Tomi Ojo
Daniel Olugbade
General Conventions of a Horror Film:
· Killer is dark, distinctive and unknown.
· Killer usually has an iconic weapon associated with him
· A know set of main characters
· Victims male and female
· Evil child
· Innocent child
· Blood
· Violence
· Gore
· Comedy/humour
· Middle class common people
· General setting
· Dark woods
· Abandoned school or building
· Isolated
· City
· Low key lighting
· Usually dark
· Usually point of view from victims
· Death in first 5 minuets
General Conventions of a Horror Film Teaser Trailer:
· Fast and quick paced imagery and clips
· Very little story line and plot given away
· Leave mystery
· Dark feel
· Music
· Facial expressions from characters
· Never over a min normally 30-50 seconds
· Give some form of narrative
James Wan
D.O.B: 1972
Born: Malaysia
Directed: Saw: Dead silence and Insidious
James Wan always dreamed of making films from the age of 11. He studied at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) were he obtained his degree. He created the famous doll “Billy the puppet “used in all the saw films. Before he became popular in the film industry, he made his first film with Shannon Young which was called “Stygian” and it won a “Best Guerrilla Film” at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival in 2000. It was the RMIT were Wan met his future business partner Leigh Whannell, Who together produced the film Saw in 2004. Before the making of saw in 2004 there was a short version of the film, where we saw Wan’s partner Leigh Whannell David who was the leading role in the short film. This short film they produced was agreed by the three producers that saw the film very quickly. Wan and Whannell settled for a low budget of 1.2 million and even planned to just have the film put straight to DVD. Saw surprisingly become a record breaking horror film earning Wan and Whannell much more then they predicted.
SAW 3D
Saw 3D is the seventh saw film in the series. It was released October 28th and is known to be the last in its franchise. This saw was given its usual rating of 18 because of its bloody violence, torture and language. Along with this movie there where many web sites like MySpace and facebook used to promote this film. Its budget was around $17,000,000 and grossed $45,679,855. It received many negative reviews from reviewers because they believe the killings were to over the top. This was the first saw film to use 3D and put its audience right in the middle of the torture.
INSIDIOUS
Insidious is a film written by Leigh Whannell and directed by James Wan the same people from the saw series. Insidious is about a child that get trapped in a realm called the further and his families struggle to save him from evil spirits trying to take his mortal body. Its budget was $1,500,000 and grossed so far is $53,991,137. I went out to go and see this film and was very pleased by it; it was like a version of paranormal activity which allowed you could actually see the spirits that were causing havocker. Everyone in the audience was scared at many points in the film. It even had a few parts of humour in the film which actually did make the audience laugh and wasn’t cheesy.
Human centipede
Human centipede is a Dutch horror film released in 2010, written and directed by tom six. This film is about a German doctor that conducts horrific surgical experiments on tourist, in which he joins them together to form a “human centipede”. The director Tom Six did not inform investors about the mouth-anus aspect of the film fearing it would make backers of the film back down. Tom six was inspired by the experiments of Josef Mengele at Auschwitz concentration camp in World War 2. Its extreme content of the film gave it many mix reviews. Some say in the terms of an actual film it was awful with hardly any story and missing many aspects of a film. Others say the shocking content kept the viewers gripped on the edge of their seats while watching the film. The budget of the film was €1,500,000 and it grossed $181,467. This film is so violently shocking that the sequel has been banned in the UK and to be cut in America.
Supernatural Horror - Final Destination 5
Natalie Wilson
Conventions; in film genres there are rules attached to them which enables the film grab people’s attention. Horror movies have to be quite scary as this is needed to grab the audience’s attentions. One convention of a horror film is that there should be a death in the first five minutes of the film.
Some say Final Destination 5 is a horror movie, while others find it funny and at times silly. The film was released in August 2011 and was directed by Steven Quale.
Final Destination 5 is a supernatural horror film. A super natural horror film is usually connected to disturbed human psyche. Supernatural horror films focus around spiritual presences, witches of ghosts. In the case of final destination 5 I feel the deaths were connected with a spiritual presence.
The Final Destination trailer clearly follows the conventions of horror; it shows the deaths within it. It is evident the film will be scary, therefore leading people to want to watch the film.
- Supernatural horror films focus around spiritual presences, witches of ghosts. In the case of final destination 5 I feel the deaths were connected with a spiritual presence.
- The Final Destination trailer clearly follows the conventions of horror; it shows the deaths within it. It is evident the film will be scary, therefore leading people to want to watch the film.
Slasher Horror - Scream
- Good Over Evil
- Masked Killer
- Revenge
- Isolation
- Series Of Murders
- Blood Shed
- Gore
Conventions Of Horror
- Deaths
- Screaming
- Scary Sound Effects (This Is Quite Important)
- Danger Horror
- Haunted Location
- Suspense
- Poster (Less Is More)
Conventions; in film genres there are rules attached to them which enables the film grab people’s attention. Horror movies have to be quite scary as this is needed to grab the audience’s attentions. One convention of a horror film is that there should be a death in the first five minutes of the film.
Rosemary Ekanem
Throughout the years, the way that we view things have changed, from the inventions of TV’s to smart phones, this has enabled us to the audience to see Films in new and exciting ways as well as easy access to their films. This therefore has affected the Horror industry as directors are finding new ways to shock their audiences’ through improved technology and special effects. Because of these new methods there have been a number of remakes of films from the past to try and attract the film to a younger generation making it easier for them to relate to for example The Hills have eyes. By analysing both original and remake of the hills have eyes it is clears that our advanced technology has enhanced the film making it more frightening to the audiences of our generation.
The Original
The original The Hills Have Eyes was directed and written by Wes Craven which was released on 22 July 1977 in the USA, the film was a low budget film being made for only $230,000 and grossed $25,000,000 worldwide (1992). The film is based on a family going to California accidentally goes through an air testing range closed to the public. They crash and are stranded in a desert. They are being stalked by a group of people, which have not emerged in modern times.
At the time of making the film new technologies such as IMAX cameras and CGI weren’t used in horror movies, therefore they didn’t have the right techniques to make their monsters realistic and frightening. Instead of using masks (which other films tended to do) the make up of for the characters were very basic, they focused on making the antagonists look like tribal village people, which included them looking dirty hairy and have missing teeth.
Therefore they focused on scaring the audiences by using suspense. To create suspense Wes Craven used hand held cameras to follow the protagonist running in the desert, this created a sense that somebody is actually following them (which indeed are the cannibals who are watching them on the hills), which then creates an frantic feeling of time speeding by through the fast pace of the hand help camera, which gives them the flexibility of creating scenes at all angles without wasting time by setting up tracks.
Wes Craven also used night scenes so only the people are visible. To create this effect he used a black cloak to cover the view of the desert, the effect of this was when a voice began to call on of the victims or mimic animal noises there was a sense of uncertainty because the audience can’t see beyond the victim’s frighten face. Which gives the impression that they audience are in the same situation of the victim who can’t see any thing around them and are startled by the noise.
The use of point on view also gives the impression that the audience are in the same position as the victim as we are able to see what they are seeing. After Beauty is killed and bobby finds the dog gutted, there is a rustling in the bushes; bobby leaps down the mountain where the camera cuts to his perspective of running down the mountain near panic state. This intensifies the audience personal horror therefore creating a sense of realism which is likely to get the audience startled.
As the film was only made with $230,000 they couldn’t afford high tech special effects and gimmicks they used clever editing to sell scenes that were difficult to dramatize. The dog attacking Pluto is filled with quick cuts to create a fast pace action scene; which emerges realistic. With multiple close ups of the dog’s snarling mouth intercut with Pluto’s terrified face, clutched hands, bloody neck and the dogs body tugging backwards (yanking off Pluto’s flesh) the attack is perfectly dramatised without the large amount of blood and gore.
The Remake
The hills have eyes is the 2006 horror film remake of Wes Cravens’ 1977 film, written by filmmaking partners Alexandre Aja and Gregory Levasseur . The film was released on March 10 2006 in the US and UK grossing $15.5 million in it’s opening weekend in the US. The film follows a family who become targets of a group of mutants after their car beaks down in a desert. Aja worked with Wes Craven to make the remake look more real and convenient to the new generation in order to make it more believable and scarier.
In order to make the film more believable aja wanted to first make the mutants to look more realistic and less fake. From the help of CGI the KNB Effect group (make up designers) were able to use a program called z brush to create a digital model of the mutants on the computer. Once the digital model was completed a sculpture of the mutants would be sculpted where a special effect makeup artist would complete the final look by applying the moulds to the actor. Compared to the 1977 film the final result of the special effects and make up of the mutants are greater than the basic make up because it is likely to get a reaction from the audience, who may find the appearance of the mutants disturbing and scary which is their aim.
However, they have stayed true to the original film and therefore haven’t gone over the top with cgi and special effects. Nevertheless there are scenes where cgi and special effects are used to create dramatization. The trailer attack is the start of the main attack of the family; therefore the directors wanted this scene to be special. From the scene when Doug and bobby hear the shout from the dad, the camera goes as fast as it could across to the burning tree, with the use of editing they were able to cut down the 3minite walk across the desert with a steadicam into a 2 second zoom across the desert. The effect of this was to prepare the audience for what to come, by getting the excited and concerned about what was about to happen next.
The burning tree also used CGI for the flames on the burning tree and the use of special effects artist on the burns on the father on the tree. Again their ability to use CGI creates a sense of realism because it is difficult to detect and it makes it easier for the directors to make the film because they can apply the CGI after filming without wasting time on trying to set the tree on fire.
Although this film does have the technology to make the film look better, original is best for the suspense. In this film i felt let down by the suspense in the movie, there was little focus on camera angles to create suspense and tension. The beginning of the film started great with the juxtaposition of the calm music and the fast past of the quick cuts of bombings and deformed children. That caught my attention straight away and gave me an insight into what was to come and what the film was about. This may be a reason why the film got a mixed reception because it was going to be difficult to outdo the film because their ability to create tension throughout the film.
Aja was influence to do a remake due to the success of the remake of Texas chainsaw massacre, as many retakes tend to fail to meet the expectations of the audience or completely destroy the original film, however I think that their ability to make it more realistic and follow the storyline of the original is the reason for it’s success. The film was able to do what many film fail which is to stick to the concept and modernise the film to relate it to your target audience which is the reason for the their large profits, the use of CGI and makeup enhanced the experience for the audience making it an entertaining horror film which is the reason for creating a sequel.
The Shining
My favourite horror film is The Shining by Stanley Kubrick, co-written with novelist Diane Johnson inspired by a Steven King novel. It is about a father who takes a job as a care taker in an isolated hotel in order to gain time to catch up on his writing. His son Danny has psychic abilities and is able to see things in the past and the future, soon after moving in jack becomes influence by a supernatural presence at the hotel – he turns mad and attempts to murder his son and wife who are snowed in by the winter snow.
The Shining is a cold film that creates a feeling of something creeping under the skin which makes the audience feel unsettled and disturbed. Kubrick’s ability to cut out the traditional conventions of horror movie’s such as blood and gruesome murders and concentrates on the study of madness and the potential evil makes this film so unique compared to other movies. The Hotel was meant to be haunted but compared to other haunted houses in horror film this was different. The hotel was always brightly lit, spacious, clean and nothing ghostly about it. Instead he used juxtaposition – despite beginning in an enormous spacious hotel the family were swallowed up, they were restricted because the hotel was isolated and they couldn’t leave due to the snow storm, it was like they were in prison.
From the beginning of the film Kubrick gave us hints foreshadowing what was to come, the false smiles and the exaggerated facial expressions of Jack (Jack Nicolson) represented something sinister as he applies for the caretaker job. His reaction to reaction to the story of the former caretaker that killed his family was strange, he didn’t seem bothered by the story and every reply that his wife would be fine with it because she is a huge ghost fan, however we are not shore that he even told his wife. Kubrick gives Jack a role where the audience doesn’t sympathise with him, his as an alcoholic who accidently harmed his son which we associate his character cold hearted making the more cold and chilling.
Danny (jacks son) plays an important part in this film as he has the gift of precognition. Instead the type of evil possession other children have in horror movies i.e the Exorcist, Danny’s alter ego Tony helps defends Danny and his mother from the harm the father had planned for them. In the scene where Danny and Wendy (Danny’s mother) were playing in the maze, Jack watched over the maze model, where Kubrick used point of view to show us what jack was seeing. Jack’s over head gaze over the model showed two figures moving which was Wendy and Danny – telling the audience that jack can’t be free from his family anymore that they could escape the maze.
The combination of excellent set design, perfect shot selections and effective music score created an atmosphere of suspense. The tight corridors, sterile bathroom and lavish illusionary ballroom all create a cold atmosphere where in each room there is an act of violence. The ballroom could be represent hell as when Jack was normal the ball room was empty, however when he started turning mad the room had more people in there influencing him i.e Grady the former caretaker. Even during normal activities the use of sound creates a more chilling atmosphere, i.e the use of rhythm of silence and clatter set up by Danny riding over the carpet and then the hard wooden floor, it builds tension and anticipation keeping the audience on their feet.
My favourite quote of the film is when Jack met Grady ‘you have always been the care taker’. This suggests that evil has always been inside him, which brings up the question does potential live inside everyone waiting to come out? Kubrick keeps it a mystery, however ever scene Jack sees a spirit there is a mirror in the room; this could reflect that jacks visions are his own reflection. I found the snowy maze chase between Jack and Danny the most suspenseful and intense part of the film, the use of quick cuts and fast pace music score helped increase the intensity of the scene – the battle between good and evil, where the final girl (Danny and Wendy) survived.
