KJ
Conventions of Horror Films:
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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - 1974
Outline of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre:
Based on the story of the most deadly serial killer, Ed Gein. When Sally (Marilyn Burns) hears that her grandfather's grave may have been destroyed, she and her paraplegic brother, Franklin (Paul A. Partain), set out with their friends to investigate. After a detour to their family's old farmhouse, they discover a group of crazed, murderous outcasts living next door. As the group is attacked one by one by the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen), who wears a mask of human skin, the survivors must do everything they can to escape from the bloodthirst villan.
Director: Tobe Hopper
This is a video clip of the film's introduction, where the flash images reveals a decomposed corpse that creates a shocking tension. Click the arrow at the centre to watch!
Mis-En-Scene:
The gif image above depicts the main antagonist: Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen), who is wearing his tattered clothes, a human mask and weilding a deadly chainsaw. The use of this unattractive costume could reflect on his psychological madness, as we can see from the image that the antagonist is desperate to kill his selected victim. This use of mis-en-scene matches to the conventions of horror, as the chainsaw reflects to the iconography of gore and a menacing weapon. Furthermore, the use of this unsightly human mask further highlights the villans' gory personality and his cannibalism.
The image below depicts the four characters: Franklin Hardesty (Paul A. Partain), Kirk (William Vail), Pam (Teri McMinn) and Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns). The four charatcers are worn in their funky-summer casual clothes, with Franklin smoking a cigar that demonstrates his ignorant personality. This matches to the conventions of horror, where a character who is careless or has too much phobia are sometimes the first characters to die or later killed in any horror films. Furthermore, the female characters who has stereotypically blonde hair and exposed arms are more likely to be targeted and killed by the main antagonist, which refferences to the conventions of horror and the male gaze, but in a sinister convention.
Editing:
From researching the best examples of editing, the most famous scene of the film is the continuity editing of Leatherface swinging his chainsaw, where we see that he appears to be dancing in a bizzare and maniacal way. This demonstrates his anger of letting his victim alive, knowing that the victim would tell the police and get himself abused or killed by his own parents.
Another example is the quick zoom in editing that is used to create a suprise effect that is filmed to shock the audience. This use of editing is to convey the audience that the victim has no options in escaping from the main antagonist. Furthermore, the use of this fast zoom in editing was to further convey the main antagonists' bloodthirst for killing his victims and his desperate cannibalism.
Sound:
From watching the youtube clip, I noticed that there were strange, screeching non-diegetc sound after the flashlight desplays the body of a badly decomposed body. This sound is mostly used to create a sense of mystery and how the decomposed body can foreshadow some character's fate i.e. death. This is refferenced from the conventions of Horror, as the decomposed body matches to the iconography of horror and death.
The other image gif below demonstrates the narrator reading the dialogue that explains about the film's content. His voice sounds distraught, as his dialogue sound as if he is mourning over the death of the victims in this fictional film. The use of this vocal dialogue matches to the conventions of Horror, as the names mentioned on the intro reflects on the possible deaths of certain characters.
Camera
 Medium LongshotThe medium long shot of the crazed family displays the gory icons that matches to the iconography of horror, such as the human skin, the knife, animal bones etc. |  Medium CloseupThis medium closeup of Leather Face showing a craving to kill people, conveys this symbolism of a "mad man", as the manipulation of light and darkness demonstrates that Leather Face enjoys being a mass murderer (But in the film, he had to kill the young youths to prevent anyone from knowing the antagonist's cannibalism). |
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 Medium LongshotThis is a medium long shot of Leather Face charging towards Sally, as we can see that he is making an attempt to kill her to prevent the police from knowing the killings of the youths. This demonstrates that the main antagonist is merciless towards his victims. |  Medium ShotThis medium-high angle shot demonstrates the nightmare and demise that Sally have went through, after seeing the bloodshed and his brother being killed by the villain of the film. This also demonstrates Sally being traumatised towards the cannibalistc family. |
Click the images to view the written text that explains about the use of these camera shots. When on image view, click the arrows that is displayed on the left/right screen to view the next slide.
Silent Hill - 2006
Outline of Silent Hill:
Rose (Radha Mitchell), unable to accept the fact that her daughter: Sharon (Jodelle Ferland) is dying, decides to take the girl to a faith healer in hopes of saving her life. On the way, the pair drive through a portal in reality, leading to an eerie town called Silent Hill. The town is surrounded by a potent darkness, and the human survivors must fight a losing battle against it. As Rose's dark adventure had led her to finding her daugher, the truth behind Silent Hill is revealed.
Director: Christophe Gans
This is a video clip of Rose, the main protagonist, trying to enter the hospital hallway where it is swarmed by demonic nurses. When she entered the crowd, Rose gets attacked. Click the arrow at the centre to watch!
Mis-En-Scene
Silent Hill is presented in an abandoned town known as "Silent Hill", where it's an alternate demension surrounded with ash and thick fog that represent its darker, chaotic atmosphere. This conveys that the town must have a past history that leads to its unappealing look that the protagonist must discover, matching to the conventions of horror in solving risky mysteries.
The protagonist (Radha Mitchell) wears everyday clothes such as a jacket and a vest, where she appears to feel lost and desperate to find her daughter, even concern of her safety like a normal mother would do. Her grey, white-yellow clothes also matches to the scenery of the isolated, clouded town, which possibly conveys the protagonist inability to escape, since she is trapped in the ghost world of Silent Hill. The coat could also highlight that she is a possibe character to die in the film.
The monster characters are presented to be human-like people, but are possessed and transformed into demonic beings who try to kill the protagonist from searching for her daughter.
An example for this is the female actors disguised as zombie-like nurses, who are fashioned to be in their bloodthirst state such as their tattered clothes, weilding sharp, untreated knives, the heavy makeup on the masks depicting their deformed faces and the clearly seen black veins that convey their infected appearance.
The use of makeup allows them to appear more horrifying and deadly, thus matching to the conventions of horror of nurses being the minor villans and the knives to be the main iconography of horror. The nurses' "sexy" bodies appear to be partially exposed, which creates a juxtaposition between beauty and unprepossessing look to the viewer.
Editing
In the film, the armless man desplayed on the top image is played by an actual actor who wears a detailed polyurethane suit to depict the theme of suffering and human disfigurement. The only difference is that CGI was used on the background scene to maintain the ghostly fog and to further create the sense of discomfort to the viewers. Also, CGI was used to make the armless man's legs super skinny to create a distorted human disfigurement, thus making the actor appear more demonic than human.
Quick Cuts are a good example of a sudden surprise in the Nurse scene in 'Silent Hill', where the minor villans (the nurses) suddenly attack the main protagonist (Radha Mitchell). The use of gore i.e. CGI blood splatter, is used in the quick cuts to further convey how the weapons the minor villans use are very deadly and also creates tense action. This matches to the conventions of horror, as blood is an icon that represents (disturbing) death.
Sound:
This soundtrack is taken from the film where the main protagonist meets her first experience in entering the alternate dimension of Silent Hill, also refer as 'the darkness'. Although this video does not show the action of this scene, hearing the non-diegetic sound of the siren without the video image creates a further sense of horror, as the siren foreshadows an expecting event that is going to take place when the protagonist enters the dark basement. The siren also further creates a sense of chaos and the shock moment.
Camera
 Medium CloseupThe medium-low angle closeup shot of the church cross with the siren placed at the bottom, creates a symbolism of a possible threat towards the main protagonist, as the crows surrounding the church siren symbolises a death omen. |  Medium ShotThis medium shot conveys a contrast between Rose as being the only light shining towards the nightmarish darkness of Silent Hill. It also creates a further sense of a possible pop out surprise to shock the audience. |
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 Extreme High Angle LongshotThe extreme high angle long shot portrays the isolation of the town of Silent Hill, where we see the protagonist desperately trying to find her daughter from the ghost town. |  Low Angle ShotThis low angle shot of a female demon deity, represents her power and urges of revenge towards the villain of the film, as noticed from her sinister smile and her surrounding of wired blades. |
Click the images to view the written text that explains about the use of these camera shots. When on image view, click the arrows that is displayed on the left/right screen to view the next slide.
The Crazies - 2010
Outline of The Crazies:
Anarchy reigns when an unknown toxin turns the peaceful citizens of Ogden Marsh into bloodthirsty, zombie like lunatics. In an effort to contain the spread of the infection, authorities blockade the town and use deadly force to keep anyone from getting in or out of the town. Now trapped among killers, Sheriff Dutten (Timothy Olyphant) and his wife (Radha Mitchell) and two companions must band together to find a way out before madness and death overtake them. But the nightmare is not yet over.
Director: Breck Eisner
This is a video clip of the two police characters, observing the convict's corpse where they think that he is dead. However, they are in for a shock where the dead man is only playing dead. Click the arrow at the centre to watch!
Mis-En-Scene:
Similar to Silent Hill's abandoned town, The Crazies is presented in a town called 'Ogden Marsh', where the town was once a peaceful, normal countryside that suddenly became abandoned the next day, where locals suddenly became "zombies". The protagonist (Timothy Olyphant) is on a quest to save his wife and friends from the crazed lunatics and the military who are planning to exterminate everyone of Ogden Marsh. The "zombies" wore black makeup shaped into veins to present their infected and ruined state. Blood is also used to present how the zombies mindlessly kill anyone, making them dangerous to surviving locals.
Editing:
Quick cuts are mostly used to create a sudden surprise towards viewers, as this was to further create a sense of horror and a "scream" surprise. Qucik cuts for example is used in this gif image, where we see the protagonist has his hand suddenly stabbed by a crazed woman. This is used to present how painful a knife can do, which matches to the iconography and conventions of horror.
Sound:
Boom sound effects were used in the video clip, where it's mostly used for a minor character or minor villan's sudden appearance. The instant boom of the zombie man playing dead and jumping towards the protagonist (and viewers) creates this sense of surprise and an erge to scream, as we expected that something was about to happen before it did.
Camera
 Closeup ShotClose-up Shot is used to reveal the minor character's infected/crazed mode, as we can see from his angry expression that he has found his targeted prey. |  LongshotThis longshot is used to present the protagonist feeling lost and perplex of the town's isolation, which gives a sense of eeriness or a feel of a nuclear explosion that is about to happen. The longshot is used to present the town's emptiness. |
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 Over the Shoulder ShotThe over the shoulder shot is used to present the minor character saving the protagonist from the crazed doctor. The over the shoulder shot also allows viewers to see what was the police character staring at (i.e. the dead body and blood). |  Medium LongshotThis medium longshot is used to present the four characters, looking fearless, yet nervous of what was about to happen to them after a sudden apocalypse in the peaceful town of Ogden Marsh. |
Click the images to view the written text that explains about the use of these camera shots. When on image view, click the arrows that is displayed on the left/right screen to view the next slide.