Key Director For Horror

William Friedkin

In 1973 William Friedkin revolutionised the genre of horror with a film, still in the present day, regarded as the one of the greatest/scariest films of all time. This film is 'The Exorcist'. It was nominated for 10 Academy awards, which included best picture and best director. It ended up winning the best screenplay award.

In the 1970's the genre of horror was divided into two types. One type being the 'real life' terrors of the likes of 'Psycho' and 'Night of the living dead'. These films brought horror into the everyday - helping it become even more frightening. The other type were the outrageous more unrealistic horror from company's such as Hammer Studios in the UK and Mario Brava and Dario Argento in Italy. These films would contain explicit gore over a narrative logic.

The first film that attempted a union of the two types of horror was 'Rosemary's Baby' - however it seemed with this film that director Roman Polanski still had produced a film that was too surreal.

The first film to properly combine the two was 'The Exorcist'. This film then went on to inspire and change the genre of horror.

Key Director For Psychological Horror

Alfred Hitchcock

'There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it' - Alfred Hitchcock

Much of Hitchcock's horror was psychological, he would slowly build up a sense of dread throughout his films. He used suspense to bring you to a breaking point which he would then release you from and move on to the next part of the film. While this is subtle it has a longer-lasting effect on you afterwards. To Hitchcock murder and suspense were the height of terror. To add to this the thought that the majority of the scenarios seen in his films can be applied to real life make you think they could, potentially, happen to you. The body counts in his films were also much more realistic - with a small amount (if any) being killed in each film - he didn't need body counts to make his films scary, just the threat of death was enough.

Most Famous Psychological Horror Films

The most famous psychological horror films:

Rosemary's Baby

Short description from IMDB:
'A young couple move into a new apartment, only to be surrounded by peculiar neighbours and occurrences. When the wife becomes mysteriously pregnant, paranoia over the safety of her unborn child begins controlling her life.'

Rosemary's baby came around at a vital time in American cinema history. Hollywood was just emerging from the slump of the 1950s (during the post-war period ticket sales had plummeted) and times were changing. Film production in Hollywood turned on its head and studios began financing independent productions - and the independent films started to become mainstream. Charlie Bluhdorn, head of Gulf and Western (which bought Paramount in 1966) decided to hire Robert Evans. It was less than a year after Paramount’s new ownership and with Evans then on board Paramount needed a hit film. Rosemary's Baby was the answer. It is still recognised as one of the best horror films as it is a creepy, unsettling film that tends to get under the skin of the audience - which is key for a apsychological horror. The film is slow paced, atmospheric, quiet and deliberate.

The Shining

Short description from IMDB:
'A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.'

The shining is one of the most memorable horror movies of all time due to its shock value, suspense and gore. Right from the beginning it gets the audience involved and has a menacing atmosphere about it. The line between real and fantasy in the film is very blurred and leaves you wondering which parts of the film are supposed to be real and which parts aren't.

Other Film Trailers From My Genre

The Ring (2002)

 

Short description from IMDB:
A young journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone in a week of viewing it

IMDB rating: 7.1

Shots

• Close up - mostly of peoples faces 

• Extreme close up - hand on the door handle, the video tape being put into the video player, little boy drawing the picture and an eye opening are a few examples 

• Establishing shot - the cliff with the building on which is followed by another of a house 

• Two shot - the woman talking to the little boy in the rain 

• Over the shoulder shot - mostly used for conversations 

• Reaction shot - the two girls talking at the beginning, one of them is telling the other about 'the ring' and the consequences of watching it - there is a reaction shot of the girl being told the story's face    

Angles

• Low angle - when the woman is talking to the little boy - who is in bed, when the hand is reaching to touch a girl on the shoulder and the man in the tunnel  

Movement

• Pan - for the establishing shot of the building on the cliff the camera pans up 

• Zoom - there are several zooms included in the trailer for example the camera zooms into the videos on the shelf, on the telephone ringing, there are a few zooms into faces and a very 
fast paced zoom into a tunnel 

Editing

• Eye-line match - the characters watching the tape on the TV

• Shot reverse-shot - mainly when the characters are talking with each other 

Sound 

• Diegetic sound - Dialogue and ambient sound (telephone ringing)

• Non-diegetic sound - Score (added to create an atmosphere)

Mise en scene 

• Location - mainly set in a house 

• Dark and neutral colours are used    

Orphan (2009) 

 

Short description from IMDB: 

A husband and wife who recently lost their baby adopt a 9-year-old girl who is not nearly as innocent as she claims to be

IMDB rating: 7.0 

Shots

• Aerial shot - car driving down road

• Close-ups - used for conversations between characters

• Extreme close-up - hand turning door handle

• Establishing shot - car pulling into car park

• Medium shot

• Two shot

• Point-of-view shot (POV) - Woman looking at a file

• Over the shoulder shot - Children in the room

• Overhead shot - Looking down at Ester when there is the fire in the tree

• Reaction shot - Ester being made fun of by her classmates

Angles

• High angle - looking down at Ester

• Low angle - Ester in the toilet when she's punching and kicking the wall

Movement

• Pan - Ester painting alone in the room
• Track - Woman running after the car
• Zoom - into Ester's face, zoom out of woman on the phone
• Slow motion - Ester walking past the car, woman running after the car

Editing

• Shot reverse shot - conversations

Sound

• Diegetic sound - Dialogue
• Non-diegetic sound - Score

Mise en scene

• Montage

Deconstruction Of A Key Text

'The Others' (2001) Trailer

Short description from IMDB:
A woman who lives in a darkened old house with her two photosensitive children becomes convinced that her family home is haunted.


IMDB rating: 7.7

Shots

• Establishing shot of the house it is set in (shown twice once at the beginning and then again halfway through)

• Medium shots e.g. when the children are introduced and another of Mrs Mills and Lydia 

• Characters are mainly shown using close ups 

• Over the shoulder shots mostly used to show conversation 

• Reaction shots

• Overhead shot of Grace when she hears a noise upstairs

• Point of view shot when Grace is looking at the picture drawn by Anne 

Editing 

• Shot reverse shot for conversations 

• Eye line match for the drawing by Anne

Sound 

• Dialogue - sometimes used to overlap onto a different clip than what it actually occurs in and so seems to act as a sort of Voice over

• Diegetic sound - e.g. the door squeaking or slamming

• Non-diegetic sound such as the score

• There is a sound played over dramatic actions such as the curtains or the door opening 

Mise en scene 

• Location - the house (seen the the two establishing shots) is very big, dark inside and eerie looking from the outside

• Set design - all the sets are dark and add to the eerie atmosphere of the film

• Costume - fits with the period the film is set/when the characters were still alive 

• Common props from the film include the torches and a set of keys - both of which are shown in the trailer - the picture Anne draws is also a significant prop which is also seen in the trailer

• All colours seen in the film are dark colours

• Proxemics - Grace does not get physically close to many people - the only people she gets close to is her children 

• Gesture and posture - fits with how they would have been expected to act at the time - 'proper'  

Iconography

A haunted house

A screaming victim - female

Dark places where the evil 'being' lurks - the house is always dark due to the children's allergy to light

This trailer also follows every convention I listed that horror films usually have

Iconography In The Horror Genre

• A haunted house
• Symbols of death
• A disfigured face/mask
• A screaming victim (usually female, in modern horror they are known as the 'final girl')
• Murder weapon (knife, stake, chainsaw etc)
• Two opposites of good and evil
• Dark places where the evil 'being' lurks e.g. woods, cellar, attic
• Blood and body parts (if the genre is body horror)

History Of Horror Films

1890's


The first depictions of the supernatural in films were in several silent short films by Georges Méliès in the late 1890's - the most famous being 'Le Manoir du diable' also known as the 'Haunted Castle' (1896). This silent short film, is sometimes credited as the first horror film. 
In 1910, Edison studios made the first film version of 'Frankenstein' - however this film was thought to have been lost for many years. The print for this film was bought in the 50's and it's rarity was not realised until the mid-70's.  
In the early 20's the first monster appeared in a horror film - which was 'Quasimodo' 
During the early period of talking pictures Universal Pictures began a film series of Gothic horror films such as Tod Browning's 'Dracula' (1931) and James Whale's 'Frankenstein' (1931). Some Gothic horror was blended with science fiction such as 'The invisible man' (1933). Universal Pictures continued their success with the horror genre into the 40's - which included films such as 'The wolf man' - which although it is not the first film to feature a werewolf it is the most influential.


1920's
German expressionist film makers in the early 20's significantly influenced later films. Paul Wegener's 'The Golum' (1920) and Robert Wiene's 'The cabinet of Dr. Caligari' (1920) particularly had an impact.


1930's - 1940's

Other studios then followed Universal's lead, Tod Browning made Freaks (1932) for MGM, however this film was very controversial due to it being about about a band of circus 'freaks'. The studio then disowned film once it was completed - after cutting about 30 minutes from the film; it was also unreleased in the UK for 30 yrs. In 1931 Paramount released Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which used colour filters to create Jekyll's transformation in front of the camera. Mystery of the Wax Museum released by Warner Brothers in 1933 and Island of Lost Souls by Paramount in 1932 are all important horror films. 


1950's - 1960's
As technology advanced the popular genre of Gothic horror was switched to two new sub-genres of the horror-of-Armageddon film and the horror-of-the-demonic film. A trend of (mostly) low budget films featuring humanity overcoming threats from aliens, mutations, plants and insects became popular. During the late 50's Great Britain started to produce many horror films such as 'Peeping Tom' (1960) which contained a serial killer who combined his profession as a photographer with the moments before he murdered his victims. The Hammer company focused on the horror genre for the first time and received success from films such as 'The curse of frankenstein' (1957) and 'Dracula' (1958), which were both followed by any sequels, for showing classic horror characters in colour for the first time. The director for many of these films was Terence Fisher. In 1960 Alfred Hitchcock made the first slasher film with 'Psycho' and also produced a film showing nature gone mad in 1963 with 'The Birds'. Throughout this period ghosts and monsters remained a popular feature - although many of these films preferred to express these themes through the 'horror of the demonic' sub-genre. Films of this sub-genre include 'The innocents' (1961) and 'The haunting' (1963). However it was in 'Rosemary's Baby' (Roman Polanski, 1968) that the devil made flesh for the first time. A particularly influential horror film from this period was George A. Romero's 'Night of the living dead' (1968) as this 'Horror-of-Armageddon film about zombies combines the psychological with gore - which as a result of this moved horror further away from the earlier Gothic horror trend and brought horror into everyday life. Low budget gore-shock films such as 'Blood feast' (1963) and 'Two thousand maniacs!' (1964) also appeared.          



1970's - 1980's

With the success of low-budget gore films and 'Rosemary's Baby' led to the release of films such as 'The Exorcist' (1973) which has significant commercial success and so was then followed by many films showing the devil representing supernatural evil - often by impregnating women or by possessing children. Another popular Satanic horror movie from this period was 'The Omen' (1976) in which a man realises his 5yr old son that he adopted is the Antichrist. During this period gory horror film with sexual themes were then made as 'A-movies' (as opposed to B-movies which were low budget commercial motion pictures). Many of the ideas from the youth counterculture in the 60's influenced horror in the 70's for example Wes Craven's 'The hills have eyes' (1977) and Tobe Hooper's 'The Texas  chain saw massacre' (1974) both recalled the Vietnam war. George A. Romero satirised the consumer society in his sequel about zombies 'Dawn of the dead' (1978) and David Cronenberg featured the mad scientist sub-genre and explored fears about technology and society as well as reinventing 'body horror' with films such as 'shivers' (1975). The 70's/80's also saw many of the horror author Stephen King's books adapted for film beginning with Brian De Palma's 'Carrie' (1976) followed by 'The Shining' in in 1980 which started off slow at the box office but later became considered a classic. During these decade's the slasher films became increasingly popular with the arrival of John Carpenter's 'Halloween' (1978), Sean Cunningham's 'Friday the 13th' (1980), Wes Craven's 'A nightmare on elm street' (1984) and Bob Clark's 'Black Christmas' (1974). The 70's also saw a rise of the killer animal stories starting with Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws (1975) which was then followed by 'Orca' (1977) and 'Up from the depths'. Jaws is often said to be one of the first big-budget Hollywood films to use traditionally B-movie elements such as horror and mild gore. 'Alien' in (1979) combined naturalistic acting, graphic violence, monster movie plot from previous decades and science fiction. This film was extremely successful and is considered a land mark for the sci-fi genre and was even referred to a being like Jaws but in space. John Carpenter also mixed horror and sci-fi with 'The Thing' (1982) but this wasn't an instant hit and instead 20yrs after its release it was praised for its use of ahead-of-its-time special effects and use of paranoia. Another significant film is Sam Raimi's 'Evil dead' films which despite being low budget productions and followed a very original plot were later praised by critics. In the 80's there was a wave of popularity for 'B-movies' - although the majority were initially criticised many later became cult classics. Some examples of some cult classics from the 80's include 'Fright night' (1985) and 'The lost boys' (1987).          

1990's
To start of with the 90's largely continued many of the horror film themes from the 80's. Slasher films from the 80's such as 'A nightmare on elm street', 'Friday the 13th', 'Halloween' and 'Child's play' all had sequels in this decade - but were not very successful with critics. However, films such as Wes Craven's 'New nightmare' (1994) and 'Silence of the lambs' (1991) were successful and praised by critics. 'New nightmare', 'In the mouth of madness' (1995), 'The dark half' (1993) and 'Candyman' (1992) were all metafictional horror film - which were films where fictional horror was combined with real-world horror. For example 'Candyman' linked an urban legend and racism that produced the villain. This reflective style then became overt and ironic when 'Screm' was released in 1996. There were however two main problems that held the genre back during the 90's; the genre had worn itself out in the 80's with the nonstop slasher and gore films in the 80's and secondly the teenage audience that had been interested in the blood and morbid themes from the decade previously had grown up and had been replaced with an audience that were more interested in the sci-fi and fantasy genre thanks to the advance in CGI (computer-generated imagery) and more special effects that could be created. In an attempt to re-connect with its audience the genre became self-mockingly ironic and parodic - especially towards the end of this decade. Some examples of where this can be seen is Peter Jackson's 'Braindead (1992) which was a comedic take on a splatter film due to the ridiculous excess it went to in the film, Wes Craven's 'Scream' series stating in 1996 which are films that often make reference to the history of horror and contains ironic humour, and 'I know what you did last summer' and 'Urban legend' which re-ignited the slasher genre. 


2000's


The start of this decade was another quiet period for the horror genre. An extended version of the 70's film 'The exorcist' was released in September 2000. 'Valentine' (2001) had some success but was criticised for being too formulaic and relying to much on the past horror conventions. 'Final destination' (2000) was a successful revival of teen-centred horror and then went on to produce four sequels. The 'Jeepers creepers' series was also a success. It was films such as 'Orphan', 'Wrong turn', 'Cabin fever' and 'House of 1000 corpses' that helped to bring horror back to Restricted ratings in the cinemas. A trend during this time was the emergence of psychology in order to scare the audience - rather than just make them feel squeamish by including lots of gore. An example of one of these psychological horrors is 'The others' (2001) which used a successful minimalist approach - which proved Val Lewton's theory of 'less is more' (which is usually done by including low-budget techniques). There was also a return to the zombie genre with films such as 'Resident evil' (2002) which was followed by four sequels, '28 days later' (2002) which featured an updated version of the genre with 'return of the living dead' style more aggressive zombies - this film also had a sequel with '28 weeks later'. This comeback of the zombie horror led to George A Romero to return to his living dead series with 'Land of the dead' (2005), 'Diary of the dead (2007) and 'Survival of the dead' (2010). A larger trend of extreme, graphic violence also returned. Films such as 'Audition' (1999), 'Wrong turn' (2003) and 'Wolf creek' (2005) all took inspiration from 'The last house on the left' (1972), 'Texas chainsaw massacre' (1974) and 'The hills have eyes' (1977). An extension of the extreme and graphic horror was the emergence of films depicting torture, suffering and violent deaths (this is often referred to as horror porn, torture porn, splatterporn or even gore-nography). Examples of these types of films include (The collector), 'The tourtured', 'Saw' and 'Hostel' - all of these films also had sequels. The 'Saw' series hold the Guinness world record for the highest grossing horror franchise in history. 'Paranormal activity' (2009) was well received by critics and did very well at the box office - this film carried on with the minimal thought that was started by 'The Blair witch project'. Ramaks of earlier horror films became very common during the 2000's for example 'Dawn of the dead' (2004), '2001 Maniacs', 'Texas chainsaw massacre' and 2007's 'Halloween'. The 'Halloween' remake was not well received but however it was successful in the cinemas and had a sequel. It also helped to start the 'reimaging' of other popular horrors and so other films were remade such as 'Friday the 13th' (2009), 'A nightmare on elm street' (2010), 'Children of the corn' (2009), 'Prom night' (2008), 'My bloody valentine' (2009) and 'The wolfman' (2010).         

Conventions Of A Psychological Movie Trailer

These are conventions of horror film trailers:

• Darkness
• House
• Flashes of light as a transition
• Fade transition
• Screaming
• Eerie Music 
• Doors slamming
• Dialogue used as a form of voiceover
• Company information at the beginning
• Close ups of faces
• Title of the film at the end
• Release date at the end
• The 'supernatural' being is not shown in great detail (either the view is obscured or it is seen from a distance)  
• Main character being haunted is usually female

Pros And Cons Of A Psychological Horror:

Pros:

• Can get away with a small cast
• It is a popular genre that people are interested in

Cons: 

• They are usually set at night - which would lead to lighting problems 
• The themes featured tend to get repeated often (i.e. possession and ghosts)  

My Chosen Sub-genre: Psychological Horror

After at first deciding my chosen genre will be horror I have, after further research, decided that I will do the sub-genre of psychological horror as this is the sub-genre that I feel I can make a trailer for best as well as it being a genre I am interested in

The Genre For My Trailer: Horror

Horror:

This genre looks to create a negative emotional reaction from its viewers by playing on their fears, nightmares and revulsion's. 

Common elements often found in horror films (depending on the sub genre) are:

• Ghosts
• Aliens
• Vampires
• Werewolves
• Curses
• Satanism
• Demons
• Gore
• Torture
• Vicious animals
• Monsters
• Zombies
• Cannibals
• Serial Killers 

There are several sub genres for the horror genre: 

Action Horror: 

This sub genre usually contains evil forces, events and supernatural elements of horror films and combines them with gunfights and chases that are found in the action genre (however sometimes there is an element of the fantasy genre used) 

Examples = 

• Resident Evil
• Ghost Rider
• Blade 
• Underworld 

Body Horror: 

This contains the graphic destruction or degeneration of the body - with unnatural movements anatomically incorrectly placed limbs to create 'monsters'

Examples = 

• The Thing
• Virus
• Teeth
• Hellraiser 

Comedy Horror: 

This, as the names suggests, combines horror and comedy - the comedy is usually dark comedy  

Examples = 

• Shaun Of The Dead
• An American Werewolf In London
• Beetlejuice
• Scary Movie 

Gothic Horror: 

This contains both goth and horror elements and usually features a romance element which creates suspense for the viewer

Examples = 

• Dracula 
• The Woman In Black
• The Phantom Of The Opera
• Sleepy Hollow 

Natural horror: 

This usually features nature in the form of 'mutated beasts, carnivorous insects and normally harmless animals or plants that turn into killers' Sometimes this sub genre features science fiction and action/adventure

Examples = 

• The Birds
• Jaws
• The Ruins
• The Swarm 

Psychological horror

This sub genre relies on fears, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, relevant music, emotional instability, the supernatural and ghosts which are all used to build tension and further the plot

Examples =

• The Grudge
• The Exorcist 
• The Others
• The Shining 

Science Fiction horror:

This often revolves around aliens, 'mad' scientists and experiments 'gone wrong'

Examples =

• Alien
• The Fly
• The Mist
• Doom

Slasher Film:

This often revolves around a psychopathic killer who stalks and kills a series of victims in a graphic and violent manner usually with an object such as a knife or an axe. Slasher films often overlap with crime, mystery and the thriller genres

Examples =

• Psycho
• Halloween 
• Friday The 13th 
• A Nightmare On Elm Street 

Splatter:

These films often focus on graphic use of gore and violence. Through the use of special effects and excessive blood and guts these films tend to show interest in the vulnerability of the human body (mostly a woman's body) and the theatricality of the mutilation of it. However, not all splatter films are slasher films

Examples =

• Saw
• Hostel 
• Blood Feast 
• Cannibal Holocaust 

Zombie Film: 

These are films that feature reanimated corpses or mindless humans

Examples = 

• I Am Legend 
• Night Of The Living Dead 
• Land Of The Dead
• Day Of The Dead 

Film Trailers

Definition:

A trailer is an advert designed to attract the audience encouraging them to watch the film when it is released.

Key points about trailers:

• Has to be a maximum of 2 minutes and 30 seconds in length (However studios and distributers are allowed to exceed this once a year for a film if they deem it necessary) 
• The clips shown are usually the most noteworthy parts of the film e.g. the most exiting or funny sections (but without ruining the plot)
• The scenes shown do not have to be shown in the order they happen in the film 

The First Film Trailer:

The name 'trailer' comes from the fact that they actually used to be shown at the end of a feature film screening - however this did not last long as people would leave when the film ended and not wait to watch the trailers, but the name stuck.

The first film trailer was for the musical 'The Pleasure Seekers' which was shown in a US movie theatre in November 1913. This trailer was produced by Nils Granlund who, a year later in 1914, went on to produce the first motion picture trailer for a Charlie Chaplin film. These trailers would have consisted of  key scenes being shown with large text describing the story.

In the 1960's textless trailers featuring a montage of the film with quick editing and voiceover's became popular - mainly due to the 'new hollywood' and more advanced techniques becoming popular on TV.

In 1964, Andrew J Kuehn independently produced a trailer for the film 'Night of the iguana' which used high contrast photography, quick editing and a voiceover. As this new type of trailer was successful Kuehn started Kaleidoscope Films in 1968 - a company that would be very important in making trailers over the next three decades.

As more expensive films were made the more money was spent marketing them - so the trailers became more important and in depth.

With the arrival of VHS, trailers were placed at the beginning of the tapes. Nowadays with DVD and Blu-Ray trailers are more of a bonus feature and viewing them is optional.

Trailers are now shown:

• Before the screening of a film at the cinema
• On DVD's and Blu-Ray discs
• On the internet (out of the 10 billion watched per year film trailers are ranked third after only the news and user created videos) 

What I Learned From The Preliminary Task

Locations:
I learnt that the location you choose not only has to fit with what you are shooting but has to have suitable lighting and you may have encounter difficulties such as when shooting outdoors we had to stand in mud and the weather wasn't always the best - but we had to carry on regardless in order to film our scene. I don't think we always got the lighting right with our locations (some of our indoor shots are a bit dark) however, overall our outdoors lighting isn't too bad. Next time, I would ensure that when shooting indoors I would use somewhere with good natural lighting or have access and use artificial lights.

Planning:
We planned the parts of the video the were not the memories because we wanted the memories to be spontaneous and natural as they would be if they were real. For the parts we planned we printed out the song lyrics and wrote what would be happening for each line - we did not story board this piece and should have really but as we wanted the memories to be spontaneous we couldn't have really drawn out what would be happening so would have had an incomplete storyboard anyway, I would however story board for the final piece as this makes what I want to be happening much clearer. We also did not write a script for this piece as like I said the memories were improvised as was the fight scene and so we didn't want to script this - again next time I would write a script if I chose to do a music video with some speech, a film trailer or a short film as this would be vital

Organisation:
As I worked in a pair for this piece any filming and editing that would be done together had to be worked out by comparing our school timetables (and also the timetable of the person who featured in our video) for when we were all available.

Teamwork:
We  both agreed o all aspects of the video (the music, locations and content) We also both filmed parts of it and edited it together - having to both agree on the clips that would be used and what effects and transitions that we wanted.

Editing:
We decided on using quite simple transistions such as fade to create a more professional look. As for the colour of the clips we decided that the 'memories' should be made brighter as these would have been when the people n the video wuld have been happy.  The present day clips were made black and white to show that they would be feeling down.

Final Product:
I am reasonably happy with the video and think that it is good for a first attempt - but I can however see many faults with it, such as some of the footage being in portrait whereas the majority is in landscape and some of the footage that isn't supposed to be amateur and handheld is quite shaky and doesn't look very professional. But I do however particularly like the rewind section and the idea of the clips of the girlfriend being like 'memories' filmed by the boyfriend.