Horror films comparisons

NIGHT NIGHT NANCY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiL6ECmzP-E

This short film is about a girl in a house alone; who sees photos of her self-sleeping on her phone
and then finds out someone is in the house trying to kill her. This is similar to mine, as my main
character, is worried by photos he draws up as he imagines them all the time, and in this film she is
worried about photos she has found on her phone. The film uses a lot of iconography throughout
the film such as mise-en-scene, editing, cinematography and sound, to help show the genre of
horror and to help the audience understand each character.

Mise en Scene

In the film there was a great use of costume, and props, we can
see that the girl has just woken up from her sleep, due to the
clothes she is wearing and the prop of the phone waking her up
from a text message. The film uses masks to show that the
intruder is dangerous and trying to hide its face, as in most
horror movies there is a mask involved to show that they are a
villain, other props like the weapon in the intruder’s hand to
show that the genre of horror, this is conventional to horror, as
props such as weapons are used to show danger and helps the
audience feel worried and scared for the character, some films often use innocent kids toys to make
a scene seem innocent, but then it turns out to be the source of the danger, such as in the film “The
Conjuring” there is as scene near the end of the movie where “the walking man” is seen inside of a
kids spinning toy and then it becomes the monster that the character fears. The use of these props
helps, show the audience the genre of the film. This will be similar to my film as I use props such as
the images of the monster under the bed and the monsters hand again under the bed, I will also use
costumes to show my genre, similar to this film such as the masks and the intruders clothing. The
mise-en scene within this film links to the Horror genre,the reason that we know this as an audience
is because they use a lot of props such as knives and masks these are often seen in the horror genre
making this film conventional to that genre.

Editing:

The film uses loads of cut shots and following shots to show us where the
character is going, the camera follows her as she wonders round the house,
this is so that the audience can follow her around the house and we can feel
what she feels as the suspense builds up and she slowly walks around. This is
conventional to the genre horror as most horror movies have cuts to show
different areas of the setting and then to also show the emotion of the
character, also the camera follows the character around to show where the
character is going. This makes the audience feel included as we are following
the character but also frustrated as we as an audience know that what they
are walking towards is dangerous. An example of this would be “The Nun” as
we see the character run along the graveyard as the camera follows and it also
cuts between where the two characters are, as they are in different places at
the same time. This will be similar to mine as my character is followed around the room, to show his
emotion from body language, instead of constant close ups on his face and actions. Another great
editing technique that has featured in the post productiuon is on after effects. The editior has put
the text on the screen as the character is texting. They have used this to a really good effect because
it allows the audiecne to know what the charcter is sayibng and how she is feeling within that scene.
The reason that they have used short takes throughout this film is to build up tension and make the
audience scared and this is very conventional to the horror genre.

Cinematography:

In the film we also see loads of close ups to again show the emotion
of the character and to show what she is looking at, for example
when she is looking through the gap in the cupboard, and the
intruder gets close, we can see this is a scary moment as we can see
the figure moving closer with music building up to show
the suspense, during this she is on the other side covering her
mouth and crying which shows us an audience that she is terrified of
what is happening. The use of close ups show the genre of horror as
all horror movies use close ups to show and emotion or to show
what we should be afraid of, such as in the purge there is a scene
where the people are standing outside and we see a close up of the
faces, the use of the masks again are to show the genre of horror.
The close ups helps us as an audience to see the emotion of the
character and feel sympathetic for them as we cannot help them and that we know what is most
likely to happen, (the villain gets them). The use of the close ups show that we should also focus on
that feeling or area that we see on the scene, which will then mirror to the audience as they well
start to feel the same.

Sound:

In terms of sound, there isn’t much dialogue in this film, it is mainly sound and music to help show
the emotion and to build suspense, at the beginning we see her typing on her phone and we see
the messages on screen and hear her typing, the use of this diegetic sound helps to show what the
character is doing and how they are feeling this situation, as we can see she is typing normally at the
beginning, and then when she is being chased and she is in danger she is then typing faster, which
helps to show the audience that she is scared. We also see the music build up again as the figure
follows her and gets close to the cupboard, this will similar to mine as I use diegetic sounds more to
show a emotion and to convey my genre, although there will be some dialogue in my film, to again
help show how my character is feeling. The music which has been used throughout makes the film
massively conventional to the horror; the reason for this is because it is really creepy and helps build
up to the moment where she gets killed by her boyfriend who has been killed and possessed. The
use of diegetic sound throughout this film makes it conventional to the horror genre this is
highlighted when the girl is typing on her phone and it speeds up when she is in danger throughout
this film. This builds up a lot of tension and makes the audience feel scared this is often seen in the
horror genre making this film conventional to that genre.