In slasher films, suspense is a big factor to what makes the movie intriguing and keeps the audience watching. Suspense causes people to be on the edge of their seat with anxiety and tension with being unsure of what will happen next. It’s the feeling of not knowing what’s in a room in a haunted house when you hear strange sounds coming from it. I feel the best-known film director for his suspenseful movies is Alfred Hitchcock. To create these movies there are many techniques used to create the suspenseful feeling in the movie. In the slasher movie Halloween I reviewed, many techniques were used that made the movie suspenseful to watch, such as the use of music, back lighting, hand held camera movement and point of view shots.
The movie Halloween is about a boy named Michael Myers, who murders his older sister when he is six years of age on Halloween night. He then escapes from the mental hospital many years later, and goes back to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois to follow a girl named Laurie Strode. On his journey of trying to find her to murder her he kills many people along the way. The movie portrays a suspenseful gory aspect that keeps viewers watching till the end, wanting to know what will happen. The creators of Halloween made many other sequels connecting to the first movie.
Handheld camera movement is one of the techniques used in the movie Halloween. Handheld camera movement is originally used in documentaries. Documentaries feel real and make you feel connected and that you are a part of what’s going on in the film. When used in horror movies it can make you feel connected to what’s going on in the movie. When the directors use the handheld it can make the movie good or not so good. When the filming gets ...
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...he wears. The use of a lamp or low light gives characters a creepy and suspenseful look.
In conclusion, the different use of techniques such as back lighting, music, point of view and handheld camera movement all help to create suspense in slasher films. The filmmakers use these effects because its what makes the movie feel more real and help you connect to the characters in the film. All the techniques listed are used in most slasher films because its what makes the movie interesting and connective to the audience. Its so you feel the tension and suspense to keep you watching.
Works Cited
1. “Halloween (1978 film)” Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. 18 November 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013
2. “Dial ‘S’ for Suspense” Lesson Bucket. 12. April. 2013 Web. 20 Nov. 2013
3. “Music Makes Movies” Center For Digital Education 25 January 2010 Web. 20
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Psycho is a suspense-horror film written by Joseph Stefano and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. This film was loosely adapted from Robert Bloch’s 1959 suspense novel, Psycho. A majority of the movie was filmed in 1960 at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. Psycho is about Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), a secretary from Arizona who steals $40,000 from her employer’s client. She takes that money and drives off to California to meet her lover Sam Loomis (John Gavin) in order to start a new life. After a long drive, she pulls off the main highway and ends up taking refuge at an isolated motel owned and managed by a deranged Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). In Alfred Hitchcock’s film, Psycho, symbols, character and point of view are three literary aspects used in the film to manipulate the audience’s emotions and to build suspense in the film.
Throughout Clover’s novel she never mentioned “A Nightmare on Elm Street” even though it is part of the same franchise as “Halloween”. However, I say the film followed Clover’s exact model. A link can be made from the film to Clover’s theory from a couple of standpoints. “A Nightmare on Elm Street” had a very Halloween like feel to it. Freddy Krueger acted as the male tormentor as he harmed Tina Gray and Nancy Thompson. The line here is that the base for the film “A Nightmare on Elm Street” is the same base that was used in “Halloween” as well as the base theory Carol Clover provides in her novel. In “A Nightmare on Elm Street” Tina and Nancy have a goal of becoming the “final girl(s)” because they have the same common goal of surviving Freddy Krueger’s attacks. Tina and Nancy’s stories sound exactly like Laurie’s in Halloween. The base is the same in that a male continued to attack female characters until the female(s) overcame the challenge to become the “final girl.” I really feel that most “slasher” films follow this
Halloween is rife with psychological scares that affect its audience greatly. “Symbolism, dreamlike imagery, emotional rather than rational logic” are present in Psychoanalytic criticism. Siskel and Ebert talked about how the movie makes you feel as if you are the protagonist, scared for your life and feeling every bit of suspense (Siskel and Ebert). The movie is purely fueled by emotional responses to what is happening to the characters and focuses itself purely on how the audience will respond. In the clip shown, the main protagonist talks about how she killed the killer but he is shown alive. The movie is not concerned with the logic; otherwise, the killer would have at least been slowed down by the injuries he sustained. Siskel and Ebert laud the movie on its set up of scenes, score, character development, and use of lighting to make the audience feel the terror the characters undergo.
Suspense is only one of Hitchcock’s many techniques and themes. His themes range from the obvious violence, to the depths of human interaction and sex. From Rear Window to Psycho, Hitchcock’s unique themes are present and evident. Rear Window starts with something we all do at times, which is nosing in and stalking on others business, and turns it into a mysterious investigation leaving the viewer second guessing their neighbors at home. Psycho on the other hand, drags
Analysis of the Opening Sequences of John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) and Wes Craven’s Scream (1996)
This new facilitator of horror, the stalker, has helped to redefine a new subgenre of the horror film industry. What they do is absolutely terrifying, as they basically invade every aspect of their victim’s lives, with no regard for their friends, family, or possessions. After analysis of the three stalker films referenced above, as well as the numerous amounts of stalker movies that continue to be produced, one can understand why there is a demand for this style of movie. The entire idea encompasses that which is suppressed because it threatens our normalcy of life. The idea is captivating, and we as a society would much rather view this from the outsider’s perspective on the “big screen,” than to see them enacted in our everyday lives through ourselves or others.
The Importance of Aesthetic Distance in American Horror Movies What then do we make of American horror movies? In the canon of horror pictures they almost always come second in respect to foreign horror movies and any American horror film that is considered to be artful is the one with the most aesthetic distance. Upscale slashers like Johnathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs (1991) or David Fincher's Seven (1995) are both gruesome and bloody borrowing many of the same shock techniques as their lower budget counterparts (for example, Russell Mulchahy's Sevenish thriller Resurrection (1999)), both focus on the body and its violation, either through sexual means or violent means, and both feature villains who fit easily into Carol Clover's
Inspired by the life of the demented, cannibalistic Wisconsin killer Ed Gein (whose heinous acts would also inspire THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, 1974 and DERANGED, 1974), PSYCHO is probably Hitchcock's most gruesome and dark film. Its importance to its genre cannot be overestimated. PSYCHO's enduring influence comes not only from the Norman Bates character (who has since been reincarnated in a staggering variety of forms), but also from the psychological themes Hitchcock develops.
Whilst this is happening the Halloween theme music is playing in the background, this music is very high pitched and uses string instruments to create horror and suspense for the viewers. Once the credits have been shown there is a 'vls' (very long shot) of the house this is used to set the scene, this is a subjective point of view from the killer .This can be related to the German expressionism where they would use bumpy camera movement to seize the audiences concentration .They use a handheld camera to do this scene as it emphasises the killers movements to the audience. As the Killer begins to make his way around the house be looks up to see the light go off. When this happens there is a sharp shrill sound which enforces the killer's actions.
A Nightmare on Elm Street and all of the following six sequels fall into its own sub-genre of the teen slasher/stalker sub-genre as well, know as the Nightmare on Elm Street Series. This series of films adds a new dimension to the typical teen slasher/stalker film, depth of character and story.
People flock to horror movies each year. Usually to be scared. Another is to solve the question of Who done it? Unfortunately, a lot of these horror movies fail to scare people or make the killer so obvious the audience gets bored. Occasionally, there are a few horror movies that stick out. Scream, directed by Wes Craven, is one of them. Wes Craven is always toying with the viewer's fears. Always finding ways to scare the audience at every turn. He also plays with the viewer's head, and has them second guessing themselves. How does he do it? Well, as one of the characters in the movie exclaims, "There's a formula to it. A very simple formula. Everybody's a suspect!" This paper will discuss how Craven uses sound, camera shots, and mise en scene
People are addicted to the synthetic feeling of being terrified. Modern day horror films are very different from the first horror films which date back to the late nineteenth century, but the goal of shocking the audience is still the same. Over the course of its existence, the horror industry has had to innovate new ways to keep its viewers on the edge of their seats. Horror films are frightening films created solely to ignite anxiety and panic within the viewers. Dread and alarm summon deep fears by captivating the audience with a shocking, terrifying, and unpredictable finale that leaves the viewer stunned.
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