Research Into Excisting Products

Christian Metz's Model Of Genre Development.
  

Experimental - Early films which explored and experimented with horror films.

Classic - The phase of films which established the narrative conventions of the horror genre in its most succesful and defining period.

Parody - Films that have mimiked the horror genre in some comical way.

Deconstruction - Taken generic elements of the horror genre amalganated them into varifying sub genre.

Experimental films:

The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari (1919)

 

 German silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene. One of the most influential of German Expressionist
films.

Nosferatu (1922)

German Expressionist horror film directed by F.W Murau. An unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula with the name and other details changed.

Classic Films:

Dracular (1931)

Vampire-horror film directed by Tod Browning starring Bela Lugosi. Produced by Universal. Based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.

Frankenstein (1931)

 Horror monster film from Universal Pictures directed by James Whale and adaoted from the play by Peggy Edbling which is based on the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

Parody Films:

Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein (1948)

 American comedy horror film directed by Charles Burton. Distributed by Universal Studios.

Carry On Screaming (1969)

 The twelth Carry On film. Last of the series made by Anglo-Amalgamated before the series moved to The Rank Organisation.

Scary movie (1999)

 Horror comedy spoof film directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans. It is an American dark comedy which heaviy parodies the horror, slasher and mystery genres.

Deconstrution Films:

Se7en (1995)

 American thriller film directed by David Fincher and distributed by New Line Cinema.

Scream (1996)

 American slasher film directed by Was Craven, distributed by Dimension Films.

Blair Witch Project (1998)

American psychological horror film written and directed by Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sánches. Produced by Haxan Films.








The Sixth Sense (1999)

American psychological horror/drama written and directed by M. Knight Shyamalan. Distributed by Hollywood Pictures.

Analysis of the opening of Just Like Heaven

Analysis of the opening of Just Like Heaven.

The story line for just Like Heaven is Elizabeth Masterson (Reese Witherspoon), a dedicated doctor in San Francisco, has almost no time for anything. When her sister with 2 children sets her up on a date, she gets into a tragic car crash and gets put into a coma. Meanwhile, a landscape architect named David Abbott (Mark Ruffalo) moves into San Francisco and coincidentally, into Elizabeth's apartment while its for rent. While at the apartment, Elizabeth's spirit haunts him. She doesn't remember who she is, who her family is and what she did - All that she remembered was her apartment and where everything was. To settle the arguments, David agrees to figure out who Elizabeth really is. when they get close to figuring out who she is, they eventually find love with one another and as they finally know who she really is, they learn that fate really has put them both together.

The opening of Just Like Heaven starts off with a background of clouds and backing music which is song called Just Like Heaven sang by Katie Melua. The text and titles of the actors and the film title were pink,blue,yellow,green these colours fit with the genre of romantic comedy but it would not fit the genre of horror or thriller. 


In the first scene the setting we see is a variation of heaven with flowers everywhere with warm colours, there is a woman sitting there (Reese Witherspoon) she looks like a girl out of a fairy tale as she is looking wistful. When we here 'Just Like A Dream' from the song there is a jump cut to a girl day dreaming who we can tell from her clothing that she is a doctor, the girl is a pretty white blond girl, which is conventional to the romantic comedy type of actress.


As she is working there is light and airy music, she is not the stereotypical blond as she is very smart, you can tell she really cares about her patients, this states that she does not have a social life and that gets confirmed when she's in the bathroom with the other women who are either married or have children, and they state that she has neither, this is represented as a bad thing and that all the other women have moved on apart from herself. 


We then see who Elizabeth (Reese Witherspoon) is talking to on the phone who we find to be her sister Abby (Dina Waters) who's character is completely different compared to Elizabeth as she is a stay home mom with a husband.   

Analysis: Opening of Halloween

Opening of Halloween

The film Halloween was made in 1978 directed by John Carpenter and its genre is horror.

It is set in the fictional suburban town of Haddonfield, Illinois USA on Halloween.

The plot is a psychotic murderer institutionalized since childhood escapes on a mindless rampage while his doctor chases him through the streets.

The film was made on a budget of $320,000 and grossed $47 million at the box office.

Critics credit the film as the first in a long line of slasher films inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960).

Halloween the film contains little graphic violence and gore.

The Title colours are red with a black background, still on the title they start to change colour from red to orange to yellow that shows fire and that represents pain, suffering and because its Halloween pumpkins.

Still with a black background the titles continue but are now on the right side of the screen and they are fading in and then fading out. On the left side of the screen there is a pumpkin then the camera starts to forward track into the pumpkin until you can just see the right side of the pumpkin. the last title to come up is 'Directed by John Carpenter' on its own as he was the director. The music fades out as we move onto a caption screen of Haddonfield, Illinois and then shows another caption shot of Halloween night 1963.

During the caption screens there is a sound bridge of children singing a Halloween song. As that finishes there is an extreme long shot of a white house. The camera angle is a POV shot of somebody looking through the  window of the house watching the sister and her boyfriend inside as they head upstairs. During this time the sound is ambient with the sound of crickets. When the POV shot goes back to the front of the house and looks up at the bedroom window as the lights turn of there is a non-diegetic constant high pitch sound. The POV of the person we see goes into the house by the back door and get a knife out of the kitchen draw and then carries on to the stars but hides when the boyfriend comes back downstairs, after he leaves, the person carries on upstairs, finds a discarded clown mask he puts this on so all we can see now it what is through the 2 eye holes in the mask. As the person is walking up the stairs a clock starts to chime which could represent that someones time is running out. As the person walks into the bedroom where the sister is he turns to look at the bed which has ruffled bed sheets also that the sister is naked which shows that her and the boyfriend had sex. The person then goes up to the sister and repeatedly stabs her with the knife. The person then heads down the stairs and out the door to the car that pulls up to the drive and stop as they reach the people getting out the car. The man that gets out the car is the father of the girl, he walks up to the person with the knife and says the name Michael which we find to be the persons name, as the father takes of Michael's clown mask we find him to be a young boy about 10 years old and that also he is the brother of the girl he killed. There is a crane shot of the boy and his parents as its a twist as we think its a grown man that is the killer but we find that its not to finish the opening it cuts to black. 

Analysis: Opening of The Dark Knight Rises.

The Dark Knight Rises opening analysis:

At the start of the Dark Knight Rises the Warner Bros, DC Comics, Legendary Pictures and Syncopy Films logo's appear the style of the logo's match the theme of the movie as the texture is metallic and stone-like. The colours they use are black and dark blue as they are atmospheric and eerie and are also keeping with the theme and mood of the film, the non-diegetic music they use is dark and sets the tone of the mood. There is a shot of ice cracking and becoming the shape of a bat and this shows that batman is coming back to life. There is also a sound bridge of commissioner Gordon and this is the fist time we hear him speak in the movie, and this is also a scene from the Dark Knight so its showing a flashback so this is linking the two movies together. The director Christopher Nolan has shown arrogance when making the film as he has not shown the title of the film which is the Dark Knight Rises which could show that it is a big enough film so everyone should know what the title is and who is staring in it as is the 3rd in the Batman trilogy. During the plane scene as the CIA agent is taking off Banes hood, he is at a lower angle than Bane, showing that Bane has more dominance over him in this situation. The non-diegetic music that plays all through out the scene on the plane comes to a stop just before Bane presses the button the release the CIA plane.

Analysis: Opening of Seven

Se7en opening analysis:

In the opening of Se7en the first thing we see is a man getting ready for work we find out later he is Detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman). While he is getting ready for work he is standing in darkness this could represent that he is bad. There is a chess table which shows that he is patient and methodical. He's standing in a room that has no colour which is a stereotype that there are no women and children living with him. The sound is diegetic so you can here is people loudly talking. The setting is urban, everything the detective carries around with him is placed out in order, this shows that the detective may have OCD. We can see that he may have had an army background as the bed is made perfectly like it should be if you were in the army. Colours are all neutral. iconography of a classic detective. When we see Detective Mills (Brad Pitt) his character is scruffy, normal white shirt but creased and a leather jacket which could represent that he's rebellious. The sound effect is a thunderstorm which could mean that something is going to happen so its the calm before the storm.