Three Idea's

Idea One
Cast:
Dan (Best friends with Tim has a crush on Tracy)
Tracy (In a relationship with Ryan)
Ryan (In a relationship with Tracy doesn’t get on to well with Dan)
Ashleigh (Not in a relationship with anyone, gets around, Typical blond in a slaher film first to die)
Tim (In relationship with Holly, bit of a wimp)
Holly (In relationship with Tim)
Killers name unknown
People in the restaurant/pub

Plot
Six teenagers go camping for celebration on their A-Level results. They stop at a restaurant and hear some of the locals talking about a walk they took through some nearby woods and Holly suggests they go. After a while they agree and go on the walk, on the walk there is an argument between Ryan and Dan, Dan walks off by himself. Ashleigh goes off after him they walk off she tries to calm him down, he ends up tell the her to leave him alone and runs off, she walks back the way she came but gets lost. Meanwhile the others make there way back to the cars, Ryan gets in his car and tries to start it but it doesn’t, Holly tries to start her car to but hers doesn’t start either. Dan comes back and the Ryan blames him and thinks he made it so the cars wouldn’t start. Tracy convinces Ryan that it couldn’t have been him, they then realizes that Ashleigh never came back. We then see Ashleigh in the woods and a POV shot of someone watch her she goes and talks to them and she get killed. The others go looking her and then find her hanging from a tree (the way i will do this is i will only show her legs to make it look like she is hanging). They all go back to the cars and Dan of them suggests going for help but Holly says she’s not moving. They decide that Dan, Ryan and Tracy will go for help while they Holly and her boyfriend Tim stay in the car to. It starts to go dark, the couple in the car are sat in the back seat and Tim goes to get out of the car because he needs the toilet Holly didn’t want him to go but there hadn’t been any noise or signs of anyone being out there so he went. Holly stayed in the car but couldn’t see him, she opens the door and calls his name, she gets out of the car and calls his name again we see Tim walking back then he falls to the ground and we see he’s been stabbed in the back. Holly gets back in the car and shuts the door, the killer then kills the girl. When Holly got out of the car the killer snuck into the boot so he could get her when she got back in the car. The other three that went for help had to stop because Tracy tripped and twisted her ankle they stop for a while, Ryan then heard the sounds of a car looked around and saw a road and a car, he ran shouting at the car to stop but as the car slows down and he gets closer he sees his two dead friends in the back the car stops he runs back to his friends but the killer kills him. The other two hide under a fallen down tree, Ryan falls right in front of them and they have to watch him die. We hear the killer stabbing him but we don’t see it, the killer drags him away and then we see the killer walk towards them he stops just in front of them waits for a bit we see a POV shot from the killer as he looks around then he walks back to his car and drives off. Tracy and Dan wait until the morning then walk along the road a car passes and stops, a old man gets out of the car asks if there ok and tells them to get in the car, the ending shot is them in the car driving off.

Idea Two
Cast
Detective Jonson
Mr. Phillip (killer)
Steven Jones (the drug addict)
Jemma Jonson (Detective Jonson’s wife)

Plot
Starts off with a rich man in his house Mr Phillip’s over voice of him telling the audience about how great his life is but his one flaw is he like to kill people. But people that waste their life’s, he researches people who have everything but abuse it then he finds them and kills them in brutal ways by stabbing. A detective called Luke Jonson has been working on trying to find him for years but has never had any leads so he starts to work like the killer, he finds a man called Steven Jones who has a great job, wife and family but he is a drug addict, and instead of spending money on his wife and kids he uses it to buy prostitutes and drugs but instead of arresting him he says he wont turn him in if he makes it more obvious that he is doing what he is doing so the killer can find him. The man doesn’t agree and says that he has no evidence to prove what the man does which he doesn’t but the detective still keeps an eye on him. A week later he gets a missing person report on the man goes to his house talks to his wife who said she got a blank message from him a few days ago. The detective tracks the signal to a old abandoned house a few miles out of the city, just as he’s about to leave he gets a package. He opens it to find a tape and a letter saying ‘Trying to find me? Here I am’ he puts the tape in and its of the drug addict and the killer with a mask on saying he is just like him but he gets the job done without lawyers because we all know a rich person like the drug addict have enough money to buy there way out of any court room and then the killer picks up a power saw and we hear him cut up the drug addict. He drives out to the house when he gets there he hears a woman screaming he finds the killer torturing this woman who is barley alive, he tells him to stop the killer turns around lifts up the mask and greats him as if he was his friend, he talks to him for a bit then say ‘I am sorry I’m sort of in the middle of something’ and goes back to the woman then detective stops him again and threatens him. The killer turns around and apologizes for what he’s about to do, he turns on the TV to show the detective’s wife tied to a chair in a pool of water with power cables in it. The killer explains if he kills him the power to that room will be turned on and she will die slowly and painfully and that he knows that he is thinking that his bullet can travel faster then it takes him to turn the power on but the killer is connected to a heart monitor and as soon as he flat lines the power turns on. The detective has two choices kill the person he’s been looking for, for years and lose his wife or lose the killer again and save his wife but the killer also asks him whether he thinks he’s telling the truth. The detective puts his gun down and asks where she is, the killer puts an envelope on the table and tells the detective to turn around we hear the door close and the everything is quiet apart from the sounds of the woman slowly dying. He goes to the envelope opens it and in big letters it says ‘Wrong choice’ (ND fast music starts) he turns to the TV and sees his wife dying goes to get the killer and we see him driving off and the ending shot is of the detectives face.

Idea Three

Cast:

Alex

Stacy

Farm Man (Killer)

Farm Woman (Killer)

Boy (the Killers son)

Plot

The film starts with a shot of a the moon, the title come on screen the camera pans down and a car passes quickly, in the car is Alex and Stacy as they drive diegetic music from the radio is playing. Alex turns the music off and continues to drive, a few minutes later they get a flat tire and pull over, still without saying anything to Stacy, Alex gets out of the car gets a torch and checks the tire to see one is flat. He goes back in the car and they have an argument a few seconds later they see the lights of a car Alex gets out and waves it down, we see him having a conversation with the man from Stacy’s point of view and because of the car lights we can’t see the man’s face. A few seconds pass the Alex goes to Stacy’s window and tells her the man is going to take them to his farm and he thinks he has a spare tire and if not we are welcome to stay until morning. Stacy isn’t too sure about the plan but Alex convinces her, the man drives his car in front of theirs and ties a rope to tow it. When they get to the farm we see two other people in the kitchen, one on them runs up stairs. A woman comes out with the man and invites them in the man goes into a work shed, the woman makes tea for the Alex and Stacy. We see the man working on the car then black out. POV shot of Stacy looking around she is in a horse room tired to the wall with rope she see’s Alex strung up in the next building. The man comes out of the house walks over to Alex with a big knife puts it up to his throat then cuts him down he then drags him over to where Stacy is. Stacy lies back down and pretends to be asleep, the man thrown Alex in and walks away whistling. She then goes to wake Alex up his back is covered in blood for where they have whipped him; he wakes up Stacy finds a piece of glass and cuts them both free. They hear the door close and foot steps over to them. The door opens and the boy that ran upstairs last night is there and tells them to get up and follow him, we hear a gun shot and see that the man holding a gun. The woman runs with a knife out shouting at the as they argue Alex and Stacy try to get away but the old man tells them if they move one more step he’ll blow both their heads off. Stacy asks what they want. The man walks over and replies ‘Me and my wife are a certain type of farmer, you see most farms with horse’s and sheep and what not but take a good look around, and what do you see? Nothing.’ Implying that there cannibals. The man hits Alex with his gun and he falls to the ground and the woman grabs Stacy by her hair and throws her against the wall. We see a close up of Stacy grabbing the piece of glass she used to cut herself free, she turns around and stabs the woman in the throat, pulls it back out the woman falls to the floor and Stacy continues to stab her. The man goes over to pull Stacy off his wife but Alex grabs him and uses the rope still attached to his wrist to strangle the man. When both the woman and man are dead Stacy walks over to Alex picks him up they walk over to the families car gets in and drives away. The camera follows them as they drive off then pans back round to a close up of the man’s hand, after a while his hand moves then black out and credits.

Short Film Analyse 2

This film is very clever because at the beginning of the film it makes it seem like the boy is the killer through the way he approaches the old people and presses the fact he wants to do some jobs for them and the title being the boys name is the title of the film. When the title is on screen the effects used make it seem like Frankie is the killer. The first shot is of the boy as he asks the old lady if she has any jobs for him to do the camera does a shot revers shot between the two characters as they talk. Even though the old lady says she doesn’t have any jobs for him he still pushes that he can do anything, the old lady lets him in and the camera goes to the boys point of view and we see an old asleep in a chair. At this point the boy seems harmless but you wouldn’t think that two old people could kill someone so the audience assume the boy is the killer. The house he walks into has very low key lighting when outside it seems like its the middle of the day, so it sets the atmosphere that something bad will happen in the house. we then see a low angle shot of the boy racking leafs and in the background the old lady is looking out of the window at the boy, non-diegetic eerie music starts and we can also hear diegetic wind. The camera changes to a low angle medium shot of the old lady to make it clear to the audience that the old lady is watching the boy then changes to a high angle shot of the boy looking up at the old lady showing he knows that she’s watching him. I think the camera angles show there power status again giving the audience more reason to think that the boy is the killer. When the old lady comes to tell Frankie she has to go out and there are drinks inside she tells him to call her grandma at this point the non-dieigtic music starts again and it seems a little strange or this old lady to ask this boy she has just met to call her grandma. The audience starts to question the old lady now weather she is what she seems to be. We then see the boy walking into the house the eerie music still playing, he opens the fridge and the camera angle changes to a close up of and empty fridge as it pans up and down. The eerie music goes up in pitch and gets louder, the boy close the fridge and the camera changes to a point of view shot but we don’t know who of, but they push the curtain aside with a walking stick so it makes the audience think its the old man because we saw him earlier with a stick. The camera goes to a close up of the boy but we can see that the old man is standing behind him, the boy turns around and the man suddenly hits him. The screen goes black then slowly the picture comes back and the old lady is sat in front of the boy. She seems to be putting some sort of cream on his bruise, the boy says he wants to go home and wants his mum but the old lady tells him that grandma will look after him then gags him. The audience now know for sure that the old couple are the killers in this film. We then see a close up of the boys face all bruised the camera zooms out to a wide angle shot and we can see the boy sat next to the old people tied up as they watch TV. The boy starts to cry and the old man tells him to shut up but he continues to cry and the man then starts beating the boy with his stick. The way the camera work shows the stick coming down then the boys pain on his face really makes you think hes being hit and its bad when you see a innocent adult being beaten and can’t do anything about it but when it happens to a child its really traumatising for the audience. The camera then goes back to the same wide angle shot and we see the old to people not caring that they are beating this boy. The next scene is between the old lady and the boy, the camera work is just reverse shots between medium close ups of the two characters. The old lady unties the boy and tells him she has a surprise, Frankie sees this as his opportunity and tries to run away but the old lady catches him. When she does we see a medium shot of Frankie looking at the old lady as she forces him to walk back and we can see the old man stood behind him. The camera angle changes to a close up of the old lady holding a knife and eerie non-diegetic music starts, the old lady grabs the boy and the music starts to get faster and louder we see a low angle shot of the old man looking down at the boy telling him ‘This wont hurt a bit.’ The camera changes to a shot of the old lady holding the boy and we see the old lady make the arm movement to look like she has just cut his throat but we also see the boys face so we see his facial expression which makes it seem more realistic. She drops him and the camera changes to a shot looking down at the boy as a pool of blood forms around his head, the camera then cuts to a closer look at the blood and when it does the non-diegetic music makes a sound which makes it seem even worse. The screen blacks out and the music stops, the next shot we see is of the old lady checking her mail and she stops at one piece of mail and smiles. Then we see them on the table and it was a person missing report for the boy.

This film is good because the killers don’t seem to be who the audience immediately thinks and because the victim is a child it makes it ten times worse. If I compare this film to the other one they are very different but i can use techniques from both. From the first film i can use the idea that the person has some sort of obsession with something and has a split personality and the killings. From this film I can take the impact it has on the audience when a child is killed and the false thought on who the killer is.

shot film analyse

In the first scene we see four people pull up to a hotel, as the two men unload thee car the two women go to sign in. The blond woman is a typical attractive blond woman that you would see in a slasher film. The camera changes to a close up to a of a tomato but out of focused in the back ground we see a mans hand stroking a bunch of tomato’s, straight away the audience feels unnerved by this man, we can also hear quiet non-diegetic eerie music. The tomato in front is bigger then the once that are in a bowl which the man is stroking. The camera angle changes to a medium shot of the man trying to write but ends up just going but to the tomato’s. This tells the audience that this man has some obsession with tomato’s and this makes him seem strange and makes the audience feel a little scared of him. The girls come in to sign in and the man jumps up but looks back at the tomato’s, i think its like he’s making sure there ok. As the woman are signing in the man says ‘the other guests will be happy to have some company.’ However, when they pulled into the car park it was completely empty and we haven’t seen any signs that anyone else is staying there. I think he is comparing the tomato’s to the other guests. The two men come in and one of the men sticks his head through the widow and asks when food will be. The scene changes to a wide shot of what looks like to be a very small canteen or kitchen, the man in the gray shirt (the one who asked about the food) walks around the table complaining about the food and the camera goes to a medium shot of the blond girl asks her boyfriend to say something. The man in the gray shirt then picks up one of the tomato’s and high pitched eerie non-diegetic music starts, the owner tries to stop him and his friends say that there not for them but he doesn't listen. The owner seems very upset when he takes one of the tomato’s, the man grabs a knife to cut the tomato. The next few shots are all hand held close up of each of the visitors eating the tomato but the shots are all in red, representing blood of the tomato, and they smother there faces with the tomato. The camera techniques used in these shots make it seem like the visitors are brutally murdering the tomato and that they are the ‘bad guys’. Another technique that is used in this scene is the editor has fast foreword the shots and more non-diegetic music that sounds like a tape is being fast foreword has been added on top of the eerie music. The camera goes back to a medium shot of the owner trying not to cry, the man in the pink shirt asks if he wants to sit down, the camera goes to a shot of both of the girls looking confused about this man who just started crying for no reason. The owner says he hears one of the other guests and walks out looking very upset. The camera changes to the owner sat in his office holding the biggest tomato and quiet non-diegetic eerie music starts. He calls the tomato ‘Precocious’ then smalls it and licks it but its very meaningful like he is in love with this tomato and again calls it ‘My Precocious’. The tomato then starts to talk, the audience now know that we are inside the owners mind and this is when we start to think that maybe this man has a mental issue. The camera changes to a close up of the tomato and they have used editing techniques to put a face on the tomato. The camera goes back to a shot high angle shot of the man asking the tomato how will he kill them. Then the camera goes to a black and white old film reel effect and a tilted low angle shot of the man but instead of him looking scared and gentle he he looks very mean because of his facial expression, the angle, the camera style and his voice has been made a lot deeper and this makes him come across as this mean, scary man. The camera then goes back to the high angle shot and the camera style and his voice goes back to normal. This shows the mans split personality, the way i see his two personalities is that one is the owner of the hotel who is generally a very nice man and the other personality is the tomato who hates everyone that eats tomato’s and this is the stronger personality. He has a conversation with his two personalities and the bad personality convinces him to kill the visitors. This scene reminds me of the scene in ‘Lord of the Rings’ when ‘Gollom’ is talking to himself about whether he should kill ‘Frodo’. The scene changes and we have a wide angle shot of the cabins and we can tell the time of day has changed because we can hear diegetic night sounds and the lighting is low key. The camera changes to a medium shot of the brunette in a dressing gown looking down and the camera changes to a high angle shot of the her boyfriend passed out on the bed. The other couple knock and say they’ll see them at dinner and leave, the camera then changes to a shot of the girl in the bathroom turning a tap on, then a over the shoulder shot of the girl washing her face. The camera then goes back to the low key lite room were the owner is tying up the girls boyfriend up and gaging hm so he can’t scream. The camera goes back to the bathroom as the girl takes off her dressing grown and this scene is very similar to the bathroom scene in ‘Psycho’ there are a few different shots but the main difference is there’s a shot of a tomato in the soap holder its almost like its watching her. There is then a point of view shot as the owner walks into the room and the killing uses the exact same techniques as they use in ‘Psycho’ apart at the owner doesn’t just stab her like the killer does in ‘Psycho’ he cuts off her arm making this killing scene a lot more brutal the the scene in ‘Psycho’. The scene changes back to the room where the boyfriend is tied to the bed and the owner is stood over him, unlike before the room is now high key lighting which is strange for a murder in a horror film. The owner asks if he like to drink the blood of his tomato’s making it sound that he thinks his tomato’s are alive. He then puts a tube in the mans mouth which has tomato juice in it and the mans stomach slowly gets bigger and bigger then we see a close up of his stomach as it explodes and blood splatters on the camera. The camera changes to a medium long shot of the owner laughing. This makes the audience even more scared of him. The shot then cross fades into the other couple as they are outside there room, the man goes to get champagne and the girl goes in the room. As he walks down the corridor he stands on a tomato and there’s a close of him doing so. He looks around and the owner hits him over the head with a fire extinguisher, we see a close up of his blank facial express when he hits the floor the camera changes to a high angle shot looking down at the body. The owner picks up his arm off camera and we hear some sort of power tool and the mans hole body shakes. The camera goes back to a shot of the mans face and we can a pool of blood on the floor from his arm. The woman pops her head out of the room and the power tool stops and non-diegetic eerie music starts, the woman calls her boyfriends name and the camera shows a shot of the empty corridor the camera does a shot reverse shot to the medium shot of the topless woman as she comes out of the room into the middle of the corridor then back to the corridor. The owner slowly pocks his head round the corner holding a knife and a sound of a violin being plucked the camera goes back to the woman as she backs away and then when we next see the owner he is closer to the camera and we hear violin plucking and the owner moves the knife to the plucking of the violin. Then the camera shows us a close up of the woman’s facial expressions, but this shot wasn’t done properly because the shot isn’t in focus and this spoils the effect. The then back to the medium shot of the girl and the owner is suddenly behind her, this doesn’t make sense because no where in the film have we seen the man disappear and appear behind his victim. The woman notices him there she turns looks at him screams and runs away we see a close up of her slipping on a tomato then a shot of her on the floor with a pool of blood forming around her head. This shot continues but we hear foot steps and then a bell and the shot changes to a straight on medium shot of the owner standing in the window to his office, he kisses a tomato and talks to the camera. This film is a good film for my to look at because it ticks all the boxes to be a slasher film and it uses a stimulus (the tomato) which we would usually relate to something funny but this film makes the audience relate them to death. This is because every time someone dies there is a tomato.

Genre Development (second draft)

Over the years the horror genre has developed from films such as ‘Psycho’ (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) to some of the most resent horror films such as ‘Halloween’ (Rob Zombie, 2007). If we compare these two films the most obvious difference are the killings in each film. In ‘Psycho’ during all the murders you never see the knife have direct contact with the victim only sound effects and splatters of blood, the film being in black and white also means that we never actually see the colour of the blood we just assume it is. This allows the film to spend less time on making up the stab wounds and the BBFC could drop is to a 15 so the target audience would be of a wider range. If we then compare the killing from ‘Psycho’ to the killing of the boys step farther in ‘Halloween’ it is a lot more visual, we see the boy cut the neck and the blood pour out of the cut as he slowly dies. We can see how over the years the brutality of killings in horror films has slowly gotten gorier. A horror film which I didn’t use in my analyses demonstrates the point I am making, the Saw films are all every gory to the point of not being able to watch, for example in ‘Saw 5’ (David Hackl, 2005) the final test they have to do is they have to put their arms into a power saw and fill the a bowl with their blood. During this scene you see all of what happens, the saw cutting their arms and the blood pouring into the bowl and when the bowl is full and they take their arms out you see the man’s arm cut in half from his hand to his elbow. ‘Psycho’ was the first slasher horror film ever and it couldn’t have as much blood and gore as ‘Saw’ for example because the audience weren’t familiar with this type of film, so ‘Psycho’ took the ideas and storyline of a slasher film but showed no over the top blood. Between the times ‘Psycho’ was made and ‘Halloween’ there has been a lot of other slasher films released such as ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ (1984) this film is a lot more gory and plays with your mind more. For example, at the end of the film when the boy gets pulled into his bed there is an excessive amount of blood used for one person and we as an audience relate our bed as a place of safety. Another film that shows gore but isn’t to over the top with the amount of blood is ‘Scream’ (1996) we see the killer kill his victims in this film like ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ but the blood level used in ‘Scream’ is more realistic which makes the film scarier. This shows us how slashers have changed over the years going from no blood and gore to over the top then back to more realistic. The realism in films attracts audience because when you go to see a film you will enjoy it more if you believe that it could happen. For example, the film ‘Mirrors’ (Alexander Aja, 2008) is a good film but the idea of monsters being inside mirrors doesn’t scare me, it may have a different affect on someone else but I don’t think its scary at all because it’s so unrealistic. If we compare this film to ‘Saw’ the storyline is a lot more believable and realistic and this makes the audience think that this could happen to anyone and this makes it scarier.

Even though the more resent horror film show a lot more gore and have more brutal killings in ‘American Psycho’ (2000) they use the same technique as in ‘Psycho’ even though the killings are more brutal the audience never sees the murder weapon make contact with the victim. When you finish watching the film you sort of understand why this techniques is used because the killer doesn’t actually kill anyone he just thinks he does because of the mental state he’s in. Even though we don’t see the weapon hitting/stabbing the victim’s because the film is in colour and we as an audience fill in the blanks the effect of the murder has a bigger impact then the murders in ‘Psycho’. Another thing that has become more popular in horror films is non-diegetic music to build up tension, if we look at ‘Psycho’ there isn’t that much non-diegetic music for tension building but in the more recent films like ‘Halloween’ and ‘Scream’ non-diegetic is used all the time for tension. A common occurrence that we see in all of the films i analysed is the time of day the murders are committed, all of them are done during night, apart from ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ (Tobe Hooper,1974). This is a very symbolic stimulus of a horror film because night time is always scarier and when there is non-diegetic music it builds up the climax and being a horror film the audience is expecting something to happen.

It is interesting looking at the people killed in slasher films, in ‘Psycho’ the first to be killed is the woman that stole the money from her boss but the detective is an innocent man and was just doing his job. If we now look at ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ all the children that he kills are all children of the parents that killed him this being his motive. In the film ‘Scream’ there is a part where they talk about how to survive a horror film, one of the things is ‘no sex’ and if we relate this to ‘Halloween’ he killed the couple on the sofa as the were about to have sex and killed his sister after she had sex and a few other people after they had sex. So in this film it seems that if you have sex you die as the boy says in ‘Scream’.

Looking at the music used in the films i have analysed i have found out that it has changed over time. In the classic film ‘Psycho’ and ‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ the music sound more like its from a musical score. Then compared to some of the more recent films ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ and ‘Scream’ the music sounds more like rock music than a musical score. However, there are still the typical tension building, high pitched music. I think the music of films has changed over time because the music industry has changed and the audience can relate to the music.

In conclusion even though over the years technology has updated greatly depending on director, rating and type of horror slasher film will depend on the amount of gore shown. In my case because i don’t have a high budget i wont be able to do much blood and gore so the technique used in ‘Psycho’ may help me a lot. In every film the killings have always been in an isolated place for example, in ‘Scream’ the killer specifies that they are in the middle of know where and it would take ages for anyone to get there.

Genre Development

Over the years the horror genre has developed from films such as ‘Psycho’ (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) to some of the most resent horror films such as ‘Halloween’ (Rob Zombie, 2007). If we compare these two films the most obvious difference are the killings in each film. In ‘Psycho’ during all the murders you never see the knife have direct contact with the victim only sound effects and splatters of blood, the film being in black and white also means that we never actually see the colour of the blood we just assume it is. This allows the film to spend less time on making up the stab wounds and the BBFC could drop is to a 15 so the target audience would be of a wider range. If we then compare the killing from ‘Psycho’ to the killing of the boys step farther in ‘Halloween’ it is a lot more visual, we see the boy cut the neck and the blood pour out of the cut as he slowly dies. We can see how over the years the brutality of killings in horror films has slowly gotten gorier. A horror film which I didn’t use in my analyses demonstrates the point I am making, the Saw films are all every gory to the point of not being able to watch, for example in ‘Saw 5’ (David Hackl, 2005) the final test they have to do is they have to put their arms into a power saw and fill the a bowl with their blood. During this scene you see all of what happens, the saw cutting their arms and the blood pouring into the bowl and when the bowl is full and they take their arms out you see the man’s arm cut in half from his hand to his elbow. Between the times ‘Psycho’ was made and ‘Halloween’ there has been a lot of other slasher films released such as ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ (1984). This film is a lot more gory and plays with your mind more. For example, at the end of the film when the boy gets pulled into his bed there is an excessive amount of blood used for one person and we as an audience relate our bed as a place of safety. Another film that shows gore but isn’t to over the top with the amount of blood is ‘Scream’ (1996) we see the killer kill his victims in this film like ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ but the blood level used in ‘Scream’ is more realistic which makes the film scarier. Even though the more resent horror film show a lot more gore and have more brutal killings in ‘American Psycho’ (2000) they use the same technique as in ‘Psycho’ even though the killings are more brutal the audience never see’s the murder weapon make contact with the victim. When you finish watching the film you sort of understand why this techniques is used because the killer doesn’t actually kill anyone he just thinks he does because of the mental state he’s in. Even though we don’t see the weapon hitting/stabbing the victim’s because the film is in colour and we as an audience fill in the blanks the effect of the murder has a bigger impact then the murders in ‘Psycho’. Another thing that has become more popular in horror films is non-diegetic music to build up tension, if we look at ‘Psycho’ there isn’t that much non-diegetic music for tension building but in the more recent films like ‘Halloween’ and ‘Scream’ non-diegetic is used all the time for tension. A common occurrence that we see in all of the films i analysed is the time of day the murders are committed, all of them are done during night, apart from ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ (Tobe Hooper,1974). This is a very symbolic stimulus of a horror film because night time is always scarier and when there is non-diegetic music it builds up the climax and being a horror film the audience is expecting something to happen.

In conclusion even though over the years technology has updated greatly depending on director, rating and type of horror slasher film will depend on the amount of gore shown. In my case because i don’t have a high budget i wont be able to do much blood and gore so the technique used in ‘Psycho’ may help me a lot.

Questionnaire

1. Gender:

Male Female

2. Age:

15 – 18 19 – 25 26 – 35 36 – 45 46 – 55 Over 60

3. Employment status:

Unemployed Part time job Full time job Part time student Full time student

4. How often do you go to the cinema:

Once a week Once a fortnight Once a month Other........................

5. What is your favourite genre?

Comedy Rom Com Action Horror Other, please state.................................

6. Do you watch horror films?

Yes Sometimes

7. What is your favourite horror slasher film:

................................................................................

8. Do you watch classic horror film e.g. Psycho?

Yes No

9. What do you like about the horror genre?

Its scarier It has a lot of tension The story line When there is just on killer When there is more then one killer When the murders are really brutal If the killer plays games with there victims e.g. Saw The non-diegetic music

10. Do you think there is a difference between modern horror films e.g. Saw, Prom Night (2006) and classic horror films e.g. Psycho, Texas Chain Saw Massacre?

Yes No

11. When watching a horror film do you think having non-diegetic music is better to build up tension then not having any music?

Yes No

12. Do you like it when there is a twist in the film and the killer isn’t who you think it is?

Yes No

13. Where would you think the main storyline of a horror film would be set?

Motorway hotel Spooky House In the woods In a locked room In the city In a busy park On a bus a shopping centre

14. Do you want the killer at the end of the film to still be at large so a sequel can be made?

Yes No

7. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre directed by Tobe Hooper in 1974

This scene starts with a long shot in high key lighting of a man walking round the side of a house to the front door shouting to see if anyone is home as he looks for his friends. The camera pans round so the man stays in the shot as he goes to the door. We can hear nightly sounds such as crickets and other bugs making noises and the non-diegetic music is a very quiet like a low humming sound, with the man talking and knocking at the door it’s very hard to hear it but that makes it seem as if it doesn’t want to be heard. We then see a medium shot of the man though the netted door his face in low key light, because inside the house is very dark and the only light is from the sun as it sets. As he starts to walk away the camera goes back to a long shot as he sees his friends jacket, the camera slowly zooms in but still keeps his whole body in shot, it then changes to a long medium shot and straight away zooms into a medium shot of the man looking at the jacket. He then turns back to the door shouting his friends name thinking there playing a joke on him, the camera goes back to the long shot with the man facing the door and zooms in, we start to hear chains rattling. The camera goes back to the medium shot of the man looking though the door as he is telling his friends to stop goofing around; we still haven’t seen any evidence that his friends are in the house which makes the audience starts to get nervous. He goes to walk away again and the camera changes to a medium shot from the side of him and we hear what sounds like someone groaning, he goes back to the door and the camera goes back to a medium shot from inside the house, the man opens the door and walks towards the camera, the camera pans up slightly so it’s almost a low angle shot looking as if he has the power as he demands his friends to stop messing. He walks forward calling his friends out, the house is very low key lighting and has no lights on at all, as he walks forward the camera changes to a medium shot from behind the man as he walks towards the door at the end of the hall way. A close up of the man at the door when we hear tapping coming from inside the room the man calls his friends name and walks in, then the camera zooms out and a meat hook comes into focus and is lit up by the sun light. The non-diegetic music at this point starts to get louder and this makes the audience really on edge. As he walks in the room the camera changes to a high angle shot and we then hear tapping, the man turns and looks at the freezer. The camera then goes to a medium shot of the man as he stares at the freezer with a look of fear, probably thinking if the tapping really came from the freezer and hoping it didn’t. The camera goes to a high angle shot of the freezer and more tapping is heard, the camera then changes to a low angle of the freezer as even more tapping is heard. It is clear to the audience because of the different angle of the freezer and the tapping that someone is in the fridge. The high angle shot, medium shot and low angle shot that have been used in the room are all used as the man walks quickly to the freezer, again building up tension. As he opens the freezer the non-diegetic music starts, the music sounds would be used when something shocking happens. When he opens the freezer the high angle camera shot zooms into the freezer to see a girl in there, possibly one of his friends. She tries to jump out of the freezer as she does the camera angle changes to a shot of her leaning over the edge. The camera angle changes again to a medium shot of the man and before we see the killer we hear him moaning as he walks though the door, coming from the darkness, and goes to hit the man with a hammer. The camera changes to an over the shoulder high angle shot from the killers shoulder of the man screaming and the camera goes back to the previous shot as the killer hits the man as he does the non-diegetic music become a little faster but still quite slow. As the killer continues to moan he walks to put the girl back in the freezer and shut it. He walks around the room looking for anyone else, we see him run back into the room he came from moaning as he runs to the window. The camera angles in the last few seconds changed a lot to create the atmosphere. As he gets to the window the camera changes to a medium shot of him opening the curtains and looking outside. The music starts to slow down as the killer realizes that there isn’t anyone else and sits down and puts his hands to his head. It almost looks like he didn’t want to kill the man, this is the first time we have seen a killer possibly regretting what he did and it makes the audience think twice about the killer. The killer is wearing a homemade mask with eye and mouth holes and a long coat type jacket. At the beginning of the scene there is no over dramatic non-diegetic music to build up tension the diegetic sounds and fast camera changes do that just as well as non-diegetic music would, some made find it more effective because it makes it more real. At the beginning of the scene you knew something was going to happen to the man because in most horror films when someone walks into a dark scary house in the middle of nowhere will die, it’s quite a typical part to a horror film.