Jack
Willoughby
Film
Studies Assignment
For this assignment I have been asked
to examine and analyse four movies all together,two of which will be
from one genre of film and the the other two will be from another.
The two genres I have chose to look at are HORROR and SCI-FI. The
reason behind choosing these genres is that they are both similar in
ways but at the same time completely different. I will look at
everything that the film makers have done to make this film fit into
there genre and how it affects the audince whilst watching, this
includes everything from what type of shot it is to what type of
music is used and why.
I will be examing the two films from
the horror genre to bein with for this assignment. I split horror
into about 5 sub genres, these being;
SLASHERS
SUPERNATURAL
CLASSIC
PSYCHOLOGICAL
and ACTION HORROR
I chose slasher and supernatural
horrors to look at for this assignment, the reason for this choice is
because they are extremely popular in the horror movie industry and
have been around since the beginning and they normally are box office
hits. So I wanted to look into why people always seem to like
watching these types of movies and look at how the film-makers are
making these films in such are terrifyingly amazing way that makes
audiences all over the world tremble in their seats.
SLASHER
Everyone loves a good slasher movie,
even im guilty of that, even though they make turn every light on in
my house and make me check to see if all my doors and windows are
locked atleast three times every five minutes I still love to watch
them. One of my favourites has to be Wes Craven's A NIGHTMARE ON ELM
STREET because just the idea of the Freddy Kruegar makes me tremble.
IDEA OF FREDDY KRUEGAR
Now the plot of this movie is that a
man called Freddy Kruegar who used to murder kids when he was alive
got murdered by the parents of the children because they wanted to
take revenge out on Freddy, then they burn him alive and kill him. So
then years later he returns to kill the kids but this time in their
dreams, because you cant escape him in your dreams and the parents
cant stop him.
Now the thing I most find terrifying
about him is the fact that you have to sleep and eventually he will
get to you and plus he controls your dreams so he can make anything
happen. That and the fact that when he kills you in your dream you
die in real life.
So firstly I am going to analyse the
way Freddy looks and why the film-makers have decided to make him
look the way he does.
The choice of clothing to begin with,
Freddy wears a green and red stripped jumper and a brown fedora hat.
Then to top of his whole outfit he has his classic hand crafted
slasher glove on his right hand. Looking at the colours to begin with
I think the red and green sweater is just so cool and I dont know
what it is about it its just so simple yet drennched in terror. The
colour red is used a lot in horrors because red is often ocosiated
with anger, rage, power and most of all blood. Now blood is used a
lot in this film just like any other slasher should because that is
exactly what a slasher movie should consist of. Then it is partnered
with this dark green colour and green is a colour that often
represents luck, pride, healing and nature. I see it as a warm
colour and that it represents good and just how fire exit signs are
green and they are designed to get people away from danger it
juxstapositions with Freddy's character because he is wanting them to
run towards danger. I think the reson they decided to put this colour
in is because its in contrast with his personality just how it is in
contrast to the red that it is knitted next to because often people
go to their dreams when theyre asleep because it is a place people
can escape their problems but sadly Freddy is waiting for them. Also
red and green are the type of colours that I see together at times
like chrsitmas and christmas is commercialised and thought of as a
time for happiness and warmth, this I believe is also another way to
look at how they are contrasting good and evil in this movie to just
show how truly petrifiyingly evil Freddy is.
The glove, not only has this glove
slashed thorugh our minds and even featured in a few of our very own
nightmares a few times, it has deffinately left a scar in pop culture
since the 80s and I have no doubt that it will stick around forever
in cinema because it is such an iconic weapon just how Freddy is such
an iconic character. Even if you have never seen A nightmare on elm
street you still know who Freddy Kruegar is and you know his glove.
Freddy made it himself out of sheet metal, pipes, knives and an old
leather glove that to me is so terrifying because it makes you
realise that someone can just scrap up a few things together and
cause so much horror now although I find it terrifying it is also
what I love about the glove, the fact that that how homemade it
looks, the rust of the metal to give it the old vintage look and the
fact that its got so many imperfections is makes it perfect for a
horror because it looks rough and unpleasant so it sets people in the
state of fear and that something isnt right as soon as they turn on
the movie and see that hand scraping across the screen.
His make up is done so amazing aswell
in this film, the whole burnt and peeling away look to constantly
remind his victims about that he has tried to be killed before but he
came back tells us as the audience and the characters of the film
just how much of a powerful threat Freddy is. That mixed with Robert
England's acting for this movie and how he dances around the scenes,
laughing and joking around as he slashes these teenagers to pieces
adds to the terror and makes him more sinister because we see that
his character is so evil that enjoys killing and we know to begin
with he didnt really have motive for doing to when he was alive, he
purely did it for his own pleasure and that simply just sends a
shiver down my spine.
SUPERNATURAL
For the supernatural film, I wanted to
choose the theme of ghostly supernatural films because supernatural
stretches out into many other sub genres within this sub genres but
ever since the 80s, ghosts have always stuck around and only gotten
more popular so since I chose A nightmare on elm street for my
SLASHER film. I will be analysing a film that is much more recent and
then I could compare the difficulties that modern film makers face
when creating a film compared to the sruggles of 80s cinema. So I
think I will analyse James Wan's The Conjuring (2013) because it is
one of my favourites from the modern age of horror films.
PLOT
The plot of this film is the classic
chliche of a family that moves into a new house to learn that it is
haunted but by the time they realise this they also learn that the
ghost is too powerful and is stuck with them. This leeds to a bucket
full of jump scares and climactic terror scenes and eventually leads
to the mother of the family becoming possesed and then trying to kill
her children. The film is not just centred around the family but
focuses on Ed and Lauraine Warren who were actually real life
paranormal investigators. The warrens come to the rescue and save the
family from the ghost.
One of the things that I actually like
about this horror film is that it opens up with Ed and Lorraine
talking to three people about the paranormal events that are taking
place inside their apartment whuch includes the infamous Annabelle
doll which after doing some research on after the film made me shake
in fear of it. Then it fades to an opeing title where it states that
this movie is “based on real events”
now I know that what happens on this
film isnt 100% true but still knowing that the movie had been
inspired from actual events that actually took place just makes the
movie seem that little bit more terrifying because it plays with the
idea that I too could have poltergiests and evil souls in my home.
So me being skeptical wanting to see
how much of this movie was true and I found a suprising amount of
things in the movie that links to real life. Like for instance the
family that currently own the house where all of this stuff
supposedly happened in, filed a lawsuit on Warner Bros because their
house was keep getting vandalised because of the impact that the
movie had.
Now in this movie the evil ghost is
called “Bathsheba” who is witch that owned the home years ago and
performed sacrifices in the name of devil and her soul still haunts
the land. We dont see much of her in this film so its hard to analyse
what she looks like in this film but I can say that in the times that
we do see her, she is wearing a white dress. Now a white dress for
centuries has been a sign of power and wealth, for instane when
royalty were getting married they wore white to show of their
incredible wealth because you would only wear white if you werent
going to get muddy and scruffy. And if on an average day in them
times if you werent going to get muddy then you were deffinately
werent poor. So this witch is wearing white to give off the image
that she has power over everyone in th house and wants to make it
clear.
In films audiences like to see
opposites beause they normally work so well together, just like Levi
Strauss' theory of binary opposites. We see them all the time and
just like Freddy Krueger in A nightmare on elm street he surrounds
him self in things that are opposite to what he is and is neccesarily
what makes him great. The film makers also wanted to achieve the same
effect here beause a white dress can represent purity, cleanlineess
and love but that is everything what this ghost is about and her
costume juxtapositions with her personality and desires.
But the costume ans makeup for the rest
of the entire cast fit the 70s style perfectly and nothing is out of
place in the movie. What I like is that everything isnt perfect in
this film and that it feels real, peoples make up isnt done to
perfection and everyones outfits are random and vibrant. This is a
ood twist compared to how cinema and TV were made to look from the
50s to the 70s because everything had to be picture perfect. But this
film feels even more real because they get rid of that vibrant flower
power filter that evryone likes to put on the 70s and show what an
actual real family from that time would have looked like.
Now this film is soaked in religious
ideology like demons, excorcisms and evvn many props used in this
film show the power that religion supposedely has. They focus on
things like the crucifix and bible in this movie and this is again to
remind the audience about the fact that good will conquer evil and
light will always banish the darkness. Just how like at the
beginning tof the film the kave a very high key lighting scheme but
as the problems start to happen in the house and the disruption of
the equilibrium part of the narartive takes place the scenes become
darker as they move to a much lower key of lighting and the shots
shakier. These camera and lighting techniques are used to make the
audience feel is to make the audience feel more isolated from the
scene because they are seeing less information, which in some cases
less is more and the viewer will fill in the blanks with their own
imagintion and ideas creating tension as the scenes progress as the
anticipation grows and grows. But back to the end of the film when we
are put back to equilibrium, it returns to high key lighting to
compare the audience with the characters as they will be relieved and
happy that all the horror is over and done with.
For example this shot is taken from the
beginning of the film, where the family is moving into their new
home. Notice the lighting is very high key and there isnt many
shadows, this is because the audience are emant to be feeling the
characters feel and the charaters feel excited about their new home
and shadows in movies represent fear or negativity. The fact that
there isnt many shadows in this scene show that they are feeling very
positive and havent got their minds on anything negative at all.
