I had previously watched Amityville Horror as a suggestion from my teacher. We were shown the introduction in class as inspiration for our piece, I then went home and watched the full movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it because at parts it got me scared and wanting to find out what was going to happen despite the introduction foreshadowing the events. I then decided to do an analysis on the 4 minute opening. Below are my notes.
Before the film starts the production logos appear, each matching a sound. When Dimension appears the sound of wind or breathing gets played which displays signs of the horror genre. When the film starts we are shown a black plain screen which could connote the unknown or that there is something dangerous hiding. Then white letters appear showing the date. The font is in a typewriter style which matches the time context of when the introduction is set. The whit and black contrast makes each other stand out and tells the audience that there are both good and evil within the film.
We first see signs of characters after this although the camera is zoomed into Ronny's face and blurred which leaves the audience unsure of who this man is. This could lead to the audience being scared as it shows mystery and a sense that something is being hidden from them. Whilst this is happening we can hear the sounds of thunder and lightening which is used as pathetic fallacy but as also part of mise-en-scene. The sounds of thunder and lightening is a common fear of many so was used to inflict a sense of danger. The way that it was used as miss-en-scene was that it created dramatic lighting as it would switch from light to black frequently however the characters would continue to move. This means that the audience would have become disorientated within the scene and would feel like they are unable to know what is going on.
To contrast the loud sounds of thunder and lightening we hear whispering from an unknown voice. This adds to the mystery as we do not know a reason for the voice telling Ronny to "kill them". This would make the audience feel anxious and scared as there is an anonymous evil source. The gun shots that we hear shocks the audience and makes them realise that Ronny has killed them in reality as the sound is diegetic rather than the sounds of screams and music when the fast montage is playing.
Religious imagery is frequently used in horror films to juxtapose the suggested demonic occurrence. In Amityville Horror we are introduces to religion when we see a book titled 'Evil is the proof of God'. This could suggest that evil is going to happen, furthermore the religious book is surrounded by (what I assume is) a glass of alcohol and cigarette ends. Both of these could be seen as dirty and unholy which contrast religion and goes against God. Religious imagery is common iconography as it is usually linked to possession and demons, this is shown later in the sequence as the newspaper images show that Ronny said that he was possessed.
The setting has a dark black and yellow light which shows the shadows more which has negative connotations as the audience is unsure of what could be hiding in them. This could furthermore suggest that Ronnie could be hiding something or that he is an evil character as the black shadow behind him could connote death or that he has a double personality, in this case it would be the evil spirit. Also, the dark setting makes the television screen stand out. The fact that the screen is projecting a white light and contrasting the setting could suggest that the television has power over the man. Our eyes are immediately drawn to the television because of the contrast which makes the audience aware that something is not right with it. We know this as we see that a figure flicks across the screen hinting that something is wrong with the television. White often connotes innocence and purity however as we know that television could have evil possession it could be seen as mocking goodness.
Linking to the previous point, we can see that the television again has power over him and has possibly possessed him with the camera angle when we can only see his eyes. Here we see the reflection of the television which could indicate that the spirit is inside of him and is controlling what he can see- he can only see what the spirit wants him to. Furthermore, because we can see only the eyes it gives the audience the feeling that he is staring straight into ours which could make the audience feel intimidated.
The editing of the cuts has been used to show the contrast between good and evil. We see that the camera cuts to pictures of Ronny when he was younger or happy. This brings normality back to the character as we know that he was once a normal boy/man. However, the scene then cuts to present day Ronnie loading a gun. Here we can see how Ronny has change and it could give the audience an idea that he hasn't changed by himself because he was once a normal, smart boy as we can see his graduation picture- hinting towards possession.
No comments:
Post a Comment