Hi,
This week in the tutorial we watched a few minutes of three films: A Serious Man, The Fighter and Memento.
A Serious Man started off in the olden days, then jumped forward to the sixties. The scenes were set out with very little movement, and this is similar to films of the 1960's. It is interesting because it is set in the 60's, so every aspect of the film aimed to reflect that era.
Fighter began like a documentary, however the quality of the camera in the documentary is quite similar to the quality of the camera for the rest of the film. I think this is so we feel like we are actually there, experiencing it all with the characters.
Memento is an example of a simple story told in a complicated way. Different scenes are shot either in black and white or colour. The black and white is shown in order of how things happened in the story, and the colour scenes show the same story in reverse. It's so confusing and I really want to watch the whole movie to see if it becomes clearer the more you watch it.
This week Josh wanted us to watch 2 or 3 movies of a particular genre. I chose horror, partly because I love it and party because this week I've already watched two horror movies. The ones I've picked are Teeth, Devil and The Omen (2006 version). It is arguable whether Teeth is actually a horror movie, seeing as we were seeing the film from the killers perspective... however there are a lot of gory and painful murders which are common in modern horror films. I picked The Omen remake because horror in the 1970's is very different to horror today.
Teeth is about a girl with something known as 'vagina dentata' which bites off anything that goes into her box without her wanting it to. Devil is about strangers who get stuck in an elevator together and slowly get killed off by the devil who is among them. The Omen is about the original devil child. It seems like the devil is a recurring theme in horror films!
In horror films the colour red is a recurring theme. In the film Devil, all characters are wearing something red be it a handbag or a tie. In the security room the walls also seem to be bleeding in a way (though this could be just the bad quality of my TV making me think that). In The Omen, the evil nanny feeds Damian red fruit, and red petals fall around Katherine Thorn (Damian's mother) as she falls three stories onto tiles. Teeth is an exception, so I'll throw in the 1979 version of The Amityville Horror just to support my argument (there is a room all painted red that the family dog refuses to go near). I suppose red is a common theme because it's the same colour as blood.
In The Omen and Teeth, the film ends with a shot of Damian and Dawn's faces both with evil in their eyes. Damian because he has successfully killed his parents and is looking forward to doing it all again with his new ones. Dawn because she has finally come to terms with her..gift... and is going to use it as a weapon.
The Devil and The Omen both have scenes where characters look directly into the camera. In The Omen this is the aforementioned scene where the film ends with Damian looking evil. In the Devil this is a recurring element, it's as if we are looking into each characters eyes and trying to figure out which one is the devil. It also helps us feel like we are in the elevator with the characters.
Often in horror films, there is a resolution however right at the end there is something to tell the audience that it is not over yet. This is seen in The Omen with the above scene I've mentioned twice already, and in Teeth when Dawn smiles seductively at the creep who locked her in his car. This is also seen in other horror movies like House of Wax and Piranha 3D (not the best horror films, but I'm just making a point).
One thing that Americans seem to looooooooooove in their horror films is to put the setting of the film right on top of an ancient Indian burial ground. The Amityville Horror, Pet Cematary, The Shining (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IndianBurialGround). The list goes on!
Those are the main recurring themes I've picked up in horror films.
The end.
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