Dawn of The Dead (2004) Image Analysis 3

The image above depicts the characters of Andre and Kenneth standing in one of the shopping mall toilets talking to eachother. The costume of the characters used here shows their character types, we have Kenneth who was a Police Officer, and a member of the law which is why he is dressed in white and shows his selflessness, caring and goodly intentions, whilst we have the contrasting Andre who is dressed in black who openly admits in the movie to his past life of crime, he also holds his gun sideways which could connote his "gangster" lifestyle, however he does have intentions to turn things around for his wife and child. The lighting of the scene is low key which could connote the gritty topic of their conversation and the uneasy atmosphere between the two characters. Also, the dark corners of this shot could suggest how this is just a private bubble for the two characters. Going by Propp's Character Archetypes, it is clear who the 'male hero' character of the movie is in this scene, we have Kenneth who is well built and has a kind personality which is shown through his concern for Andy who's stuck on the roof of the gun shop. The cinematography of this scene is a high angle shot behind Kenneth to connote the power and authority he has within the group, and the fact that it is shot with a mirror in it could be used to show the opposites of the characters, as aforementioned we have Kenneth who is the 'hero' and a member of the law, whilst Andre was a criminal before the apocalypse started.

Dawn of the Dead (2004) Image Analysis 2

The image above is used within the title sequence of the movie, which is a montage of different clips, some using religion as a theme, whilst others are referential to the media industry. The use of this image and the parallel music that is used alongside it are about "judgement day". The singer of the song used 'The Man Comes Around' is sung by Johnny Cash, who contextually, was a very strong Christian. The song constantly makes references to "Judgement Day" and the "Man" is referencing God who is said to descend down onto Earth and wipe away the sin. This clip is referencing to the beliefs that god is punishing his believers with the zombie apocalypse that happens within the movie. As you can see, the religion in particular that is being shown is one of the Islamic faith, and they are praying inside a mosque. The cinematography of the shot is a high angle one to make the people in the picture seem inferior to America, whom have an underlying theme of power throughout the film (The American flags at the end of the movie).

The use of this image would be used to play on the CDI of the time that the film was made, and reference the acts of terrorism in 2004, with the 9/11 bombings. Linking this with the use of Janet Steiger's Audience Theory, I can make the clear link that Zack Snyder is comparing the zombie attack to the act of terrorism, and because it was such a large event, the audiences would be able to reflect back on that due to it being fresh in their minds from happening three years prior to the film's release.

Dawn of The Dead (2004) Image Analysis

This shot is used towards the end of the movie just as the survivors are getting onto the boat to start their life anew on a different island, away from the zombies and the chaos that's on the mainland. This takes place just after Michael has told Ana that he won't be coming with them due to his bite. High Key lighting is used in this scene to connote the brighter and happier future ahead of the survivors. As for the cinematography, this is a medium shot and this is used in order to show Ana's emotions about the current situation, she doesn't look overjoyed about having to leave michael behind, and it's through this shot that audience's can clearly see that. After this, there is a very slow montage between Michael and Ana exchanging looks and the boat sailing away, we are then shown Michael getting ready with a gun to shoot himself, and restricted narration is used to leave the action open to the audience's imagination. 

Ana is stood next to the American flag, which is subliminally placed a lot throughout the movie, and it is used to connote power, and the power America have over their adversaries. This use of the American flag is most prominent within The Hills have Eyes (2006) in which one of the mutants are killed through having the American flag penetrating their brain. This is symbolic of power an how American always comes out on top, which is why it is used here alongside the survivors of the movie. This could be linked to Propp and Todorov's Hollywood narrative theory, as the ending of the movie is open which led to Day of The Dead (2008) being produced. As opposed to the happier choice of ending where the survivors sail away to an island and escape the chaos, they are actually caught by more native zombies and then the movie ends.

As for the character stereotypes, Ana's character challenges the main CDI of horror movies and is the final girl character. Despite her having stereotypical blonde hair which is usually a trait of the girl to be killed of first, she somehow remains as a survivor. However it could be said that due to her sexual fling with Michael, his death is a result of those loose morals which leads to her emotional downfall.  This could be supported by Carol J. Clover in her 1992 book Men, Women, And Chain Saws: Gender In The Modern Horror Film,

Class Research: Favorite type of Horror

Personally, my favourite sub genre is the gory horror, because I feel if the effects are done correctly they can add a whole new aspect of the horror genre to the movie, it makes people feel grossed out and some effects are hard to watch such as within Un Chien Andalou (1929) with the eye being sliced.

Class Poster Idea

Shot list

Running time: 1:46

24 Close Ups

Shot 9-11 Dialogue

Shot 9-Priest-"It's nice to finally meet you, your arrival could be the fresh start  that our parish needs"

Shot-10- Vicar - *nervous laugh* "Why would smallton need a fresh start?"

Shot 11- Priest- "*leans in* *whispers* "It's crawling with sin and damnation..." 

Shooting Schedule

Choice of Trailer

Type of horror trailer for Priest

The type of trailer we are going to make is a highlights trailer because this will allow us to show off the best bits from our film to grab the audience’s attention. This type of trailer is the most common, and its content can be seen in the trailer below.

Our trailer for Priest will also focus on collision cutting as this gets across the emotion of what is happening throughout the film and will also briefly tell the audience what the plot line of the film is. The trailer will also need some jump scares to grab the audience’s attention so they remember our film, and come and see it when it comes to the cinema. An example of a jump scare in a trailer is the woman in black trailer which has a good jump scare so the audience remember the film.

Just before the jump scare there needs to be a build of suspense so the jump scare becomes scarier as no-one will be expecting it, and that is what good horror trailers are remembered for.

A good film that uses this type of trailer is Dawn of the Dead (2004) as this uses all of the good aspects of a horror trailer that we should try to feature in ours, such as good collision cutting and good use of body horror.

These generic features clearly help the trailer indicate an Action Horror film so the audience knows if our genre/sub-genre is the right film for them to watch.

Stereotypical Horror Fan

Our stereotypical horror fan is a male called Gary Knights (left). His day job is being an a electrician but once he gets in from a hard day of fixing plugs and wiring sockets he likes to sit down and immerse himself in classic horror films like Night of the Living Dead(1968), Psycho(1960) and The Shining(1980). Apart from horror films Gary likes playing video games, either by himself or online with other people, playing guitar, going bowling or spending time with his girlfriend Liz Mendoza, pictured centre. He met Liz at a special screening of Troll 2 and after both disliking the film thought dating each other might be better. Gary dislikes few things as he is a hardened man from the levels of horror he’s watched but he most definitely dislikes romantic comedy films and broccoli along with having an up and down relationship with his clingy younger brother Keith who sometimes doesn't get the hint he isn't wanted.

Gary’s demographic profile concludes that he is a 28 year old, white British male at the upper end of the working class living in London. His psychographic is reformer as he tries to change the mainstream in an attempt to make the world a more positive place.

The Evil Dead (2013) trailer review

NAME OF FILM: Evil Dead

YEAR RELEASED: 2013

GENRE OF TRAILER: Horror

MY MARK AFTER VIEWING: 9/10

What happened within the trailer?

Within the trailer we are shown a group of people that are all within a cabin, we then see one of them open a book which clearly states “leave this book alone” which as a result of continues to purge through the book. Meanwhile evil spirits are released and a demon tries to kill them. They slam the demon inside a trapdoor and chain it up; it is then revealed they need to stop the evil from killing them. Right at the end of the trailer, we are shown the demon cutting her tongue and shoving her bloody mouth against the female role’s mouth.

Which positive, clever or interesting aspects do you think you could include in your own trailer? What generic features are fulfilled well?

The editing of the trailer was very successful and created a bit of a jump scare towards the end of the trailer; it used collision cutting which cut from quick, slow and back to quick again whilst showing the body horror between the razor blade and the demon’s tongue. I liked the pacing of the trailer and I hope to capture that same affect within my trailer, I’d like to create an uncomfortable feeling from the audience’s perspective with gore. Whilst on the topic of gore, there was a lot of it used within the trailer which connotes to the audience the overall genre of the trailer and makes the trailer creepy through the aesthetics of gore. With my trailer I plan on making an action horror with elements of gore within it, but by exploiting the gore element I feel you can create creepiness about everything as this trailer does. The trailer used inter titles which didn’t linger for too long as to rip the audience’s attention from the action to slow moving plot lines but were used enough to tell the overall story. I hope to recreate that same effect by using inter titles to establish plot but, not too much to break away from the horror of the trailer. The sounds used for the trailer complimented it really well, during the action based points of the trailer we have a loud noise which sounded like a chainsaw, and it created jumpiness about the trailer but also helped keep the thematics of the film. The trailer also featured music which helped to fit the eerie feeling of the cabin in the woods, and it had most impact during the quieter parts of the trailer, before being collision cut to a loud noise which helps to emphasise the jumpiness. I would hope to use music within my trailer in a very similar way to the way it was used in the Evil Dead trailer, I think the collision cutting of music works well and have the potential to scare audiences and entice them to see the movie. I like the use of sound effects over the action points too. During the trailer, we see very horrific and well-made gore effects, an example would be the tongue cutting part with the razor blade or the throwing up of blood onto the victim’s face, which makes the audience cringe, I feel it works well and is well suited to the trailer whilst making the audience feel uncomfortable which is the desired effect; with horror deriving from the Latin ‘horrere’ meaning to shudder, I would want to make my audience shudder.

Which aspects of the trailer did you think were unsuccessful, and would have put off its target audience? How is it disappointing?

The trailer was incredibly long, and spanned on 2:21 which is quite long for a trailer, also with a trailer this long you’re showing the audience a lot of the movie which gives away a lot of the key action parts of the trailer. Also whilst the use of gore was good, I worry it was a bit too much for a trailer, the point of a trailer is to advertise and sell a movie but by showing everything that happens, people won’t be as impressed or shocked prior to seeing it all in the trailer. This I would want to avoid within my trailer, I’d like to keep the audience captivated with the use of gore but not give away too much.

What was the trailer’s avg. score in class? Why did it receive that mark?

The average score given by the class was 9 and the reason it scored so high was a result of a few reasons. The first being the intertitles that were used and the way they were used, the trailer uses that ‘boom’ effect over each word that is put on the screen, and they don’t linger too long so it keeps the audience captivated. Also the collision cutting in the trailer was really effective, towards the end of the trailer we are shown a montage of different gore effects and it slows the trailer right down again during the tongue splitting scene which is genuinely horrific to watch. The music used was very creepy and captured the atmosphere of the location and trailer, it had an eeriness about it which help to captivate the genre of the movie, it ends with a creepy music box tune accompanied by a young girl’s vocals which is a common feature of music within horror movies. The other plus is the film contains a good storyline, and whilst it differs from the original movie in 1981, some elements are the same and it’s nice the reboot pays tribute to aspects of the original. It’s these kinds of aspects that gave the movie the score it received.

Health and Safety

Dawn of The Dead (1978) Image Analysis 3

This scene from Dawn of the Dead (1979) happens towards the very end of the movie when Peter and Fran are about to make their escape. This high angle shot is used by Romero in an attempt to compare the zombies to normal human beings, and showing that we are actually the monsters of the modern day. Contextually shopping malls were just being built everywhere and were taking off; this is Romero’s way of satirising consumerism again. The Cinematography of this scene is a high angle shot which makes the zombies seem inferior to the setting, this is commenting on how consumerism had a tight hold on the general public of the time. The mise-en-scene of this scene is quite bright; however the most eye catching prop is the red clock in the middle. The red clock connotes danger as red is primarily an evil colour, also having that in shot with zombies adds to the horror aspect of it. The diegetic sound of the three ‘dongs’ from the clock is ominous and breaks the silence, creating tension for the audience just before Peter and Fran make their escape. After the three ‘gongs’ from the clock, Herbert Chappell’s ‘The Gonk’ is played which is contrapuntal to the scene. The music is used by Romero to make the idea of consumerism seem simultaneously appealing yet terrifying to the audiences due to the contextual information with malls being made in the late 1970’s. This contextual theory was first pioneered by a critic called Janet Staiger within her book "Understanding Films" (1990 edition) in which she looks at how audiences respond to films, and how different audience members watch films in different ways. So whilst it may just appear that this mall is overrun by zombies, with the help of Staiger's theory we can see that Romero was actually telling audiences that people act in zombie like mannerisms when it comes to purchasing of products.

Dawn of The Dead (1978) Image Analysis 2

This scene takes place during the group’s outing around the mall, here we have Peter and 'Flyboy' roaming around the mall and taking money under the watch of the security camera. The cinematography used within this scene is a tilted high angle towards the two men, and this is used to make other characters seem inferior and slightly odd. The duo's obsession with getting the money during such a crisis is strange behaviour. This is Romero's way of commenting on consumerism and portraying how silly people look, and showing priorities of America post the great depression. The costume of Peter is also interesting as he 's wearing a bright yellow t-shirt which stands out in the scene, this portrays his happiness  with the taking of the money and how he feels about the situation as a whole. Also Peter is a black male character who turns out to be the main hero which was uncommon in the context of the time. However this isn't the first time within a movie by Romero that the main hero is a black male. In Night of the living(1968) the character Ben was the main hero in that movie, which really undercuts the racism of the time. The racial diversity in this scene is different to the historical context, and it opposes a lot of racism happening during the 1970’s and the early 1980’s.

High key lighting is used here to illuminate the scene but also to reflect the mood of the scene, when the camera cuts to Francine and Stephen their scene is lit using low key lighting, these scenes are reflective of the contrasting moods of the survivors. The mise en scene of the shot is quite interesting, the characters are surrounded by new technology of the time and money, and this is a way of Romero commenting on consumerism of the time.  This established Romero as an auteur with this movie as he was one of the only people to attack the idea of consumerism and take it to the big screen. This was unheard of during the time which helps to relate Andrew Sarris's auteur theory. What was so interesting about Romero was that he liked to challenge the CDI of the time, hence why he used a black male as the main hero and why he chose to challenge consumerism whilst most other people went along with it and treated it as an escape from what was happening at the time. It was this kind of behaviour that helped to depict Romero as an auteur, because nobody else would challenge the CDI of America in such a way.

Dawn of the Dead (1978) Image analysis 1

This scene from Dawn of the Dead (DOTD, 1979) takes place after the armed forces burst into the house to eradicate the zombies. The man who shoots this zombie/civilian is named Wooley and the zombie's ethnicity was Puerto Rican. This contextually is Romero’s way of portraying the attitudes towards racism of the time. The body horror effects used are of a head exploding after the zombie is shot in the head by a shotgun. These gore effects are created by Tom Savini who – in terms of the institutional context - was seen as a master of gore during this time period following his success on Martin (1977). It was these kinds of factors that made the film so successful and helped to produce a $55,000,000 profit.  This would relate to the critic André Bazin and his "Genius of the system" theory in which he says with any successful movie there are combination of factors which make it successful, in this case we have great gore effects from Tom Savini, a great director (Romero) who is an auteur, and it had relevance to the context of the time. In comparison to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, DOTD (1979) was a lot gorier, and this was due to the Hays Code being abolished some years before this film was made. The Cinematography used for this shot is a medium close up, which allows the audience to see the action happen on screen. High Key lighting is used in order to draw attention to Body Horror that is used here, and the scene was considered so brutal that it was initially cut from the UK release. The Editing within this scene is very quick, using collision cutting to contrast between Wooley investigating rooms before shooting this victim. The slower build up makes the audience feel scared and builds up tension to this pivotal moment.

Horror Magazine Cover Analysis 3

The masthead for this magazine takes up a large portion of the page which may suggest that the magazine is trying to get its name out there into the industry in order to stay memorable. After carrying some research it was revealed that this magazine is an independently made magazine, hence why the creators would want to use a larger font for a masthead to make people look at it.  As for the wording that is used, the masthead is in large capital lettering in order to capture the audiences attention, the title is 'SHOCK HORROR' which has a very specific target market, it's pitching to fans of the horror genre which explains the use of famous horror icons for the main images. The colouring of the title has a use of different shades of green, starting with a darker green at the bottom and fading to a lighter green at the top. The colour green is an interesting use because it has an unearthly feel about, for example the character of Slimer within Ghostbusters (1984) is coloured a luminescent green because he is a ghost. The colour scheme of the rest of the magazine is mainly green, black and a faded peach colour, which could connote a number of things. The black used for the borders at the top and bottom of the magazine cover is a colour used within horror movies to connote darkness and shadows which create a sense of eeriness and fear. Also the green on the black background really help to make the text stand out more. The green used as aforementioned can be used to connote a unearthly colour within the horror genre. The cover has quite minimalistic feel to it, it's not as crammed with text as most other magazines.

The main cover image is the big giveaway to the genre of the magazine, as it stars one of the most influential horror stars ever Vincent Price. The headline calles Price the ultimate horror icon due to his influential horror movies of the time, Price has been in the horror industry since The Invisible Man Returns (1940) and has right throughout been influential due to his unique acting style. By using such a renowned actor, it's going to help draw in a wider fanbase with a wider age demographic due to the contextual nature of his movies and their respectable time period. The main cover image of Price's face is an interesting picture to use because he has quite a surly look about him, as though something has shocked of spooked him, which would relate well back to the title of the magazine.

The magazine's cover lines mention other names such as Scarlet Salem who writes a "scream queen" column within the magazine, however she is also an independant model, and by using her on the front cover in the bottom left. This will help draw in male audiences who appreciate the horror genre of film, this relates to Laura Mulvey's "male gaze theory" of using women in order to attract male attention, which in this case is true.

Synopsis for the trailer

Father Crowthorne, priest of the parish Smallton, finishes his weekly service and talks to members of his congregation as they leave. On the way out Mrs. Dawes, an elderly woman, states how small the congregation has become and how some “young blood” is needed. The Father replies that a young female Vicar is moving to the church and they both agree it’ll be for the best to keep sin away. Before leaving, he starts to hear whispering and as he gets closer to the back of the church it gets stronger but disappears before he gets to close. Slightly shaken he leaves the church and goes home but before he falls asleep he hears the whispering again.

The next day, whilst the Father is walking through the town he sees someone moving in to an old house and greets them. He discovers that it’s the new female Vicar; Reverend Kerry O’Reilly and her husband Andrew. She invites him in, and over tea, they talk about her backstory, why she moved. The Father thanks her for coming and states he believes there’s too much sin in the world before leaving to go to the church.

On the way to the church, he sees people closing up their shops for the night or walking their dogs and haves casual passing conversations. He arrives at the church just as night falls to lock up and after inspecting it, he makes a prayer. He turns to leave and halfway down the aisle hears the whispering. As he gets closer to the source it tells him to kill sinners and becomes so loud that it drives him to his knees, screaming before he passes out. After he wakes up he gets out of the church, and sees two lovers in the graveyard. Influenced by the words he hears; he murders the pair with a crucifix as they try to escape, whilst quoting the Bible.  After the act is done the Priest drags the bodies through to a corner of the graveyard finds a shovel and buries the bodies.

The following Sunday Reverend O’Reilly prepares for her first sermon and gets to the church early with her husband. Father Crowthorne is sitting in the first pew, muttering to himself and when disturbed appears startled and worried. Throughout the service Reverend O’Reilly keeps looking at a shaking Father Crowthorne and after the service he disappears into his office without saying a word despite being approached by the Reverend. In his office he looks at the cut on his wrist from the first murder before sitting back and falling asleep. He wakes up to hear noises outside and investigates but is attacked by a group of 3 boys and gets cut on his head. They are stealing but, before they escape, Father Crowthorne kills one of the boys by bashing his head against a wall and knocks one out after a fight whilst the other boy escapes. All the while he is chanting passages from the Bible.

The 2^nd boy awakes tied to a chair where after a short dialogue with Father Crowthorne is baptised in “holy” acid water. The cut on the Fathers wrist starts to flame and his skin burns. The 3^rd boy has ran to the Reverend’s house and explained the situation. O’Reilly, her husband and the boy make their way up to the church and when they enter they see the corpse still tied to the chair at which point a burned Father Crowthorne appears. He explains he has to kill to eradicate sin. The 3^rd boy is pounced by Crowthorne and has his neck chewed before being pulled off by Andrew who he in return kills with a crucifix. He then lunges in to kill O’Reilly and after a short scuffle they end up on their knees. Crowthorne starts to approach O’Reilly who prays for her life when Crowthorne grabs her throat. His hands start to burn up and he lets go of her as she’s pure and innocent. With his power spent he falls to the floor and O’Reilly sees the devilish mark on his wrist and discovers he’s part demon. He asks to die as he realises he’s sinned and as a way of peacefully killing him, O’Reilly forgives him and places a hand on his cheek resulting in him turning to dust. With Crowthorne dead she goes to her husband’s corpse and starts to mourn. The film ends with O’Reilly hearing a faint whispering.