Information about the film- There are hundreds of mass market 'Halloween' films, of which knife wielding maniacs scare off the stereotypical teenager babysitter, in a film with never disappoints if you're a fan of gore and fake blood. What puts John Carpenter’s Halloweenin a class of its own is its peerless craft. Its gory business is meticulously directed, staged, and lit (or in many cases, unlit). Like the sadistic murderer at its centre, it proceeds patiently, milking every moment for maximum suspense, capturing the audiences attention and keeping them on the 'edge of their seats' throughout. The film released on October 25th 1978, subsequently spurred the production of the whole franchise of Halloween films. Carpenter budgeted his film to $325,000, which went on to gross $70,000,000 worldwide making it one of the most successful independent films of all time. Production- Unlike many of the other horror slasher films of that time it presented a lot of clichéd moments and themes throughout. However unlike many horror films in this time period it present a clear lack of violence and gore. It would be an underestimate to say that the film was difficult to produce, the factors such as the tight budget, limited production time of four weeks and the inexperienced director of John Carpenter, however despite all of the potential set backs they pulled at the stops to produce one of the most successful independent horror films of all time. The low budget meant that major set backs had to be made, such as the selection of props. Wallace, who was hired for the production design, brought the trademark mask used by the antagonist throughout for $1.98. Some changes were made to the mask like widened the eye holes to create verisimilitude to the character and expose the pale humans face which all created a truly spooky character, all on request of Carpenter. Distribution- Halloween premiered in Kansas City on October 25th 1978, then sometime later it was shown in Chicago, Illinois and New York City. The film then grossed $47 million in the United States and additional $23 million internationally, making a theatrical total of $70 million. Since Halloween 's premiere, it has been released on VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, UMDand Blu-ray HD format. Early VHS versions were released by Media Home EntertainmentandBlockbuster Videoissued a commemorative edition in 1995. Subsequently the film has made $18,500,000 in home video revenues on top of the original figure for cinema distribution.
Gothic horror is a sub genre of film or literature that is often linked to supernatural horror.
The use of the Gothic sub genre in films has been adapted from its use in literature, as shown with the famous stories of Dracula and Frankenstein.
Gothic horror is usually based around myths and old stories intended to chill the spine and scare people they can contain ghosts and haunted houses for example, which is where the supernatural element is tied in.
Gothic horror rekindles childhood fears and reflects society's dominant ideologies of what is seen as scary, ie: the dark or the feeling of someone following you.
The sub genre differs from other horror sub genres in the sense that it creates a more emotional and less intellectual fear, one doesn't have to properly engage with the film to understand and relate to the fears on screen and in this sense it is visceral.
However Gothic is similar to other sub genres in the sense that it is dynamic through the options it gives and can be easily consumed by audiences.
An Example of Gothic Horror
The Woman in Black (Watkins, 2012)
Adapted from the novel of the same name by Susan Hill the women in black is a classic modern horror film the plot presents the audience with a young windowed lawyer who is sent to a desolate village to put a dead eccentrics affairs in order. he then discovers that a revenge seeking ghost of a deceased women is terrorizing the locals and the plot goes from there.
Daniel Radcliffe plays the lawyer, and as the film was released very closely to the last Harry Potter film it gained major buzz. The fact that it stars and gives prevalence to a major Hollywood actor is somewhat unusual for a horror film as is the fact that it was only certified as a 12A in the UK.
However the fact that it was only a 12A reflects that it is a Gothic horror, it doesn't focus on blood and gore and isn't high tempo, it builds and makes people jump it keeps them on the edge of their seats and plays on people's fears of the dark. This makes it innovative.
Conventions of Gothic horror
Desolate and wild landscapes that are often sinister.
Shadows, moonlight Flickering candles stereotypical ghost story themes.
Graveyards, forests, haunted houses
Supernatural powers with magical or haunting themes
less gore and high tempo and more focused on an actual story line where the main character might dispel the evil or be consumed by it at the end in a climatic scene.
Most of the first ever horror films were Gothic
can be based around omens or ancestral curses
Use of certain weather, ie: Mist and storms and they are also usually set at night
Sense of dread and mystery
Villain and hero
Can contain a strong moral, De sade thought the gothic genre came as a response to the brutality of romantic society. Frankenstein is an example of a Gothic horror with strong morals.
During the editing of this short we learnt a lot of things that are vital to keeping a good continuity throughout the film. We used Adobe Premiere Elements 9.0. The process we went through was:
First we plugged our SD card into the computer using a card reader. We then copied all of our clips off the SD card onto the D drive of the computer.
We then opened Premiere Elements 9.0, and created a new project. Then we had to change the settings because our camera had a higher frame rate than everybody else's. Then we clicked 'Get Media' and clicked on all the clips that we wanted to use and then clicked open.
We then dragged and dropped our clips onto the timeline. Then we cut the clips and put them together in order of how our film was going.
We used non-diagetic sound to create a scarier atmosphere by using sounds we found on FreeSounds.org. This added more depth to our film opening. We added sound in the same way we added clips to our timeline.
At the end of our short, the film cuts to black just as the antagonist is about to murder the protagonist, this makes the audience guess what happens next and makes it seem more enigmatic.
Why are stories that 'aim to scare their audiences' so popular? There are many reasons as to why people go to the cinema, however in the last few years the industrial companies have played it relatively safe, in creating films with common denominators in order to keep the revenue streams flowing. However the aim of cinema is to create an immersive 'experience' for the audience to experience with friends. In order to this the director will have to evoke some sort of emotions in order to connect to the audience, one of which is the able to scare the audience, in an experience which in some cases is visceral. One could say this is one if the reasons why the aim to scare the audience in motives such as sudden jumps in order to keep the audience 'on the edge of their seats' and wanting to watch more. What insight can the study of horror monsters give? The ways that the producers of a film are able to scare their audiences are mostly done through the use of the antagonist, the antagonist can be in many different forms such as:
aliens
ghosts
the possessed
zombies
dolls
the devil
with a further understanding of the antagonist the producers will understand what makes the audience tick, in terms of the scare factor, in order to capture a wider range of viewers through better ratings. Through word of mouth or buzz the film will be talked about causing more people to go and watch the film, resulting in more revenue, which, at the end of the day is the main motive for the production of the film. What did Nosferatu (1922), one of the earliest horror films use the vampire as a metaphor for?
Nosferatu (1922) was a film shot in 1921 which was subsequently released in 1922, it was an 'unauthorised' adaptation of a very similar film 'Dracula', this caused some real controversy as Bram Stroker sued over the production of the adaptation, which resulted in all of the copies of the films having to be destroyed. However one survived and is now regarded as one of the most influential pieces of early cinema. They referred the vampire as an invader that comes from elsewhere which can be interpreted sexually but since Germany was just recovering from the aftermath of World War 1 and with Nosferatu's rat like appearance, it would seem that he was a metaphor for a disease or a presence that isn't wanted there.
Read to the end of
the article. Make notes on how there are different readings of horror based on
socio/cultural contexts of the decade? A lot like Nosferatu, Frankenstein (Whale, 1932) was based a lot around the occurrences of that time. For example, Frankenstein was made during the great depression during which the Russian revolution occurred, in Frankenstein the anger is directed at the monster rather than the ruling class which reflects what was happening at the time. There were different interpretations of the context such as how we sympathise the monster represents the racial tensions which were currently rising in American culture and the monsters death showed how one cannot integrate into another society. During the 1960s; as the social times changed it was reflected in the horror monsters. The first film of the decade was Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960) in which the monster is a normal man who goes crazy similarly to Peeping tom (Powell, 1960) These type of horror films create an unsettling amount of realism. By the end of the decade a lot of racial tension was occurring in society, during this time no one would ever think that a main character would ever be a black male but Night of the Living Dead (Romero, 1968)challenged this, which made it well known as a emergent ideology production. As horror moved into the late 1970s, the films became increasingly violent with The last house on the left (Craven, 1972) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Hooper, 1974) In the final
paragraph, why according to Hendry is horror still relevant to audiences? Hendry tells of how horror is a very dynamic genre being able to be shaped to each and every situation allowing it to be very popular with a wide range of audiences and tastes.
Insidiousis a 2010 Americansupernatural horrorfilm directed byJames Wan, written by Leigh Whannell, and starring Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne and Barbara Hershey. It is the first installment in the Insidious film series. The story centers on a couple whose son inexplicably enters a comatose state and becomes a vessel for ghosts in an astral dimension. The film was released in theaters on April 1, 2011, and was FilmDistrict's first theatrical release. Production
Principal photography for Insidious was completed over the course of three weeks in 2010, from late April to mid-May at the historicHerald Examiner Building in downtown Los Angeles. In regards to the shorter shooting schedule, actor Patrick Wilson explained, "We had long days and a lot of pages a day, and we didn’t get a lot of coverage or rehearsal.But luckily, the benefit of doing a movie that’s not on a big budget—and the reason it’s usually done like that—is so if the filmmakers feel like, ‘OK, we’re not going to sacrifice anything on screen,’ which I don’t think they have, it lets them have complete control. So we were in good hands."
Insidious Promotional Poster
The musical scoreto Insidious was composed by Joseph Bishara, who also appears in the film as the demon. Performed with a quartet and a piano, the majority of the score wasimprovisedand structured in the editing process, although some recording sessions began prior to filming. On describing the film's soundtrack, director James Wan explained, "We wanted a lot of the scare sequences to play really silent. But, what I like to do with the soundtrack is set you on edge with a really loud, sort of like, atonal scratchy violin score, mixing with some really weird piano bangs and take that away and all of a sudden, you’re like, 'What just happened there?'"
The film opened with $13,271,464, making it #3 at the domestic box office behind Hop and Source Code. It has since grossed a total of $54,009,150 domestically and $43,000,000 internationally, for a total of $97,009,150 worldwide.Insidious was the most profitable film of 2011.
Distribution
The first teaser for the film Insidious was released on September 14 2010. A few weeks later a promotional poster was released giving audiences an idea of what the film would be like. The poster was released by production company IM Global. The first full length trailer for the film was released by FilmDistrict on January 22 2011, and the trailer was available to watch on Blastr a few days later. Insidious was premiered at the Midnight Madness program at the Toronto Film Festival, and was quickly noticed by Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions, who later picked it up for theatrical distribution. On December 29, 2010, it was announced that the film would be released theatrically on April 1, 2011 by the then-relatively new film company FilmDistrict. The film was also screened at South by Southwest in mid-March 2011. Insidious was released on DVD on July 12 2011. The film was released through Sony Pictures Entertainment. The Blu-ray bonus content includes three featurettes: Horror 101: The Exclusive Seminar, On Set With Insidious, and Insidious Entities
Nosferatu was one of the first horror films ever made. Released in 1922 it was filmed in black and white and is a silent film. the film has a very Gothic, eerie feel to it and it acted as the template for many ensuing horror films. Its story revolves around Stockers Dracula novel, so much so that Stockers widow tried to get a court ruling to have all copies of the film destroyed, she obviously wasn't successful. however the film defiantly was, many people hold it in high esteem as one of the greatest Gothic horrors ever made and the film is unquestionably one of the most influential films of the silent era. so much so that a remake was made in 1979.
The film starts with an array of credits after which the words "Act 1" appear on the screen, This idea of separate acts reinforces the age of the film, showing that it has been put together like a stage show.
Because the film is silent, text and speech are shown on the screen, the first instance of this happening is "Nosferatu does this word not sound like the deathbird calling your name at midnight?" the text goes on to hint at what the film is about, whereupon an establishing shot of a church is shown. the shot is quite impressive considering the low quality of the camera.
in the shots that follow you can see that factors to do with Mise en scene were heavily thought about because the costumes reflect the time period and personality's of the characters, the women in the opening scene shows this through here dress and she is also playing with a cat which conveys her happy personality. These kind of features are particularly important in Nosferatu because they can't be conveyed via sound. Because of the period the film is from one might think that filming techniques were less developed and ideas like mise en scene were less thought about. However because the film is silent it focuses more on facial epressions and other elements of Mise en scene more because it cannot convey things via sound so other outlets have to be used.
The full Nosferatu film including the opening sequence can be found on Youtube.
With films such as Halloween (1974), women began having a more important role in the story line.
In horror, women have been generally portrayed as weak characters, often being completely overlooked and not developed as characters during a film. They were often killed off early in slasher films or were there purely for show and had no true depth to their character. The women were also portrayed as weak for the sole purpose of the male hero coming to rescue them. This contributed to much anger among feminists who believed that women were being misrepresented as unable to defend themselves and reliant on men for safety. In the 1970's, however, things began to change as famous directors in the American horror genre, such as George A. Romero, Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper and
John Carpenter, decided to respond to what was happening in America at that time. The Vietnam War, race riots, civil unrest and the growing
Feminist movement were all huge political topics so these directors took them and incorporated them into their films. Night of the Living Dead (1968), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Halloween (1974) were all about the horrors at home, and therefore began to re-position female characters through that. The role of the woman in horror films became much more empowering and they were now the hero, albeit unlikely. These women were portrayed as strong and actively seeking out threats to get rid of them.
Friday the 13th
Conventions of Stalk and Slash Films
Stalk and Slash films are a completely American product and are very similar. All films of this sub-genre follow a specific plot:
A mixed group of teenagers travel to a distant and remote location and immediately party involving alcohol, drugs and sex.
As the partying is going on, each member of the group is slowly murdered one by one.
They are often killed by a masked killer, or a killer who's identity is not revealed till the very end.
Towards the end, all of the group has been murdered, except for one, who's job it is then to hunt down and kill this murderer them self.
One the murderer has been killed, their identity is revealed and their motive becomes clear.
The demographic that these films are most popular with is teenagers, the majority boys and young men. This popularity among them is due to two main factors, clear and long scenes involving female nudity and a very graphic depiction of murder involving lots of blood and gore. These elements are known to be typical of what young men like. The popularity of this sub-genre caused directors to think up new ways to kill characters, some of which were bordering on insanity, They had to do this to keep audiences excited and not create a boring and generic sub-genre.
Scream (Craven, 1994)
The author of the reading source writes that these films are very significant in modern cinema. He states that if not for this sub-genre, two of horror's most notorious and frightening characters, Jason Vorhees (Friday the 13th) and Freddy Krueger (Nightmare on Elm Street), would not have been created. He then argues had it not been for these characters, then the idea of sustained narratives through film franchises would not have been born. This would that there would be less revenue potential to be made through films. The author also argues that, while the films seem psychotic and insane, they have deep morals to them that people can learn from. Whitehead states:
'The killer is punishing the
group either for trespassing upon its territory or is avenging an earlier wrong
perpetrated by that group or a group that they symbolically represent.'
This shows that the teenagers often deserve what is coming for them, as they have broken the rules and broken moral codes. This shows what teenagers are like when they are not under the watchful eye of their parents. This therefore positions the killer as a moral person, as they are punishing the teenagers for doing something wrong. However, the killer is always murdered in the end.
The Final Girl
In 1987 Carol J. Clover came up with the concept of 'The Final Girl' in horror films. This concept states that at the end of all slasher films, there is one female survivor that then kills the murderer. This character has many distinctive qualities that picks them out as 'the final girl'. These qualities are:
Smarter than her peers, intelligent, watchful and level-headed
Morally pure, so does not take part in typically wild teenage behaviour
The first to recognise danger and lack of morals among her peers
Scream (Craven, 1994) is a prime example of 'The Final Girl'
The qualities of this character make her different from her peers, this makes us believe that she is more emotional unstable than her peers and possibly weaker. She is portrayed as socially awkward and reluctant to engage in the 'adult' acts of her peers such as drinking, drugs and sex. As the murdering spree begins, however, it emerges that this girl is the only one who could possibly overcome the threat, therefore positioning her as more powerful than her friends. Throughout the story, this weak girl slowly becomes more 'masculine' and uses her superior cunning and intellect to outwit the killer and trap the killer. To visualise the change from feminine to masculine, the final girl kills the murderer with a 'phallic' object, often an axe, machete or shotgun. To further push the masculinity of the character they are given androgynous names such as Jess (Black Christmas, Bob Clark,
1974), Alana (Terror Train, Roger Spottiswoode, 1980), Marty (Hell Night, Tom
De Simone, 1981) and Sidney (Scream, Wes Craven, 1996).
We learnt how to carry out an effective location reccie and an accompanying risk assessment. This will help us in our final coursework piece as we will need to do a reccie and risk assessment for every location we use.
We learnt how to think creatively using the area we had available and we learnt how to create a narrative through camera shots.
We also learnt a lot about how to create a sense of immediacy and realism when it came to shots like POV and handicam.
We also learnt how to effectively plan out our shots and this made it much easier when it came to shooting our film.
What Went Well?
Our use of the track and dolly was very effective and gave a very professional look to our film, especially with the natural sunlight coming through the trees in the background.
We came up with some interesting shots that we wanted to try out, like the actor and the camera going towards each other until they meet, and then cutting to a shot behind the actor. This was very effective and was probably one of our best shots of the day.
One positive was that we worked well as a group to contribute ideas and that helped create a strong storyline. We worked efficiently and had a good idea of what we wanted to do
What Didn't Go Well?
We felt that maybe because of the limited time we had that our storyline, although strong, was still very weak and generic. However, we will have to chance to create a more enigmatic piece for a our final coursework.
We took some shots that we did not use in our final piece. These shots included zooming, which we found was ineffective because we were unable to get a smooth zoom in on the character.
One other shot that didn't go well was when we tracked the protagonist by walking backwards while he was moving forwards. This was very diffucult to do without getting a very wobbly shot so we decided not to use it.
We feel that maybe we could have done a bit more to create a smoother transition between shots and have better continuity.
Zombie film is a sub-genre of horror film that portrays mindless human beings who are raised from the dead. These films often include a Zombie invasion, and center around Zombies feasting on human flesh. The plot of a Zombie film then revolves around the struggle between the living, and the living-dead. Zombie film not only falls into the horror genre, but Sci-Fi, Thriller, and Comedy as well, which makes it a very dynamic genre.
Examples of Zombie Horror
SHAUN OF THE DEAD (WRIGHT, 2004)- A man decides to turn his dull life around by winning back his ex-girlfriend, reconciling his relationship with his mother, and dealing with an entire community that has returned from the dead to eat the living. The story follows the main actor Shaun (Simon Pegg) and his even more tragic best friend Ed (Nick Frost), the dynamic duo try to save their home town. ZOMBIELAND (FLEISCHER, 2009)- A cowardly shut-in named Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) is forced to join up with a seasoned zombie slayer named Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) in order to survive the zombie apocalypse. As Tallahassee sets out on a mission to find the last Twinkie on Earth, the duo meets up with Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), two young girls who have resorted to some rather unorthodox methods to survive amidst the chaos. The group attempt to challenge the apocalypse single handily. Zombieland directed by Ruben Fleischer, is serious proof that the zombie sub-genre isn't dead.
Conventions of Zombie Horror-
Zombie have appeared as early as 1919, many say that George A. Romero with setting the standard for modern zombies however with his film, "Night of Living Dead".
From Romero's concept of zombies they've been depicted to be: newly dead corpses, reanimated by radiation chemicals, viruses, sorcery and acts of God.
In most modern zombie portrayals, zombism is contagious, and people bitten by zombies become zombies themselves, which means the 'virus' spreads a lot more rapidly.
Films like "28 Days Later" depict more intelligent zombies, which are faster and more gruesome.
In general most Zombie films end with either: Cliff-hangers, Everyone dies and/either the zombies are killed.
Most of the time the cast contains the leader, children, betrayer, human sacrifice, eye candy and the nerd.
The weapons/props used in most zombie-genre movies tend to be quite make shift, such as baseball bats, however movies such as Zombieland challenges this ideology about the zombie genre.
As you can see from the photos most of the pictures, a lot are shot with high quality cameras, creating a sense of realism and verisimilitude to the films.
Not only this but all of the films are shot in very popular locations, such as the centre of London or New York City, allowing the audience to create a connection to the film.
Also films such as Zombieland include blockbuster actors to attract a wider audience with a different motive to watch the film, not just for the content but to watch the actor too.
A conventional zombie horror would be 28 days later (Boyle, 2002). The plot depicts the fall of society following the accidental release of a highly contagious virus which focus on the life of four characters and there struggles to cope with their new circumstances. It was known as the rejuvenation of the zombie horror genre which spurred a sequel of 28 weeks later. The film its self was very popular which was shown through its high box office, £52,833,190.55 and its low budget of £5,000,000. Here is the first scene of the film, it presents many of the typical features a horror production that I would like to replicated in my production:
Mise-en scene-
All of the characters in the scene are dressed in very dull/dark clothing which helps set the scene of a typical horror film.
Also the makeup is clearly very minimal and makes the characters out to be dirty which helps to give the impression that that they haven't actually left the safe house yet. Also when the boy enters the house he is seen to have dirt all over his face and dirty hands, as if he'd been in the dirt previously.
Also the character selection is important in the scene. Before the young boy enters the house all of the characters are around the same age, which, when the boy enters the scene it creates a feeling of unrest amongst the other characters therefore the scene too.
Character blocking is also important in showing a real divide between the adult actors and the boy. Before the boy comes into the house all of the characters are pictured around the table however when the boy is eating at the table the other characters are pictured around him.
The set is designed well to create an eery feel to the opening, the candles scattered around the set and the dark furniture and minimal colour around the house help to evoke that eery feel to the opening.
Sound
The focus on diagetic sound helps create a realistic feel to the scene. The fact that theres no backing track helps create a minimal feel, which also makes it even more dramatic when the zombie smashes through the window defence and bites the female actor which causes the chain reaction of havoc to unfold.
The dialogue is also very minimal to give off the feeling that they're trying to keep quiet from the zombies outside, however they're seen to be like a very normal group of people sitting down for a meal.
Lighting-
There's soft pools of light on the characters faces, which wouldn't have been able to be achieved with the candle lighting alone.
As well as this there is limited to no back lighting which creates the limited feel to the scene.
Purpose The purpose of our trip to wilderness woods is to check the area forrisk and suitability. This will prepare us for shooting in an previously unknown area. This knowledge will be valuable when looking for new locations to shoot our horror film opening. We will be able tocarry out risk assessments effectivelywhich is also very important for our final coursework. The purpose of this trip is to also test out specific camera angles and shots we may want to use in our horror opening. We can also find areas of the woods that are suitable and are linked to the theme of horror. This will challenge to think about how we can use specific areas creatively regarding horror, and will subsequently give us ideas on how we will want to do things later. Risk Assessment
A risk assessment is used to analyse and identify the particular risks that may be involved in doing a task. This includes anything that may put a person or camera equipment at danger. We have identified the following risks that may accompany a trip to the woods:
The weather can cuase the ground to be very wet and slippery, which can cause a student to fall over. we will try to minimise this risk by making sure we wearsuitable footwear.
Another risk is the rain. If it rains, then there is the danger of equipment getting severely damaged. We will minimise this risk by bringing umbrellas so, if it rains, we can hold the equipment under the umbrella so it does not get damaged by the rain.
There is also the risk of a student tripping on raised roots of trees.
Planning
We would like to use this location reccie to try out some camera shots that we have been thinking about trying out. This includes:
Establishing shots
Panning
360 pan
Dutch tilt
Worms eye view
Tracking
Extreme Close Up (ECU)
We would also like to see how we can use locations effectively and use natural lighting to our advantage to make our horror opening natural and create a sense of immediacy and realism. We would like to explore the possibility of doing the sub-genres of psychological horror, zombie horror and gothic horror, so we will use our time effectively to try and apply the iconography we have researched to a real filming task.
Psychological horror is a subgenre of horror fiction, film,
and video games (as a narrative) which relies on the characters' fears and
emotional instability to build tension. Psychological horror typically relies
on the shadowy characteristics of the “other”. Also, many play on the shadowy
parts of the self that most people repress or deny, making the viewer
uncomfortable. The genre relies on the fact that the antagonists are completely
normal people, making it seem more realistic as it feels like it could happen
to any of us. Psychological horror uses mental illness and common psychological
instabilities to build a character. Often the antagonist will have had a bad
background that will have caused them to be mentally ill and this sets them up
for the plot.
Donnie Darko (Kelly, 2001)
Donnie Darko (2001)
Donnie Darko is a 2001 American supernatural drama film
written and directed by Richard Kelly and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Drew
Barrymore and Patrick Swayze. It depicts a teenage boy who regularly sees a
person in a rabbit costume that he calls Frank. This ‘Frank’ character tells
Donnie that the world will end. The Frank character continues to torment Donnie
and eventually causes Donnie to have a breakdown and shoot someone. The doctors
dismiss his condition as paranoid schizophrenia.
Donnie Darko is quite an unconventional horror film but it stills holds many of the typical conventions of horror. It is classed as more of a drama.
A Tale of Two Sisters (Jee-woon, 2003)
Other famous psychlogical horror films include The Shining (Kubrick, 1980), The Others (Amenabar, 2001) and A Tale of Two Sisters (Jee-Woon, 2003). Acommon denominator in psychological horror films is a lonely, isolated person who becomes vengeful or mentally ill due to his/her isolation. They then start to do terrible things due to their built up anger.
Conventions of Psychological Horror These are some typical iconography you would see in psychological horror:
The main antagonist/protagonist will have mental issues or be defined as a psychopath.
Use of weapons like chainsaws and knives.
Use of seemingly normal people, not much special effects.
Isolated and lonely antoagonist/protagonist.
May sometimes play on irrational childhood fears (Clowns, Dolls, Nursery Rhymes)
Locations such as old mansions, forests etc.
Low key lighting to create tension.
Music used to create tension, usually low or minor chords.
Classic scene from The Shining (Kubrick, 1980)
Another famous still from Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960)
Donnie Darko is a supernatural horror/drama that was made in 2001. It depicts a teenager who regularly gets visits from a person dressed in a rabbit costume that calls himself 'Frank'. this rabbit then tells him that the world will end in a month, and then goes on to influence Donnie to do terrible things. This is typical of a psychological horror film.
The scene begins with the camera slowly zooming in to Donnie laying in the middle of the road looking confused. This connotes that the main character may have strange things happening to him or he is not in a normal state of mind.
The director has used costume to portray the character effectively. The boy is wearing rough clothes, possibly pyjamas, and his hair is very scruffy.
We know this is possibly a horror film because there is a shot of a sign that says 'Middlesex Halloween Carnival' which could mean that some supernatural things could happen.
The scene is seemingly one continuous shot of Donnie waking up in the middle of the road and riding home on his bike.
The director has used panning, tracking and zooming to create the opening scene.
The director has used specific lighting to create a more eerie atmosphere. For example, the lighting when he wakes up is very dim, making it seem like it is cold and scary.
The music starts off very eerie with conventional horror soundtrack and then while he is riding the bike it is more jolly music. This is not conventional of a horror film.
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