Mr Marfleet MEDIA Five horror films Analysation Scream (1996) 111 mins Director: Wes Craven Writer: Kevin

in Williamson
Budget: $15,000,000 (estimated) Opening Weekend: $6,354,586 (USA) (22 December 1996) (1413 Screens) Gross: $161,600,000 (Worldwide)

Scream is like any typical slasher movie, but with a difference. The difference is that the director plays with the viewers head, by making some characters have knowledge about horror movies themselves. For example, in the movie one of the characters exclaims "There's a formula to it. A very simple formula. Everybody's a suspect! what this shows is that the character has knowledge of what typically happens in a horror movie and as soon as he says this, the awareness of this fact gets implanted in the viewers head, which then confuses them, and makes them wonder if this person is the killer, because he knows how a horror movie works, or it could be any of the group of teenagers, or someone we as the audience havent seen much of yet. In horror movies, sound plays an intricate part within them and Scream is no exception. From the very beginning of the movie, sounds are already present. You can hear music in the background as Dimension Films slowly comes out of the darkness, which is then followed by a rumble. While the eerie music is still playing, the title of the movie is stretched out and comes back together with a loud crash. This is then followed by a phone ringing, a heart beating rapidly, a terrifying scream, a knife slicing into something, and finally followed by more screams. The ringing phone ties it into the first scene when the girl picks up the phone. The music, heart pounding and screams vanish. With all these mixed collection of sounds, the director has already played on the viewers senses within just a minute into the film and there is already the apprehension that something bad is going to happen. An example that shows something bad is going to happen is when the girl hangs up on the mysterious caller for the second time. After this, the mysterious caller rings her again and when the girl is barely able to finish her sentence what do you want from me?! the caller violently and frustratingly shouts DONT HANG UP ON ME YOU LITTLE BITCH. This creates fear and suspense within the viewer, making them worry about whats going to happen next. One more sound element that should be mentioned takes place in the principal's office. The principal angrily lectures two students for running around at school in the iconic costume which the killer wears. The Principal finds it insensitive that they joke about this when their fellow students have been brutally murdered, so He takes the scissors out and they make this "clink" sound (which is obviously added). This sound sounds very much like a knife slicing into something. The principal viciously uses the scissors to cut up the costumes. All the while, the viewer hears the slicing sounds. One of the students complains that it's "not fair" when the principal suspends them. The principal retaliates by holding the scissors up to the students. The viewer can hear lots of clinging sounds, like knives hitting each other. The principal holds the scissors up to one of the boy's shirts and says fair would be to "rip your insides out." When he says rip, there is a ripping sound, even though the principal doesn't rip the shirt or anything. These exaggerated sounds make the principal seem capable of committing an act of violence and makes the viewer wonder for a second, could the murderer be the principal. Often when watching a movie, people don't pay that close attention to these sorts of things, even though the subconscious is aware of it and picks it all up. Wes Craven knows this and uses it to his advantage.

Mr Marfleet MEDIA Five horror films Analysation

In movies, different shots imply different information about what is going on in the scene. Wes Craven chooses his shots carefully. For example, there's a full shot of Sidney from behind. She has just gone in the closet and the camera follows her from behind. As I have watched a few horror movies which perform these types of shots, I know that the full shot with the characters back to the viewer can mean a sign of danger. As Sidney is right in the middle of the shot, this leaves her vulnerable to be attacked from her right, left or behind, leaving her vulnerable for the murderer to be able to jump out and tackle her. This shot could also be of the killer stalking her from behind. Wes Craven has done this purposely to emphasize that something could well happen to the innocent, unprotected girl. What I like about Wes Cravens directing style is how He never gives the viewer more than a couple of minutes to relax. While the viewer is slightly less anxious of whats going to happen next, more use of storyline is involved to keep the anticipation going. In Scream, there is a lot of tension. An example of how the amount of tension slowly builds is when there is a camera shot of the outside of the innocent looking house, which is surrounded by completely still trees and the dark of night, combined with the sounds of small insects. Another example of how Scream piles on the tension is in the beginning scene when the girl is talking to the man on the phone and the camera keeps going back and forth to her and the popcorn she is heating up in some type of foil container, which looks like it is going to explode imminently. This reflects on the tension of the conversation between Casey and the mysterious caller, which also impacts on the viewer too. I think that Scream is aimed at a more mature audience, but available to teenagers 15+ because the film itself actually isnt vey gory, however it does feature a lot of violence and some blood can be seen. Another reason why I think it is aimed more at teenagers is because the actors who are in the movie are teenagers themselves, which means teenagers get the impression that the film will be understandable to them.

Paranormal activity (2007)

Budget: $15,000 (estimated) Opening Weekend: $77,873 (USA) (27 September 2009) (12 Screens) Gross: $193,355,800 (Worldwide) (21 January 2010)

Paranormal activity is a demonic genre film which has a reality type setting. To help emphasize the sense of realism, the director has chosen to have one of the characters use a video camera, so that the audience can see from his point of view and also make the viewer feel like theyre as vulnerable as him. Also, the camera is positioned in one spot in the couples bedroom recording whatever happens during the night, just in case anything is caught on camera. In my opinion, I think the movie is set like this because the makers of this film wanted to make the story seem as believable as possible and want to scare the viewer but keep them leaning anxiously forward from their seat, wondering what events are about to occur. There are three Teen Horror conventions used in this movie and they are: Suspense, Fear, and Atmospheric sound effects. During the movie there is a scene of

Mr Marfleet MEDIA Five horror films Analysation

when the quilt cover that the man and the woman are both under seems and it seems to be moving slowly by someone...or something. At first, it can be mistaken as wind merely brushing past the bed. But all of a sudden, the quilt cover was moved out of the way fast, and the woman was dragged out of her bed all the way across the landing. The man chases after her and tries to get her back, and because the woman is behind the corner screaming, the viewer doesnt know exactly what is happening, which results in an increase of fear. Unlike Scream, Paranormal Activity does not feature music to build suspense. To help make the story seem more believable the director has chosen not to include music to emphasize the quietness and eeriness atmosphere but to also immerse the audience to be in such a state of suspense that they are almost literally on the edge of their seat (or depending on how easily scared you are, hiding under your bed instead). The film itself is like a recorded diary/documentary which shows the progression of ghostly happenings and spine tingling events. As the story progresses further, acts taken by the poltergeist/demonic being, become more and more threatening and violent. It is this very factor which increases the level of fear spread around both the atmosphere of the film and the viewer. I know this because at the beginning of the film, strange occurrences happen such as noises of someone walking on the landing and the opening of doors, then as the story progresses, there is more interaction between objects and, eventually the residents of the house. For example, at one point during the movie, the demon runs on the landing to the residents bedroom door and slams it shut. Being totally honest here, I absolutely dropped a few ounces of weight when I witnessed this (if you know what I mean!). Because the lighting used in this film is very limited, there is always a sense of apprehension that something bad is going to happen. I think this is a very effective way of keeping the audience constantly in suspense, until it is daytime at least. The revenue Paranormal Activity received was quite remarkable. In the opening weekend, it had received $77,783 just from the USA. But on 21 January 2010, it had received a total of $193,555,800 worldwide and all this movie was created from start to scratch was estimated a small budget equalling only $15,000!

Final destination www.marcwalshmedia.blogspot.com Final destination relies heavily on the use of camera shots to convey different emotions and evidently reference certain things such as important objects or potential hazards. There are different uses of camera shots used within Final Destination and here is a good example: when the plane in the beginning of the film experiences turbulence for the second time, the cinematography becomes very wild and jerky and you cant clearly see what is clearly in the shot, the screaming and general panic is conveyed through this technique, making the panic seem surreal. Music is also used in Final Destination. It is mainly used for the dramatic sequences, or the events which seem inevitable. An example of music being effectively used is when the flight prepares to take off, music is brought in and

Mr Marfleet MEDIA Five horror films Analysation the pace of everything seems to have quickened. This reflects on the emotional side of how Alex is feeling. Anxious. This also cleverly has been used so that the audience feels what Alex is feeling at that moment, as if it is really happening. The plane then experiences some minor turbulence; this is building up tension and therefore implying that the climax is going to take place very soon, making the audience believe that something is going to go wrong shortly but everything goes back to normal to relieve the tension, which in turn allows for the tension to be built up again. The opening scene of Final Destination instantly gives the impression that the boy shown (Alex) is the main character, because it is straight away showing who he is and how he is. We see everything as being normal that is, nothing out of the ordinary has happened yet to prove otherwise. Immediately, Alex is shown to have superstitious beliefs because he will not let his mother take a label off. As she ignores him and rips the tag off, the shot is slowed down momentarily just as the rip takes place. This is to imply that Alex and his superstitious beliefs are going to be a central part of play in the movie. This also creates the expectation that Alex will be the more hesitant character and will always take the safe option and perhaps mean that he is going to be a hero. The obviousness of this movie being a Teen Horror is clearly shown when Alex is at the airport and meets up with his group of friends. The characteristics of his friends are rather typical for a Teen Horror, they are young, attractive and have certain traits, which can be found in any teenage group, there is a bully, an idiot, a girlfriend, a best friend and the central characters crush.