Short films

Zombie - Cargo short film
Comedy  - Phobia short film
Gothic - Vincent short film
Psychological - Inside short film
Body - Human Form short film


Deconstruction of 'Vincent' by Tim Burton

'Vincent' is a short film directed by Tim Burton in the form of an animation. The film itself is narrated by Vincent Price, who is incorporated within the plot. Vincent Price is a well known actor for his distinctive voice and performance in horror films. The incorporation of Vincent Price is a relevant to the representation of the Gothic genre. Within the film, Burton works through many themes that have become a preoccupation of his work, as well as exploring his own imaginative heritage. Not only does 'Vincent' pays recognition to Vincent Price, Edgar Allan Poe and the horror films of the 1950s and 1960s, it also reflects Burton's interpretation of the Expressionist horror collection.
The film coveys the character of 'Vincent' as living a conventional, normal life, which the audience would find familiar and relatable to their everyday life. Burton presents Vincent to conform to normal life but the transitions of the different persona of Vincent represents the more dramatic and exciting life he has in his head.
The film follows Vincent's progress as he goes deeper into his fantasy; although his mother attempts to pull him back to reality.
His mother said: “You’re not possessed, and you’re not almost dead. These games that you play are all in your head. You’re not Vincent Price, you’re Vincent Malloy. You’re not tormented or insane, you’re just a young boy. You’re seven years old and you are my son. I want you to get outside and have some real fun"
The film evokes the main theme of the Gothic genre; the struggle between the world of the imagination and the world of reason.
Tim Burton successfully presents the Gothic genre.

other examples include:

Conventions of a horror movie

What is a horror film?
-A film that is unsettling and its main purpose is to scare the audience.

Camera angles:
common camera angles include;

• extreme close-ups - this helps the audience analyse the expression of the characters face and therefore their emotion, as well as to empathise with the characters 
• tilt - creates distortion within a scene 
• establishing shot - allows the audience to view the full location in which the film is set 
• handheld - evokes realism
• tracking shot - follows characters - creates suspense 
• point of view - allows the audience to relate/connect to the character - emphasises fear 
• dollying -  can give the audience the idea the victims/main character is being followed - also allows the audience to perceive the scene and this can be used effectively to evoke more fear throughout other horror elements within the setting 

Props:

• weapons - included as they are associated with death and violence - thus emphasising gore 
• dolls 
• relics
• crucifix 
• masks
• electronics e.g. TVs 
• cameras
• Ouija board

Sound/music:

• Minor key music - creates suspense - uses of string instruments 
• sound effects - emphasises the act of violence in the scene or adds to the tension of an upcoming event
• both use of sound effects and dramatic music are used strategically within horror films to impact the captivated audience - the music's volume usually intensifies to signify a substantial event is about to occur

Victims:

• Conventionally the victims within horror films are children or young women/teenagers; although occasionally the film will incorporate a regular character who the audience can relate to, this usually is more effective in the horror effect of fear as the audience can place themselves within the character's position
• victims will always experience a traumatic death - usually incorporating a lot of gore 
• the victim is never the main character/protagonist as they usually survive until the end and either defeat the horror element or are involved in an open ending which leads to a sequel 

Sub-genre:

• the wide variety of sub-genres provides the audience to find a horror film that incorporates their fear or something that gives them the adrenaline/fear effect conventional and desired from horror films 
• e.g. Slasher, Monsters, Vampires, Religion, Sci-fi, Supernatural, Found-footage, Mockumentary, Psychological, Gothic etc. 

Locations/setting:

• small communities or isolated places - large cities or a rundown ghost town - any sort of setting that connotes isolation/being alone 
• usually a place with a dark history - abandoned houses, asylums etc
• based in a place with a minimal amount of people - provides the character the chance to be harmed with a lack of obstacles - therefore can make the plot and events that take place more believable

Typical fears:

• the incorporation of everyday, common fears, that the audience can relate to intensifies the thrill effect of horror 
• e.g. Nightmares, Alienation, Death, Fear of the unknown, Loss of identity, Supernatural entities, Spiders etc.  

Characters:

• Final girl 
• killer - usually had a traumatic experience that has led them to murder - can be alive or dead - human or supernatural etc. 
• the one character who does not believe what is going on - dismissive parents/skeptical friends 
• the typical teenage characters 

Found Footage/Mockumentary Horror

Short films of this genre: The website Short of the Week (https://www.shortoftheweek.com/) has many different genres of short films; here I watched multiple short films in the sub-genre of found footage/mockumentary.

Found Footage example: 

'Timelike' - Richard Boylan

• handheld camera - provides a homemade feel to the film - it is shaky so the audience feel distorted with the characters and story-line
• direct address with camera by the actors -  more of a personal connection with the audience - evokes the realistic qualities of the plot and characters - helps the audience connect with the characters and makes the plot more effective and easily related to - humanises the characters 
• quick cuts of scenes - moves plot forward - more realistic as a home movie as it doesn't convey every single detail of the plot - the audience are left to interpret aspects 
• the continuous flashbacks of the beginning clips towards the end with the suspenseful, minor key, non-diegetic music evokes the tone of fear among the audience 

Mockumentary example:

'Lovely Monster' - Francesco Calabrese 

• Documentary style short film - interviews - some handheld shots - not cinematic - no experimental editing etc - realistic to the audience - a sense of their own reality/a documentary they would consume
• leaves the audience with questions - open ended - the main plot of the creature horror aspect is only revealed at the end of the film where it then cuts to black - jump scare - by being open ended it creates intrigue for the audience consuming the film 

Reading Horror Movies

Polysemy - a text that is open to different/multiple interpretations. Horror films are often deliberately ambiguous.

The audience can also respond to texts in different ways outlined by Stuart Hall in his 'Response Theory'.
The producer encodes a meaning and the reader decodes the meaning. Different audiences will decode the text in different ways, and not always in the way the producer intended.
One of the problems for horror movies is that the encoded, preferred meaning might be lost on a more modern audience

Possible readings:

• Preferred/dominant  - this is when the text is read in the way the producer intended it to be - the audience agree with the message and ideology that the producer has placed behind the text - the audience will view the text in the way intended. - an audience would have a dominant reading through a clear message, being the TA, the content being relative to the society and the audience have chosen to consume the text voluntarily. 
• Opposistional - the audience rejects the producers preferred reading and creates their own - do not agree with the meaning completely 
• Negotiated - compromise between dominant and opposistional - accepts the views of the producer but also has their own interpretation and understanding of the text - do not agree or disagree
• Aberrant 

Horror films arouse strong positive and negative readings; they also are easily misinterpreted. 

My thoughts: 

• Do you like horror films? If so, why? If not, why? 

I personally enjoy horror films as the incorporation of the fear factor and adrenaline captivates me. Horror's involve the audience well with the aspect of suspense, meaning you feel more invested within a film and will therefore enjoy it more. 

• What do you think makes a good scary movie?

Qualities I look for in a good scary movie: complex characters (either the horror element or victims), jump scares, suspense (meaning the film doesn't reveal too much, too early), not being too abstract - incorporation of the everyday society of the audience - makes it more realistic and evokes fear.

Controversial Horror Films

• The Exorcist 
• The Human Centipede 
• Freaks 
• Cannibal Holocaust 
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre
• A Serbian Film 
• Peeping Tom
• Nekromantik

Roland Barthes -The Death of the Author

Roland was a French semiologist and is famous for his use of denotation and connotation.

Roland Barthes' theory consists of 'Narrative Codes'; these are 5 different codes which activate the reader to make sense of it.

Action Code - something the audience knows and doesn't need explaining
Enigma Code - something hidden from the audience (creates intrigue)
Semic Code - audience recognises through connotations - a meaning rather than telling the audience - for the audience to work out for themselves
Symbolic Code - symbolises a more abstract concept
Cultural Code - something that is read with understanding due to cultural awareness

Horror Theories

Final Girl Theory -C. G. Clover 

The final girl is a trope in the horror genre. This refers to the last woman left alive within the film; her role is to confront the killer and then tell the story when she succeeds. This theory links in with Mulvey's in that there is usually a shift within horrors from the view of the killer to the view of, in this case, the final girl. 

The 1987 essay “Her Body, Himself,” by Carol J. Clover of the University of California, Berkeley, argued that horror movies offer their teenage male viewers an illicit opportunity to revel in their feminine side. 

Contesting the claim that horror encourages a sadistic male gaze (Laura Mulvey), Ms. Clover took a closer look at the low-budget exploitation film, in which typically all the female characters are murdered, save for the sole woman who struggles to survive and ultimately escape the villain. 

Ms. Clover argued that this was one of the few film genres that regularly asked male audiences to identify with a triumphant female protagonist.   So a ‘sexist’ genre may actually not be so sexist after all!

Other Big Idea

Five Elements of Slasher Film:

Weapon         Killer         Victims          Terrible Place           Final Girl

The Philosophy of Horror - Noel Carroll 

The main idea surrounding this theory is attraction and repulsion. We are both attracted by gore and transgression as well as being repulsed by it. An example may be the idea that with a POV shot from the killers perspective, we relate to them or that vampires are supposed to be repulsive and yet we can be attracted to them. As well as the idea that we don't want to see what is shown in horror movies and yet we can't stop looking.

This theory is widely accurate within the horror genre as it ties in with the idea of the audience getting a wide range of gratifications from their experience and as to why people even enjoy horror films. The theory summarises how despite being repulsed by aspects of horror, we as an audience get enjoyment out of it; it provides the sense of our curiosity into the worst aspects of society which are portrayed within film, therefore attracting us to things that also repulse us.

"Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" - Laura Mulvey

This theory is based around the 'male gaze'. This theory places the audience as a male gaze, usually spying on a female character and objectifying her, such as in Halloween. through this the film has the audience emphasizes with the victims whilst maintaining the killer's point of view. This theory also follows the idea that there is a shift within the film from seeing the world through the killer's eyes to the final girl's; I believe this is done as it signifies a pivotal moment within the film where the victims have become more powerful that the killer, here the audience are able to feel more comfortable with the idea that there is going to be a positive ending where the killer fails. 

"The Uncanny" - Freud 

The Uncanny is something disturbingly strange and secret. This is something that ought to stay a secret but has come to light through the unconscious or subconscious mind; it is the return of the repressed, which is then reflected onto objects, people and places. 

"The Shadow" -Jung 

This is the idea of the projection of all we fear and dislike into an external figure. This theory suggests that the horror film "monster" is the worst parts of us. 

I feel this theory is used throughout the horror genre; many "monsters" within film are represented to be what the characters fear most. An example of this is Joe Dante's light horror "The Hole"; the hole is a supernatural aspect of the film that brings everything the protagonists are afraid of to life. Furthermore, it is said that we as audiences are fascinated by horror as it is representative of everything wrong within society and despite it correlating to real life, we continue to be fascinated by it. But this also gives the factor of fear; if horror "monsters" are based on the worst parts of us/society we are more likely to be afraid of the contents of the film. 

Adam Lowenstein 

Lowenstein had the idea of 'Spectacle Horror', this means that the camerawork, sound. editing and mise-en-scene are the most important aspects of horror as it creates a medium which emphasises the appreciation of the art of horror in comparison to other genres as it is about darker motives. 

Cynthia Freeland 

Freeland argues that graphic violence and gore effects are so overly exaggerated that they create a "perverse sublime". The idea that they are so far fetched create a sense of comfort and enjoyment as the content is not too realistic and is clear to be for entertainment, aesthetic film purposes.


The Subliminal

Theoretical Approaches to Horror Films

The Philosophy of Horror - Noel Carroll
Carroll defines the emotion sought by each author of horror to instill within their audience/readers as 'art-horror'. This is a combination of fear of the described object etc. with revulsion at it's presence.  He refers to how fear is an expected response to danger, where as revulsion is trickier to do.  Carroll also refers to magnification of the former and massification in the case of the latter; this means that what most people find repellent is magnified in horror, either by making the object larger or having a lot of the object which evokes fear.


Mulvey, Laura - "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" 
This theory contains the aspect of 'The Male Gaze'; Mulvey explored how we as audiences like to see things on screen that provides us with pleasure, mostly focusing on men. Throughout film women have been sexualised and made to appear desirable and nice for the male audience to watch. This is shown through deliberate camera-angles and editing to emphasise aspects of a woman, which places the audience in the perspective of a male. This objectifies women and takes away their identity within the film. Most filmmakers are men and so their perspectives and representations of women are their own. Mulvey states a female character in a narrative has two functions; as an erotic object for the characters within the narrative to view, and as an erotic object for the spectators within the cinema to view.


Freud - 'The Uncanny'
The Uncanny is a psychological experience that is strangely familiar, rather than mystery. This may also explain an object or event is subjected to a context that is eerie, unsettling or taboo. As a result of this, and for example in horror movies, there is a dicomforting effect which usually leads to a complete rejection of the object, which is referred to the Uncanny Valley effect. This means that we as an audience have a strange revulsion toward things that may appear human but are not right in our mind. With this comes the negative emotional responses, such as fear, like what the audience would feel whilst watching a horror film. We can apply this theory to horror films as we know that the characters within the film are intregied by the horror element, whether it may be a possessed child or ghost etc. This is the same for the audience, as we are intregied by the distortion of society and life through horror film, despite it resulting in the negative emotion of fear.

Freud explored the idea that the Uncanny's mixture of what is real with the unfamiliar and eerie confronts the subject with our unconcious, repressed impulses. Therefore, within horror films, such as 'The Ring', 'The Blair Witch Project', and 'The Babadook', not only do they just scare us but they pschologically effect the audience as the incorporation of what is familiar to those watching and making it distorted emphaises the scare factor within the film. Usually, audiences enjoy horror films because the ideas/content are so obscure they are unbelievable, and therefore they're comforting for the audience; although, with the incorporation of reality and events/objects in people's everyday life, it is more influentional to the audience as the ideas seem more plausable.
Freud further identifies Uncanny effects that result from the 'reputation of the same thing', which is also linked to the concept of repetition compulsion. Freud uses the example where someone becomes lost and accidently retraces their steps or in instances where random numbers occur which seem meaningful. This idea is said to be prefiguring Jung's concept of 'synchronicity'.

Jung - The Shadow

This theory is referred to as the Shadow, Id, or Shadow Aspect/Archetype. This theory refers to an unconscious aspect of the personality which the conscious ego of the individual does not identify itself in. This is referred to as the Shadow and is largely negative. It mainly surrounds an undesirable aspect of an individual's personality. Jung suggests that to truly know yourself, you must accept this 'dark side'. Although, in contrast to Freud's theory of the Shadow, Jung's can be positive or negative. therefore, when applying this to horror films, it can be in a character who is not accepting their dark tendencies/personality. This would be mainly shown in psychological horrors with characters who murder or are susceptible to the supernatural. Although, Jung explores that the Shadow is not part of the self but rather something that is a counter-part that follows the self. The horror caused by the Shadow aims to terrify the body through the mind rather than through abject mutilation of the

character's bodies (gore). As well as through animism; dolls, automatons and dismembered limbs that are powered by independent activity raises the question and uncertainty if the object is alive or dead.

Carol Clover - The Legend!
This theory explores 'The final girl theory'; the idea that there is one female character that survives within the horror narrative until the end when she is the only one left to defeat the horror element. 

Adam Lowenstein
Lowenstein explores how horror in film reflects the horror within history/society. Within 'Deathdream', a short horror film which Lowenstein analysed, it focuses on the trauma of the Vietnam war and how death is a gift to the soldier who suffered within it. Lowenstein refers to this as an allegorical moment, which is embodied in the character of a living corpse. This paradox of the living and the dead combined challenges the allegorical moment to the binary opposites that emphasise the trauma and horror. Lowenstein explores how shocking representation is used in horror to evoke fear through the disbelief at what they are viewing.