The Conjuring, is a horror and thriller movie that shows a family moving into an old New England farmhouse where they discover spirits living among them. With the use of different media techniques, the audience can feel tension, terror and suspense.
The eerie tone of the movie is portrayed through the dull/dark colors throughout the house. Also the house looks old with all of the antique furniture and decorations, the beaten up walls, and creaky doors. The aging house is an effective setting as it gives the impression there is a long history in the household which could involve spirits etc.
In the trailer, the music in the beginning is upbeat which is why the mood change is so prominent when there is a sudden contrast of music . Eerie music then begins to play and we can tell this movie is going to be frightening. The eerie music comes back when she is investigating the basement. Finally, we feel the pure tension when there is absolute silence before the spirit claps.
In the film, many wide-angle shots are used which establishes the scary setting and surroundings involved in the film. In the trailer, there is a scene by a misty lake overlooking the creepy old house. The mist is significant to a horror movie as it is mysterious, it hides things in it and things can hide in it. Other shots also include close ups of specific things. An example in the trailer would be the close-up of the old clock which has stopped at 3:06. This is a typical time for supernatural occurences which increases tension as we know something is going to occur.
Characters wore costumes which were old-fashioned and country style gave the audience an idea of the time period involved in the film. It is set in the countryside of America in 1971.
The target audience certificate is a 15 which is because of the pure horror involved in the film and the fact it relates to true events. It involves death, blood, supernatural occurrences etc which wouldn't be suitable for a younger audience.
Overall our film will be a supernatual horror
which has many popular films that are a little similar to ours through the
characters, storyline, setting and several other notable things.
The Poltergeist (1982)
This is a supernatural horror in which a family move into a house where strange
occourences begin to happen after the smallest child, Carol Anne announces
'they're here.' The next day she is dragged into the TV set after the family
experience a day of things going wrong. The mother proceeds to rescue Carol and
once they are back the family attempts to flee the house only for the 'Beast'
to restrain Dianne and Robbie whilst trying to take back Carol Anne. Eventually
they realise that the house has been built on a previous graveyard with only
the gravestones being moved instead of the bodies.
This film is similar to ours as it contains a
paranormal being that doesn't exsit in real life. The 'Beast' has similar
qualities to Piper such as causing havoc to the people around her because of a
motive. It also has a similar setting; a seemingly normal house that has a bad
history to it. In the Poltergeist the house was built upon a graveyard and in
our film someone had previously died.
The Others (2001)
This is a film about a single mother who lives in
the countryside with her two children. Both of the children have a disease in
which they have to live a strict life so that the children aren't exposed to
sunlight. Three servents arrive to help out in the house and as they do Grace,
the mother, begins to hear strange things going on around the house such as the
piano being played and the next day the curtains disapear. The two children go
out at night and find the servents graves at the same time that Grace discovers
an old photo album with the servents in. As the three servents begin to follow
the children they go hide inside with their mother who talks to Mrs Mills.
She finds out that she and the children have died
because once her husband left she smothered her children with a pillow before
realising what she had done and shooting herself. Mrs. Mills reveals that the
people she had been hearing around the house is people that have moved in. The
children loose their sensitivity to light and the current occupants drive away.
Grace then states how the house is theres and no one can make them leave.
This film is very similar to ours because of
several aspects. It has a similar setting of a house that is in the middle of
nowhere that looks normal yet a little strange from the outside. It also has
three main characters that have the strange things occouring to them by a
mysterious figure around them which is what Piper will be doing throughout the
film. There was also an overal motive to the deaths which is what is going to
happened to Piper there is going to be n overall motive.
The Ring (2002)
This starts with two girls having a sleep over
and Katie reveals that she watched a video that will end up killing her. That
night Katie goes downstars only to see several strange occurences such as the
TV turning itself on. Then as she rushes back upstairs she notcies watercoming
out of her room and she goes in to see an image of a well on her screen before
something rushes forward and kills her. At the funeral Rachel begins to look
for things that went wrong and she finds out the three friends Katie watched
the video with in the cabin died at the same time on the same night. Rachel
goes up to the cabin and watches the video which contains disturbing images
only for it to end and the phone to ring with the words 'seven days' to come
through in a childish voice.
She asks her ex-boyfriend to help analyse the
video and she discovers that it has connections with the lighthouse on Moesko
Island where a horse breeder whos horses commited mass suicide. Rachel's son
watches the video much to Rachels dismay and she realises she needs to do
something.Rachel goes to the island on
a ferry where a horse commits suicide in the same way. She talks to a man who
ends up commiting suicide in a bathtub before Noah turns up. They go looking
for a well and Rachel falls in experiencing a halucination. She finds Samara's
body and burns it and the two then think the curse is broken. Rachel realises
the curse isn't and goes to Noah only to find him dead. She realises she broke
the curse by doubling it and giving it Noah so she replicates it for Aiden
before the film ends in black.
This is very similar to our film as it contains a
paranormal curse with a creature that is after something which is similar to Piper
who is haunting her friends who were involved in her death. It also has a
similar opening as both ours and the Ring begins with a sleepover between
friends.
Iconography is where you link certain objects to a certain genre or sub genre of a type of film. Supernatural horror has several different objects that people associate with a horror film as it makes them feel scared and they're able to predict whats going to happen.
Dolls/Children's Toys
Annabell
People always associate creepy dolls with the idea of them being possessed or coming to life of their own accord. Whether it's a film that is completely about a doll such as Chucky or Annabel or the beginning scene during the Woman In Black which begins with three little girls playing with their dolls. Whether it's their blank stares or strange smiles they are often the creepiest of the iconography.
Video Tapes
The Ring
Because of The Ring franchise video tapes are becoming more stereotypical during horror movies. The video tape is now associated with fear and try to predict what is going to happen in the future as well as the fear the audience begins to feel for a character when they find a tape.
Photographs/Paintings
Because of the hard gaze from the photos or the way their eyes follow you across the room is now associated with the supernatural horror genre as they often contain a terrifying backstory. The fear of paintings most likely came from the old horror story of Bloody Mary that has escalated into films such as The Woman In Black; Angel Of Death where the Woman appears in a broken picture frame.
Religious Objects
The Amityville Horror
Religious objects are now associated with supernatural horror due to the rise in films about possession and exorcisms. They now bring fear to the audience due to the fact that something is often about to go wrong during the film. One of the most popular to show a religious object is The Exorcist or The Others. Another film it can be seen in is The Amityville Horror.
Shadows
The Woman In Black: Angel Of Death
Shadows are one of the most iconic features of a supernatural horror as they often contain a type of creature transitioning or a shadow that doesn't up with the object or person in front of them. The shadows often strike up a fear in the audience that has them checking their shadow the whole way home after watching the film making it essential to the film itself.
Non-diegetic soundtracks are the
most used and the best way in which supernatural horror can create the feeling
of tension or suspense. It leads and somewhat manipulates the audience to feel
nervous and cautious of what is going to happen, this can be contrasted with
the use of silence to build the atmosphere. This can be linked to how the
editing is used with the aspect of cinematography to make the audience guess
what’s going to happen or where the spirit might be. From the sub-genre, the
use of classical instruments in an orchestral piece of music makes a large
impact on audience’s emotions and pop music won’t scare the audience. An old
‘classical’ song from a record may be played, however the sound will be warped
and distorted to make it sound merciless, menacing and eerie. The way the
rhythm and pace of the music is carried out can create fear, panic and reflect
the mood of the characters. It can be disordered with added sound to juxtapose
the image, this could be a sweet and innocent laugh of vulnerable child, this
natural sound in the context of a supernatural horror can sound crazy. It can
suggest that something bad is about to happen to the character if other uses of
sound like faint whispers in song or rhyme are also implemented.
The conventions of Diegetic are:
• Screaming to present raw fear
and the sense of an intensified reaction.
• Rapid breathing and whispers
from the character.
• Banging or clunking sounds to
show force when opening and closing things such as doors or lifting and moving
props/furniture setting.
• Dialogue as if they’ve been
crying or had a panic attack/shock.
The conventions of Non-Diegetic are:
• Fast heartbeats to represent
the quick pace.
• A voiceover in the trailer of
key dialogue from the film to get a sense of the film/storyline.
• Music specifically to important
scenes in the film, this can help quicken the speed of the scene.
• Sounds that bridge two scenes
together, e.g. – The sound of a note being scribbled on paper or a telephone operator.
Music and audio in horror is a very important feature to the film which needs to be cleverly chosen to set the scene and meet the targets of the film; to scare the audience. Film-makers rely on disturbing soundtracks to heighten suspense and terror in a supernatural horror. Supernatural film are now using infrasound to induce fear in audiences. These
extreme bass waves or vibrations have a frequency below the range of the human
ear.
Low frequency sounds are thought to have created fear
in 'Paranormal Activity'.
While we may not be able to hear infrasound, it has been demonstrated to anxiety, heart palpitations and shivering.
Naturally-occurring infrasound has been associated with areas of
'supernatural activity', as well as being produced prior to natural disasters
such as storms and earthquakes.
Noises of panic are the simplest examples of music found in horror films though because they
employ dissonant, screeching sounds we , without knowing, associate with animals in
distress.
