Controversial Films: American History X

FILM REVIEW:The Body (Short film)

Title: The Body

Main actors: Emma Johnson, Blair Vaux-Nobes

Year of production: 2012

Company: Redland Pictures

Produced by: Kirk Redgate

This short film is about a young couple whose peace is disrupted when her husband suddenly loses his mind and becomes determined to end her life.

This film fits under the horror film category because it conforms to many conventions of horror films, for example there is a lot of emphasis placed on the fact that the girl is alone at home with her husband and there is nobody to help her. Diegetic sound is used to support this at the very start of the film when everything is silent and all we can hear is the clock ticking away, giving the impression that the main girl is alone at home and leaving the audience to wonder where her partner has gone or what might have happened to him. Isolation is a common element used in horror films to make the characters seem helpless and generate sympathy from the audience who hope that somebody might show up.

Another effective use of diegetic sound is during the fight scene, where we can hear the sound of the bottle breaking on his heard and her head banging on the door. In this scene its interesting how they chose not to use non diegetic sound to build up tension and instead left only the synchronous sounds. This was very effective since the sound of them fighting were quite loud and could be heard clearly, again showing the complete silence around them.

Another horror film convention present in the film is the asynchronous sound of a heavy rain storm outside the house. Stormy weather is very commonly used in horror films since lightening can be an effect use of lighting where the room is quickly lit up and we see where the threat is but the main character doesn’t. However in this film this convention has caused a continuity problem, this is because when the characters went outside, the garden wasn’t wet like it should have been.  

Mise-en scene also contributed to the scariness of the film by adding normal everyday objects we usually wouldn’t find scary and placing them in a different context such as the black cat circling the main character. Black cats are often seen as a symbol of bad look so this could have been a code indicating that something unfortunate was about to happen. There was also the use a Christmas tree where the villain was sitting under, usually we would associate a Christmas tree with colourful lights and gifts but the black and white effect made the treat look creepy by casting shadows, making it more suitable for a horror movie. The fact that the villain was under the tree where presents would usually be placed could symbolise the fact that the main girl will receive an unexpected gift which in this case is her husband’s sudden personality change.

Slated camera angles are effectively used to illustrate how disoriented the villain is. The scene where the camera is following him and imitating his movements as he wobbles towards her, gives the impression that he is not himself that something is causing him to act that way, possibly the omniscient  behind the camera. This is reinforced by the non-diegetic music that plays while he is walking which is repetitive and gives off the impression of being hypnotized.

The antagonist’s unnatural situation is further supported by a low angle shot which reveals his face for the first time to the audience and allows us to see that he seems to be in a trance as his eyes have become fully white.

Superimposing was also used appropriately to show a transition from one scene (her getting out of bed) to her another (her opening the door). It gave the impression of her coming out of her safety zone and entering the danger zone.

The narrative structure of this film is Linear with a close structure because it has a clear beginning where non-diegetic material is used which is a note introducing to the audience what the problem is and what has or will happen, the middle is a constant rise and fall of action where the victim escapes but then is suddenly cornered or caught by their attacker, at the end of the film it is clear to the audience that the  girl did not survive since at the start of the film the note stated that they both died.

The Body conforms to two theories. The first is Levi strauss’s binary opposites theory because there is a clear clash between two opposing forces in this film which is the women who is the victim trying to safe herself and the man who is the villain who is trying to kill the girl. The second theory is the The enigma code since in the beginning of the film the audience is presented with text which describes an event that has taken place, this hooks the audience because they become eager to find out what happens next or how the event took place.

The female lead supports the representation that women are weak and emotional. This is shown through the fact that she is the helpless female victim in the horror film, which again conforms to conventions. The cutaway used to show her  panicking and struggling to open the gate while he is calmly limping after her shows that women are emotional since she is letting her emotions get in the way of her successfully opening the gate.

The male lead conforms to the representation that man are aggressive. This is clearly supported by the fact that he is made the villain who is trying to kill the girl and does not hesitate to act violently towards her, for example the scene where he bangs her head on the wall. However depending on whether he was being controlled or was possessed by some kind of supernatural force could suggest that he was weak or vulnerable, which goes against the stereotype that man or powerful.

I believe that this film should be rated 12 because it contains moderate violence which isn’t shown in great detail. Despite giving references to easily accessible weapons the scenes do not show the characters using them against each other such as the hammer, wood block.

Presentation of Our Initial Ideas

This is the first presentation we did where we introduced our inital ideas to the rest of the class. Here we talk about the storyline and how we plan on making our film work. We also pointed out why we chose to do a horror film and how we intended to conform to the conventions of our film's genre.

Conventions of a horror film

Conventions are things that are generally done in a certain way, over and over again. Each film genre has its set of conventions which the audience expect to come across when watching a movie, since they are already familiar with them.
However sometimes film producers choose to challenge these conventions in an attempt to make the public curious about the film since it doesn’t fall into the typical formula.
These are the some of the conventions of a horror film.
Setting:
Horror films tend to place the characters into isolated areas to give them the impression of being helpless since there is nobody around to help them. For example abandoned houses, hotels and theme parks as well as dark woods and cabins.
Another common factor associated with horror film settings is places having a dark history such as haunted houses where families have been killed etc.

Camera shots and angles
- Handheld cameras are often used in documentary style horror films such as Paranormal Activity. This technique causes the film to become very shaky and prevents the audience from having a clear image of what is going on. It can also be used as a way of allowing the audience to feel involved with the film in scenes where the camera is filming when she shouldn’t be or when the camera is accidently facing a different direction, revealing something to the audience that the character doesn’t know.
-POV (point of view) shots are often used to allow the audience to see the world through the antagonist's eyes. This could be used to show that the victims are being watched or chased.
-High and low angles can be used to show that characters are being watched and targeted. It can also be used to show nightmares and fear.
Lighting:
Horror films are usually very dark and contain a lot of shadows. This helps to build up suspense and tension in the scenes since it prevents the characters from seeing clearly. Which again gives them the impression of being helpless. e.g dark rooms and streets as well as narrow alleyways.

Sound:
Non diegetic and diegetic sound can be used to build suspense and tension especially if there’s a sudden change in tempo such as footsteps. It can also be used to show how the character is feeling .e.g heartbeat, or as an element of a jump scare.
Common Events/Scenes:
-One of the most common opening scenes for horror films is the death of a particular character which then leads to the main story such as Jaws or The Ring.

-Jump scares are a very popular way of scaring the audience while they watch the film causing them to 'jump' out of their seats. Most of the time this has nothing to do with the actual threat it's usually  a loud noise or an object falling on the floor or even a character appearing out of nowhere.
-Something that often happens in horror films is the characters conveniently ignoring what is going on despite there being an obvious threat. This often comes in the form of other characters failing to believe what another character has found out or experienced.
-Another thing is the power going out, usually at the most frightening moments, this can be used as suspense since the audience don’t know whether the character has been caught.
-The phone lines are cut or the battery runs out. This is to prevent the character from asking for help, which often results in someone having to leave the hiding place in hope of find help. This leads to the vehicle conveniently not working and then the character is attacked from behind.
-Another thing that is frequently is one of the characters actually daring to investigate a strange noise somewhere, despite the fact that it should be the last thing you do in that situation.
-There is also the 'This is the part that you runaway' scenes where one of the characters always manage to trip over a perfectly clear floor or run up the stairs to lock themselves in a room instead of going outside.
-Characters looking outside windows while the killer appears behind them or breaks through the glass to grab them are also a typical scenes in horror films.
-Many horror films also included the characters getting lost after asking a suspicious person for directions or taking a short cut.
Character types:
- Main protagonist who is often the hero/ victim of the film and ends up surviving or giving their life to protect another which is the only survivor.
-The immature troublemaker teenagers that always get killed.
-Antagonist who is often a serial killer or some kind of supernatural being such as a ghost, alien, monster etc.
-Creepy looking children or local people.
-Police officers.
What conventions will we be conforming to or challenging in our film:
Conform:

Characters:
We will have a suspicious looking local which will be the care taker and the cause for everything bad thats going to happen.

Events/Scene:
-We will have one of the characters check out why somebody is taking too long to comeback and they will become victims as well.
-One of the characters in our film will conveniently fall over

Sound:
We will use non diegetic sound to increase the tension in the film and the tempo will vary from slow to quuick.

Camera:
Half of our film will be filmed using a handheld camera.

Challenge:
Lighting:
Natural ambient lighting will be used since half the film will be during the day and the other half during the night. The attacks will take place during the day as well as the night.

Live Evil:Initial Ideas for Story-line

This is our initial  ideas for the film's story-line.
The film will begin with the main character watching a horror film on TV.
The horror film that the character is watching,will be in a documentary style where everything is filmed from the characters point of view with their camera.
The film will be about three friends who go camping in the park but discover that it’s actually an abandoned cemetery, they get lost and it gets dark. The friends start to disappear until the ghost finally comes for her (the one with camera); at that moment the camera falls on the floor and allows the girl watching the movie to see that it’s actually her. She stops the film since she is freaked out and goes out for a walk.

Meanwhile a family member comes into the room and accidently turns on the movie again (sits on controller) she then begins to watch the film, where the main character eventually dies.

After the movie ends the main girl who was walking around aimlessly, realises that she has somehow ended up in front of the same cemetery in the film.

She walks into the cemetery and then stops, at that moment a hand comes from under the soil and grabs her feet. After that we only hear her scream but  then the camera focuses on the soil with looks messy to indicate that she has been pulled underground.

We wanted our film to leave a deep impression on our target audience, which are mainly teenagers not only from our local community but other parts of London too.
So we decided to pick locations which our local audience regularly pass by or have been to before, which are our school, local cemeteries and park. We want our film to scare them to the point of them remembering our film whenever they walk pass these locations at least for a short while.
Teenagers from other parts of London can still relate to our chosen film locations as they are places which they most likely have been to or passed by.