The exorcist

The Shining

The extract in have chosen to evaluate in the film the shining which was directed by stanly kubric in 1980 the part of the film i have chosen is the part where jack torrance is chasing after his family after going into a phycotic rage which is believed to be generated by a spirit of a man who killed his family in the same hotel years ago the main aim of this scene is to generate and sustain the feeling of fear which is done mostly through the camera angles and the shooting for examle we see jack breaking through the door with an axe, as the axe is being swung the camera follows the axe the reason for this is to produce fear because we fear for wendy and dannys safety. The way jack nicholson plays the part of jack torrance adds more fear to the scene because instead of being jittery and fast he is calm and collected which shows that he is so messed up that this seems normal to him which makes us fear for him the lightingis used to great effect during the little pigs lines which has quite sinnister connotations because he is using the most innocent of things (a childs nursery rhyme)and turns it into a something fearful and it also gives the feeling that jack thinks its all one big game and as we look back to how he used to be and see a huge transformation. as this is happening danny has escaped through the window as he slides down the snow which is at the same hight as the window we see how big the house really is and how scary it seems and how it is compared with the people which could be considered as scary and something to fear as well as the action the soundtack builds and adds tension to the scene by changing to classical horror like music and as the scene develops it gets louder and at the climax there is on of the most iconic lines in horror history "heeers jonny" but just before this happens we see the axe crashing through the door from what seems to be no more than three inches from our faces which givesus another feeling of fear into which we are shocked and scared because its right there in front of use and there is nothing we cn do about it as the camera cuts to wendy who is laying the fact she is scared on thick we still know that jack is trying to get into the room due to the sound effects although we cant see him we know he,s there because of the sounds the camera cuts back and is square to the door and as the axe eventually breaks through the door pieces of wood fly at you and in my case i ducked because i genuinly believed i was about to be hit by the axe then the iconic line is delivered and jack trys to oper the door and wendy slices him with the knife which up until now hadnt been shown because it was considered too scary. in the film there are also a range of different techniques used to take the viewer on a ride through the film for example the structure of the film is in a linear fashion(front to back start, middle, end) as apposed to a non linear fashion(back to front end, middle,start) the use of a linear narrative begins with exposition and goes on to exposition this is when we first see and meet the characters and get to know a little bit about them, complication the complication in this particular film is when the hotel owner talks about the other care taken killing his family as well as jacks son danny having visions,climax the main part of the film where most of the action happens for example wendy hitting jack with the baseball bat and the iconic "heeeeeeers johnny" and then solution jack being left in the maze and wendy and danny escape the director Stanley kubrik,s style is very disregardful and at the same time respectful of traditional conventions which is interesting and modern and the usage of long tracking shots and camera angles that make you feel like your actually there in the scene Stanley also let the actors and actresses build there character and add bits in of there own for example the little pigs scene that wouldn't have happened if jack nicholson hadnt thaught it up.

The wickerman

 

The Fall of the House of Usher

the fall of the house of usher is a film about a house to which a family have inhabited for generations and slowly as the house crumbles away so do the peole in it House of Usher (1960) is an american international horror films starring vincent price, myrhna fahey, and mark damon in a tale about a New England family cursed with madness, criminal conduct, and debauchery. The film was directed by roger corman and its screenplay written by richard mather after the short story "the fall of the house of usher" by American author edgar allen poe. The film was the first of eight Corman/Poe feature films. In 2005, the film was listed with the united national film regestraights as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The film is also known as Fall of the House of Usher and The Mysterious House of Usher because of the economical crisis the set and camera shots were used over and over to save money for example the shot of the house burning the way the people got the people to go and see the film is to cast vincent price as the main character because if they have seen one of his films before they will want to see his again in a different film most of the audience was faith based around that time so this film entises the viewers in to the theatres to watch as well as the vast advances in camera and cinimatography for example the dream scene.

witch finder general

Based on the book by edgar allen poe the film witch finder general was made in 1968 by a little known director called Micheal reeves who's tragic death made the film more iconic than maybe it would have been more iconichad he still been alive around the time where the hippie cult was making way for rebellion and the punk revolution that ripped through the 1970s the main character was suppost to be an actor called donald plesance but the people at AIP or US co-producers changed the main actor to vincent price as they had seen him and thought it would draw more people in because they may have seen one of his films before the people changed the role to suit the actor the story line is about a witch finder called Matthew Hopkins and along with his partner john stern played by Robert Russel went to a quiet village looking for witches and in the course accuse a local priest of being a witch but to save this poor priest the young lady that has been living with him from a young age sleeps with the witch finder in return for his freedom which in the end isn't given and he is killed. The techniques used in this film are quite similar to the fall of the house of usher in the fact that the steady cam had not been invented so some of the shots were shaky the shots were reused