Audience Expecations: Thrillers

When watching a specifically a horror movie, the audience expect something more then what you see in everyday horro movies like saw which is basically gore and grotesque they want a  unique and new experience which modern horro movies hardly provide anymore.

The image below is basically one of the questionnaires a person has taken to show what he expects personally from a horror movie. As can be seen suspense is one of the main themes in a horror movie for him and most people expect to be shocked and experience scary feelings, otherwise they havent experienced the whole horror movie concept. Human threats interests this specific person in also watching a horror movie. So a horror movie has to be all rounded to suit most people expectations of a horror movie in todays world.

These are a few of the responses people gave when asked what their expectations were of a horror movie:

1.) Well killings of course. But i like twists. I like to think one thing is going to happen for sure, but then be tottaly wrong at the end.

2.) Well, special effects are important but, for me – I like those that are visually scary and have a good story line to them. The ones that are just a bunch of blood and guts bore me to death.

3.)I *hope* that the movie would have a scary looking dude/monster, blood, a good story line, a sad scene, and.. that’s basically it!

Something like “Pumpkin Head”, or “Haunted in Connecticut”, or “The Messengers”! They were scary!!

Ooo! Good horror movies have to have zombie type of things in them. Or Paranormal things, like weird dead looking ghosts, or dead looking kids… now thats scary!!

Taken From:
http://zarahhameed.blogspot.com/2011/05/audience-expectations-of-horror-movie.html

Nine Frame Structure Analysis

This is a 9 frame grid analysis of another horror opening sequence, our treatment for the opening sequence is pretty similar to this.

The 9 frames show how he is lost and illusionised throughout the first 2:23 of the movie.

 

Taken From: http://zarahhameed.blogspot.com/

Still Frame Analysis

5 still framed pictures, analyse the mise-en-scene within them. from the same genre.

Psychomania Opening Credits

This is a scene from the opening credits of Psychomnia, a horror movie. An extreme eye-level shot displays this grave-yard scene, the scene is very smoky which can connote a suspicous atmosphere as they might not want some things to be seen. A dark cloud is seen above the grave-yard, dark colours like black and grey have am evil, negative connotation along with spiritual symbolisation. The image has a very dark contrast which is a stereotypical convention of a horror movie scene.

Friday The 13 Part III Opening Credits
This horror opening sequence from the movie 'Friday The 13 Part III' displays the more sinister representation of a horror movie, most of the screen consists of pitch black, the centre of the image shows a male head, giving off a grotesque bizzare sense of whats going on, the shot zooms into the head which created suspicion to what the head symbolises. This shot is made to show that is does not use any digital technology to use light within the image, the light used is from the candles and a beam of light coming from the back.
  

Freddy vs Jason Opening Credits
This horror movie is abit different to the ones analysed above, it consists of way more movement unlike the two above which are very still and not much activity is present, this shots mise-en-scene challenges sterortypes of horror movies. (As most horror movies are slow but have grotesque content and the sound and atmosphere makes the story) however looking at the shot above it may seem to look like an action/thrillr movie however the only aspect holding us back from thinking that is the dark contrast and the gloomy colours used within the image above.

Day Of The Dead (1985) George A Romero Opening Credits.
This image again differs from the rest of the images previously analysed, th mise-en-scene consists of more light. The scene is very stereotypical of a horror scene in some ways in the sensethat the scene does not consist of much activity, it is slow in order to awake suspicion. This sense of isolation and closed environment around the individual allows us to acknowledge the person is suffering and they are trying to get away from something (this something could be the horror element of the movies opening sequence) or something unusual is taking place. The pure white mise-en-scene is used to connote strength and bluntness.  


Jason X 1 Opening Credits
This opening sequence from the movie Jason X 1 features a very revoluntionary opening scene. What we seem to see is probably an explosion or some sort of an invasion or landing. It is not clear from the image above what exactly it is. The image is not very clear, there is alot going on, however the colours used within the scene are very connotive of negativity. The black would represent evil, bad and darkness whilst the mouldy colour represents dullness and something prevading the scene. This scene in itself consists of alot of elements.

 

 

Taken from:

http://zarahhameed.blogspot.com/2011/04/still-frame-analysis.html 

Typical Synopsis

Thriller Presentation

Now that I have collected all of the information needed, I made a powerpoint presentation to show my group and intorduce them into thrillers as this is our chosen genre.  I used slideshare to upload this powerpoint as Scribd is not very good at dealing with large files like a powerpoint therefore I had to find another programme to successfully publish my powerpoint so the rest of my group can upload it onto their blogs.

Thrillers

View more presentations from megi93.

General Camera Angles

Media Research

Iconic Thriller Directors

I am urrently gathering information about our chosen genre in order to eventually get enough information for a powerpoint presentation which I can present to the rest of the group. The link provided below is where I got this information from.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(genre)