Context
Since me and my group member are starting our final project which consists of the horror genre, me and my partner decided to organize a study of several famous horror films. Through our study, we complied useful all the useful information and listed each component in the following paragraphs.
The Conjuring
“The Conjuring” is one of the films that me and my group member decided to seek reference from. Being primarily a suspenseful horror film produced in recent times, a lot of modern horror techniques were used to develop its unique atmosphere. Whether it be the usage of sweeping shots, or the absence of sound within a particular scene, this film defines the modern horror film. Through the usage of sweeping cameras, we are given an unnatural and disconnected perspective of what is occurring in a particular scene. It disconnects the audience from the characters, forcing the viewers to see the whole situation in the perspective of an unknown entity. The lack of sound in certain scenes is also exemplary of a newer horror trend where silence is a lot more prevalent. This film utilizes silence and diegetic effects to emphasize that the house is completely empty, which is contradicted by the unnatural presence of the demon, that is shown utilizing diegetic sounds. This film inspired us to utilize more diegetic sound effects to immerse the audience into the scene, and to utilize sweeping cameras to present an unnatural scene.
Jaws
When analyzing Jaws we looked closely at how the shark was portrayed in the film. In the original cut of the film, we noticed that the shark was never really present in the film. The threat being entirely unseen makes this film a lot more intense as the threat itself is left for the audience to visualize rather than it being openly shown. This makes the audience fear the shark a lot more since there is a natural fear of the unknown present within the mind of the viewer. With this viewing, we decided to integrate this technique in our production to generate more suspense for our film.
The Nightmare On Elm Street
After seeing this film it gave me so many ideas of how to make that happen. I also like the plot of how if you have a dream of Freddy killing you it happens as well in real life. The soundtrack in this film is also very good because it also tries to keep the audience on edge while it shows the different scenes such as Freddy’s shadow showing on the wall slowly creeping into the house. I also like the scene in which it shows Freddy walking down a dark alleyway, with the suspenseful music and it shows his sharp claws.This film attracted my attention because it as well had some things that me and my partner want to use in our film. This film is considered a cold classic in horror because of how well it was made and how intense and scary it was for the audience throughout the film. I also liked how many times throughout the movie there is many scenes which are shot using silhouette lighting and as well many scenes where his shadows are projected on the walls while he’s walking down alley ways or around in a house. I like this because in my final project I want to have a lot of shots which are dark colors, the setting has a mood of terror and darkness as well.
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