Movie trailer report: Drag me to hell

Drag me to Hell (2009)
The point of equilibrium is when she is talking about her job and she tells the old woman that she cannot have an extension on her house payments. The moment of disequilibrium is when she begins to beg, and then says something. When the old lady attacks the young girl in the car park and looks evil, this is the point of disequilibrium.
Codes and conventions
• Religion
• Possession
• Screaming and “evil” music
• Making a safe place unsafe- when she is in her car, in bed, and in her house
Sound and editing
Screaming to add to the horror, high pitched- violins- to make it more fast-paced. Lots of camera shots towards the end to go with the pace of the music, whereas at the beginning, it had a few shots to show the story.
Iconography
Religious imagery like churches and crosses, add to the theme of possession, evil and the devil. Elderly lady to represent a witchy character

Movie trailer report: jeepers creepers

Jeepers Creepers (1998)
The point of equilibrium is when they are in the car driving. The moment of disequilibrium is when they see someone unloading a car on the side of the road in the woods and decide to stop. They see that the man is a monster-man/ moth thing which is the point of disequilibrium which is the point of disequilibrium.
Codes and conventions
• Driving in an isolated area, no one else around and when he falls down the tunnel
• Fear of the unknown
• Religious imagery
• Curiosity kills
• Weapons
Editing
Uses lots of jump cuts during the middle, and fade to blacks during the period of equilibrium.
Iconography
Religious imagery makes people think the film is about possession, devil ect. Bodies and bones associated with death and murder.

Movie trailer report: the decent

The decent (2004)
The point of equilibrium is when they are driving and all chatty. The moment of disequilibrium is when the woman says she is stuck and the rock starts to move. The point of disequilibrium is when they all get stuck underground, to the end of the trailer.
Codes and conventions
• Group of vulnerable women- like teenagers
• Going to somewhere isolated- driving and then underground
• The dark, claustrophobia, the fear of the unknown
• Screaming
• Weapons- pickaxe, hammer
Sounds and editing
Women screaming, there is a low humming noise which adds a sense of uncertainty to the mood. Uses lots of slow fade-to-blacks and dissolves during the period of equilibrium and lots of jump cuts during the period of disequilibrium to go with the pace.
Iconography
Shows caves and pools of water to show that they are underground and isolated from any help.

Movie trailer reprort: texas chainsaw masacre

Texas chainsaw massacre (2003)
The period of equilibrium is when they are driving along the road, and the music is soothing to go with the mood. The moment of disequilibrium is when the woman says “they’re all dead”. The period of disequilibrium is when they go into the house, right to the end of the trailer.
Codes and conventions
• They are driving somewhere so it means they’re isolated.
• Follows the final girl theory and sex=death
• A group of teenagers (drug boy, the couple, the quiet one ect)
• Curiosity kills
• Dark, scary, unknown place, nightmares, masks, and things we are afraid of.
• “Inspired by a true story”- girl being attacked- feminist point of view, made by a man for a man to watch.
• Weapons for torture; meat cleaver, chainsaw, hook
• The policeman is not evil- no one can help them
Sounds and editing
The music is at the beginning is soft, soothing to go with how the mood is supposed to be. When the moment of disequilibrium happens, the music turns fast-paced and there is a pounding sound to reflect the sound of a heartbeat and to add to the disorientation. Uses fade-to-black and dissolve during the beginning, and lots of jump cuts during the point of disequilibrium.
Iconography
The weapons like the chainsaw, the meat cleaver and the hook put with the screaming obviously mean that the girl is going to be tortured.

The history of the horror genre essay

Horror films have been a staple in the media since the 1920’s. Based on different social events, means of technology and various views in society, there is no doubt that the dynamics of the horror genre has progressed over time.

The first influential horror film came about in 1922. “Nosferatu- F.W Muranu” was a film about a vampire who attacks victims and spreads disease. This comes form the sociological happenings, where in Europe during the 20’s, a major flu epidemic killed over 70 million people, the idea being the spread of disease affecting people. This is the basis that would be followed in to the present day; creating fear form what society is afraid of.

This was also the basis for the Hollywood re-make of the film “Dracula” where films began to have larger budgets and well-known actors.

This was followed by “The vampire lovers-Roy ward Baker (1970)” where another common theme was sex. During the 60’s there was a great deal of corruption from the civil rights movement. This was reflected in the film, showing corruption of society. The film featured a strong heterosexual theme, as during this time it was socially rejected. The film followed the ethic of the spread of disease like in “Nosferatu” and “Dracula”, particularly as STIs such as syphilis were rife in America during the 60’. The idea of sexual promiscuity was socially frowned upon and so it was mirrored in the films produced in this era.

This was a theme also followed in the film “Physco- Alfred Hitchcock (1961).” The film follows the final girl theory- the sensible, smart and virginal girl survives, and her promiscuous friends will be the first to die. “Physco” is widely based on creating the killer on real people in society. In the late 50’s Ed Gein was discovered to be a killer and so many of the villains in horror films are extensively based around his crimes, as this is what people were passively afraid of as they feared it could happen to them. Ed Gein was exposed to be a regular man with a regular job, who secretly bludgeoned people to death. Films such as “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)” are also broadly based around this idea too, although other sociological happenings of the era could also account for the themes in the film. The Vietnam War saw American soldiers being brutally murdered and slaughtered. During this period, the main fear was that families would lose their loved ones in the War, and so the film industry was able to take advantage of this, although not so immediate that it would insult the audience. The concept of the “pointless killings” was put into a film, enough that the audience was not offended but that the fear-factor was still apparent.

As technology progressed, the directors and producers were able to create new ways of frightening people. In the 70’s and 80’s, productions such as “The fly- David Cronenberg (1986)” and “Alien- Ridley Scott (1979)” used technology to create what people believed to be the changing effect and deterioration of a human. Make-up and special effects enabled production companies to present realistic views of normality. This meant that people feared what they were watching, as in effect, there fear was of technology, its development and what the future could bring for the horror genre.

The sci-fi genre was a stark-contrast to that of religion. The 70’s also saw Hollywood using people belief in God to evoke fear by placing doubt of faith in the mind’s of the audience. Films such as “The Exorcist- William Friedman (1973)” and “The omen- Richard Donner (1976)” used the innocence of children to induce fear in the form of satanic and evil possession as no member of society wants to see a naive child placed in a vulnerable situation.

“The Exorcist (1973)” offended the likes of the public a great deal. Themes of possession, temptation and sex mixed with the matter of religion came across to the audience as extremely distasteful and offensive. The advanced technology used in this film also made the effects life-like as opposed to previous films, and had such an adverse effect on cinema audiences, that there were reports of people coming out of the theatres, in shocking states, and even fainting.

Films like this also offended society as they came across as blasphemes and show the destruction of a person’s faith in God.

This was also show in the film “The Wicker man- Robin Hardy (1973).” The story shows the deterioration of a single man’s faith in God, and often uses sexual temptation to represent how the devil tempted Eve from the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3. The end was so offensive in relation to the crucifixion of Christ that the British film censors only agreed to show it if they cut out the odious and blasphemes scenes- which was most of it.

Following the theme of possession, films of the 80’s such as “The shining- Stanley Kubrick (1980) created a sense of realism for the audience by using the safety of a secure place such as the home to make the audience fearful. These were labelled “physiological horrors” as they often made the audience question their safety, wherever they are. This was a new type of fear-inducing tactic, as the horror film was more about how the viewer interpreted what they were seeing, and hopefully create the fear within their minds, rather that it being a physical, obvious type of horror presented directly to them on the screen

This theme is also present in films such as “Nightmare on Elm Street- Wes Craven (1972)”, where the protagonists believe that they are safe in their sleep, although it is quite the opposite.

The most recent scare tactic to develop on to the Hollywood horror scene is the idea of creating a life-like environment through a documentary style movie. “Cannibal holocaust (1981)” caused great controversy as it was the first film of its kind. The idea of filming a life-like documentary made the audience think that it was a way of life and that people lived their lives in the way that they were being shown. The film was based around a tribe in the Amazon- although it was filmed in Italy- who lives with animalistic character. The film featured nearly every social taboo, which is what made it so controversial. The life-like make-up and special effects were of such a great quality of the era that people believed people were actually being murdered to film the deaths in the film. It was banned in over 70 countries- including Britain until 2001.

“The Blair Witch Project (1998)” was also filmed in this style. It inflicted fear among the audience due to the way it was filmed on hand-held cameras. This creates the idea that what the actors were acting was all reality, and that what they are experiencing could be experienced by the viewer at any time. This was an effective was of creating fear, as the “witch” is never shown in the film but the audience are able to relate to the characters as they are feeling the same emotion.

Overall, there is no doubt that the horror genre and the media’s ability to scare people has progressed over time But there is also no question that the same methods used in conventional horror films are still used in modern horror films too, which shows that disregarding the era, the film industry still manage to find new ways of traditional methods to suggest terror to the viewers.

How does the opening of scream follow the structuralist theory of the horror genre?

 The structuralism of a film means the system of the semiotics (signs it uses) - the iconography- or the meaning of an object. In the film scream this theory is evident, as it uses many of the paradigms that various other films use. This helps the audience to distinguish the difference between the types of genre they are watching.

In the opening sequence there are a number of paradigms shown to the audience. The iconography is the sounds, signs and symbols or what is shown. The first paradigm is screaming. This goes with the idea that the film is of the horror genre, and is a consistent convention throughout horror movies. We are then shown the first character, who is a teenage girl. This agrees with the idea that horror films are aimed at teenagers to impose fear, and so use teenagers to create the fear. We learn that she is a ‘flirty’ teenager, as when she is on the phone, she talks about going on a date with him. This agrees with the convention, that the sexually active girls are killed first, and the virginal girls live to the end. The next paradigm we see is a shot of a tree. It shows that it is night time, and in the middle of nowhere, which corresponds with the idea that horror films are always set in remote places so as to make sure that no one can help the victims. It also confirms people’s fear of the dark, as it is a fear of the unknown, hence why the film is set at night.

When the girl finds out that she is being watched whilst on the phone, she panics and locks all of the doors. This is a paradigm of a horror film as it shows that she is scared and so barricades herself in.

Crying is another concept of horror. The girl is shown crying and begging to the killer down the phone, which also goes along with the theme of the feminist point of view- that men like to see women in a vulnerable position.

This is also a concept of the killer playing mind games, creating a sense of physiological fear for the audience. Later, we see that the killer has tied her boyfriend up to torture him, but also her. This is another way of creating physiological fear for the audience, as they can relate to the character.

In addition to this, the killer also asks her a series of questions where he says if she gets them right her boyfriend will live, although his intention was always to kill him.

The sounds of this scene are a code of a horror film. Although we do not see her boyfriend get killed, the sounds signify that he has been killed. We hear a ‘splat’ noise which confirms to the audience that he is being killed in a gruesome way, which involves blood as this is the sort of sound we associate it with.

Another paradigm we see in the opening of the film is that the killer is in a mask, and is in a black cape, signifying that his identity is unknown to the audience and character, which helps them to relate with each other. This goes along with the idea that we fear what we don’t know.

There is however a convention of the opening which is abnormal of films from the horror genre. The killer uses a knife to stab the girl, which is uncommon of other horror films, as the method of killing seems ‘too easy’. Horror films tend to use killing methods that produce torture so that it is a slow and painful death.

The film uses mainly point-of-view shots so that we can see from the character’s view what they are experiencing, which helps to evoke fear in the audience, and to enable the audience to converse with the character. There are also a few high-angle shots of the girl in it, to show that she is in a vulnerable situation and exposed to the killer.

The structure of the film is very basic, like those of other horror films. This means that the director is able to build up fear in other areas of the film instead. Like other horror films, it is set in a very remote place telling us that no one is able to get to the girl when she is in danger. There is also a killer, whose identity is hidden from us.

There is a strong theme of social commentary throughout the opening sequence; for example the idea that men like to watch women in pain and suffering. There is a strong sexual link to this as when the killer stabs her, the knife is penetrating her which links back to the basic idea of sex for men.

There are times when we can hear the director voicing his opinion through the characters too, which links to the idea of post-modernism as it is going against the ideas of iconography in a film. The girls is talking about scary films she like and talks about “Nightmare on Elm Street” which has the same director as the film she is in- Wes Craven. She says this is her favourite film, but comments that the sequels are not as good, which is a bias comment of the director, as he didn’t direct any of the others.

Overall, I think that the opening sequence closely follows the structuralist theory of other horror films, and that is clearly shown in the iconography in the film. It is also shown through the structure and the themes of the time it was released, which is an assenting asset to evoking fear onto the audience.