Analysing 3 Horror Clips

 The conjuring - The scene opens with a woman stumbling into a large spacious hallway then called out “first clap!” then the shot changes and the camera is positioned closer to the woman from behind which reveals that she is blindfolded with a red scarf, this makes us understand that the blindfold links into what she said (“first clap”) that shows that she’s playing a game. The colour red could be foreshadowing the woman’s future as red ties into danger so this would make us assume that something will happen to her.

As she’s feeling her surroundings, making her way through the hallway we hear a clap that echoes into the room straight after the clap an ambient sound of a grand clock starts ringing, this is used to startle us as more loud sounds are introduced into the clip.

 As she walks through the hallway she feels around to guide her in the right direction but into the process of feeling around she knocks down a few picture frames which shatters the glass, the sharp sound again makes her jump back.

When she begins to get further through the hallway she bumps into the stairs banister that begins to get us paranoid for her safety as there is risk to her walking close to stairs while being blindfolded.

The shot changes to and the camera is positioned in front of her showing her tightly gripping the banister, she calls out in a strained voice “ second clap” strained because she had previously hurt herself when she banged into the banister. Just like before after she calls out “second clap” we hear another two claps but this time it’s louder which shows she’s getting nearer to whoever she’s trying to reach. 

The next shot has the camera set in the corner of a poorly lit room with shadows casting over the floor and furniture, key features of the room implies this room belongs to a young girl because of the pink posters on the wall and a cute wardrobe but the colour of the wardrobe contrasts as its dark, dull and appears to look creepy.

The woman then enters the room waving her hands around to find something to grab onto something to gain stability The woman tries to reach out and slowly calls out "April" after that we can hear a door creek and behind her we see the wardrobe doors open this builds the suspense, the noise triggers the woman to turn around and says playfully “oh I know where you’re hiding,give me the third clap!” she pauses for a moment waiting, then we see the clothes ruffling and two arms appear and clap for the third time.

The camera shot changes to a mid shot and we see her facial expression is happy as she’s grinning and she proceeds walk towards the wardrobe and say’s “I’m gonna get you now” and has her hands reaching out to grab the girl she’s playing with that we now is named ‘April’.

A Non Diegetic Sound (soundtrack) begins to play; the sound is quite eerie and ghostly and as the volume begins to increase it builds anticipation for the viewer, then there’s dialogue from the woman saying “I can hear you breathing” which makes her acknowledge that there is someone in the wardrobe for sure.

When she extends her arms into the wardrobe the camera changes into a close up of her face as she changes from happy to frightened as she realises no one is in the wardrobe, she then quickly pulls of her blindfold. A young little girl enters the room and chants “Ha-ha, you took your blindfold off! I win, you weren’t even warm mum” stating that she wasn’t even close to getting her, she then proceeds to tell her “I was in Kristine and Nancy’s room” which confuses the mum as she turns back around trying to look further into the wardrobe as she was sure that someone was in there, and obviously us as the viewer we know for a fact that we saw someone in the wardrobe and this leaves a mystery to who was in the wardrobe?     

The Ring - The scene opens with a wide shot of the living room and a man is standing in the centre staring at the TV as its making a loud noise, the screen appears to look static, he gets a hold of the remote to switch it off then the room falls silent.

He drops the remote on the couch and the camera shot changes to being in front of him and as he’s walking towards the camera on his way out to leave the room he suddenly stops walking when he hears the TV turn back on, the camera shot is a close-up of his face in a pull focus as the background is blurry to keep our attention on his facial expression as we see his face turn into a worried look and then he turns his head around to look back at the TV the camera technique used here is that the camera lens turns the blurry background into a clear view then blurs the man’s head showing that the TV has grabbed our attention.

A non-diegetic soundtrack begins playing and the music is quite sinister and menacing which is used in a lot of horror films to build anticipation in a negative way as the music is building up tension so we know that we are waiting for something to happen. The camera cuts to a close-up of the television screen to reveal a low quality image of a forest with a well in the middle of the field the colour of the image is tinted blue, and the colour blue is used to represent/symbolize depression and sadness.

Camera cuts to his frightened face then suddenly an ambient noise of the telephone ringing which the camera cuts to then zoom towards the phone. The camera cuts to a different location of a woman on the phone which shows us who’s calling he guy in his house and as the phone is ringing while she waits for the guy to answer the phone she says worriedly “Pick up the phone, Noah, Come on, pick up” showing she’s desperate to talk to him and her worried tone suggests she’s trying to alert/warn him about something.

Then the scene cuts back to the living room and the camera shot is pointing at the TV from a low angle, the camera begins to move back away from the TV, then the man that we now know is named Noah walks into frame and in front of the camera but we can only see his legs while he’s standing in front of the TV.

The phone begins to ring again but this time Noah pays no attention to the phone as he’s staring at the TV, the camera shot is now an extreme close up of the well on the TV which we see a long black haired female emerging from the well, camera cuts to the his face revealing how horrified he’s becoming as he focuses on the TV. We then see a gruesome creepy looking girl with long black hair covering her face, the camera keeps on cutting from a shot to his face then the TV screen then back again to his face, and again to the TV showing that he is disturbed by this eerie looking video of the girl approaching closer to the screen.

The scene cuts to someone driving,  a loud ambient noise of car tires screeching which was used to startle us watching, the person driving fast and recklessly through traffic is the woman that was previously phoning ‘Noah’, camera shot changes to a close-up of her face while she’s on the phone shouting “Come on, Noah! Pick up the goddam phone.”

Scene cuts back to Noah sitting in front of the TV, then when the camera changes to a shot of the TV, we can now see the female that had previously come out of the well is now right up close to the screen, water starts to leak out the television screen which is then followed by her coming out of the TV. This startles Noah which instinctively makes him try to get away from her, he pushes himself to slide across the floor, then the camera shot switched back to a side profile of the demonic girl showing us clearly how her body is coming out from the TV screen and she makes her way crawling towards him.

We then see him stumbling to get up but keeps his attention on the girl and can’t seem to look away even though he is petrified. The girl then stands up and we see a clear shot of her, her height suggests she is young because she’s quite short and the white long dress she’s wearing has rips and dirt all over it which suggests that she has not been treated well.

Once she’s on her feet she disappears then reappears right in front of Noah which shocks him causing him to fall backwards knocking down a metal shelf stand which shatters glass that makes him bleed as we see a close up of his hand with cuts and blood seeping out.

It ends with a close up of her head with her black hair covering her face but as she tilts her head up it reveals her gruesome pale face showing her angry facial expression, then the camera does an extreme zoom into her pale blue eyes, then cuts to Noah helplessly bleeding and screaming on the floor which indicates that he will get attacked by the girl.

 
Evil Dead - The clip starts with the main character Mia which is the protagonist in the film, and she’s struggling to push her way through a shallow pond in the middle of an eerie looking forest. First few things I noticed about the location that this scene was shot in is that they’ve used fog to create a ghostly atmosphere as things in the distance appear to look darker and quite faint making it difficult to see any figures that are lurking around which adds a mysterious ambience to the forest. As she’s swimming to the edge of the pond we notice straight away that she’s hurt because of the obvious cut and blood on her forehead this shows that she’s in distress and has been a victim to an accident and because of her location we can already assume that she is isolated from people as she’s in the middle of a forest so she could be vulnerable as she’s alone and hurt. While she’s moving her way through the water there is a soundtrack being played in the background which is non-diegetic so only we’re (as the viewer) suppose to hear it, and the music being played is quite dramatic/sinister and builds up tension which creates suspense like we’re waiting for something to happen.

The camera then cuts to a different location of the forest and the camera technique used hear is from a point of view shot which is a subjective treatment as the camera is showing the point perspective as its looking through the of eyes of a character. The camera is travelling at a fast pace in this scene as its zooming past through the trees in the forest showing that whoever this character is, is rushing to get to something or someone. The non-diegetic soundtrack in the background in this scene gets louder and the tone is a lot deeper which shows us that whoever this character is that’s rushing through the woods may have bad intentions and could be the evil one in this scene.