. Victims also sometimes can even be people that stand in the way of the killer such as the police and the maids in the hotel. In this movie we also notice that the victims are punished for indulging in vices such as pre-marital sex and drinking.

      The Violence: In Prom night there violence is gruesome however it’s quite disturbing as you see the killer slit the victim’s throat or stab the victim numerous times.  We notice that in the first 5mins of the films the viewers are already exposed to graphic violence. The victims usually do not fight the killer back in this movie, emphasising the power in which the killer has. The only time we see the victim try and fight with the killer is at the end when Donna confronts the killer and is trying to escape. Unlike other horror sub genres such as Splatter we do not see the killer’s prop go directly into the victim’s body when he is killing them, showing just how this type of horror has a stopping point in terms of its graphical violence.

     * A horror film director:   James Wan: (Saw) (Insidious) (Saw 111) (Dead Silence)

       James Wan was born on the 27^th of February 1977 in Kuching, Malaysia. He is of a Chinese ethnicity.

Wan always wanted to be a film maker since he was 11 years old. He completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at the Royal Melborne Institute of Technology.

He made his first feature film Stygian with Shannon Young. In 2000 this film won Best Guerrilla Film at the Melbourne Underground film Festival. While studying at RMIT, he met Leigh Whannell, his future business partner. With her help she wrote the script for Saw and then he went on to co-create and direct the film. The two have both been executive producers to the sequels Saw 11, Saw 111, Saw 1V and Saw 3D. They have also worked on other films including, Death Sentence Dead Silence and Insidious. 

                 

       Other directors include:

     Stanley Kubrick (Scream)

     Wes Craven(Nightmare on Elm Street)

     Clive Barker (Hellraiser)

     Tom Holland (Child’s Play)

        Conventions of horror film teaser trailers

-        They don’t give away too much information about the film  away– they must leave the audience wanting more

-        They don’t follow the narrative and are usually not in chronological sequence (they usually use a non-linear structure)

-        They are released a long time before the film, and are the first trailer to be released

-      You might not see any actually characters in it

-      A teaser trailer may promote the director (sometimes an auteur)

-      Montage editing is common (though not mandatory)

More on teaser trailers I watched:

*Nightmare on Elm Street (Slasher). Remake done in 2010.

Director: Wez Craven

Consisted continuity editing

*Insidious (psychological horror) – 1m 3secs                                                                         

Director- James Wan

5 characters shown

*Friday the 13^th  (Slasher), 2009 Remake

Uses continuity editing – 1m 19secs

Director- Marcus Nispel 

Setting shown: Abandoned Camp 

Killer shown but has a mask on

*The Ring (2002)

Director: Gore Verbinski

Different setting shown

Continuity editing – 1min 33secs

Notes and ideas for horror movie trailer production:

-     Make sure there is blood as this is a must see in horror films

-     Try to include mainly these colours for symbolism: Black for darkness/dark forces, Red for death and danger and White for purity and innocence.

-     Make sure the colours included in the shots reflect the mood of the scene or characters.

-     A scream is also something to consider. If so, a girl’s scream is really effective in horror films. The scream of the girl that gets stabbed in psycho while showering is an example.

-    Shadows can also be effective and they help create tension

-    Low key lighting is one that’s good in include in horror films as it creates a sense of realism.

-    Close up and extreme close up shots are good in trying to show the emotions and reactions of characters. -    Point of view shots of the killer or the victim are really good as they also help create tension.

-    Personally I feel, the more realistic the storyline is and the film appears to the audience, then the scarier the film will be.