During this essay I will
show how all movies use codes and conventions, horror movie though use it more
than some as it's what gets the audience so involved in the movie. Because if
the directors stopped using the convention of falling/tripping over when running
away from something then it would deplete tension from the movie; making false
scares less effective as the tension wasn't built up enough.
Codes are elements that can be decoded by the audience to
provide meaning. These can be divided into 2 groups technical codes and
symbolic codes:
Technical codes include the 'technical' aspects of creating a piece
of moving image media. This includes things such as camera shots, angles and
movements, editing, sound, titles and lighting.
Symbolic codes include the main elements of mise-en-scene within a
film. This covers things such as costume, make-up, setting and props. If we see
a girl in a short dress with bright red lipstick we may, as an audience, make
an assumption about her. We do this because of the symbolic value attached to
these items.
Conventions are the expected rules that an audience expects in a
specific genre. For example, in a horror film you expect to see
conventions such as:
A killer stalking a victim
Isolation from the rest of the world
A mobile phone running out of battery or losing signal
at a crucial moment
Falling over when running away from danger
Nearly getting to safety before being caught.
We watched 2 minutes of the
opening from these movies:
Dead Wood is a horror movie about four friends escape the grime
of the city and head out into the woods for a peaceful, relaxing weekend.
Events take a sinister turn when a mysterious girl appears in their camp
looking for her boyfriend. Soon the nightmare begins as they find themselves
lost in an endless wilderness stalked by a deadly force. As those left fight
for survival they will discover the true nature of fear.
Dead Mary is another horror about when Kim and her
boyfriend Matt have just broken up, but they travel together to a cottage
nearby a lake to spend the weekend with their friends Eve, Dash and his wife
Amber and Baker and his new girlfriend Lily. The atmosphere becomes heavy with
the situation between Kim and Matt, and one of them suggests them to play
"Dead Mary". Matt, Eve and Dash summon the evil witch repeating her
name three times in front of a mirror with a candle. Along the night, Matt
hears weird noises, is killed and returns to life, while the fiend possesses
part of the group. Without knowing who is possessed, the rest of the group
fights to survive.
Wrong Turn is an independently made horror film about a group of
five youths on a hiking trip in the Appalachians of West Virginia who become
prey to a family of cannibalistic mountain men who have become horribly
disfigured through generations of in breeding.
Technical codes are things
like camera movements and angles, editing, sound, titles and lighting – all
used to set the mood and the feeling of the movie. In Wrong Turn, Dead wood and
Dead Mary the titles all start white, playing on the convention that there will
be innocence or loss of innocence in the film. However, in Dead
Mary the font is scratchy, the colour bleed red to signify
death blood and danger, the titles also flickers so the audience knows there is
something supernatural with the film and by making the titles in all lower case
to connect with the teen audience and to maybe make you feel
uncomfortable. In contrast to this Wrong Turn titles are in all capitals,
the words are slightly blurred and not straight, making it quite obvious that
this is a horror movie.
Another technical code is
in Dead Wood with the use of non-diegetic sound - sound added in during the
editing - is simple eerie music played mainly on a piano and violin which
speeds up as it shows the guy running, the violin getting harsher and more
sharp. Also Wrong Turn uses this technical code the eerie music being
played on string instruments and drums, the music gets faster as things become
more dangerous and the woman beginning to be pulled up the cliff by the danger
on top of it and as she cuts her herself free and fall it almost becomes
calm again, until you find out the danger is still hunting her, and she starts
running away; creating tension. These two greatly contrasts against Dead Mary,
which doesn't have any non-diegetic sound at all, relying only on diegetic
sounds to convey the feeling of the film and the hidden danger.
Editing in the films is
used to set pace often combined with a lot of different camera angles – mainly
close-ups so you can see the emotion on the victims face, as well as high
angles to show how vulnerable the victim is, because by looking down at the
victim you take their power away making them weak and vulnerable. In Wrong Turn
the editing pace starts slow and then increases as the danger increases, as the girl is trying to cut herself free the editing pace increases and its constantly cutting from close up to close up and may different camera shots, to show the woman's fear and the dangerous situation she's in. It then calms as she falls and then once again increasing as she runs away again, this is the same in Dead Wood when the male victim is running away.
Symbolic codes in Dead Mary
are mainly portrayed by the clothing used, for example the girl dress in denim
short shorts, a small blue vest top and no shoes, showing how truly unprotected
she is and also the image of flesh so openly shown. Also by the fact
of the props used, the phone - that doesn't work showing how alone she is,
that if she needs help there's no one she can call, the radio - that also
doesn't work showing how truly isolated the girl is, the car - broken down and
useless unable to take her to safety if needed and the flare gun -which is
typically used for signalling, as distress signal for those in trouble,
foreshadowing the dangers to come. Also the fact the camera stayed on the image
of the flare gun for so long and made sure you knew what it was making your
conscience realise that this will be important later on in the plot.
Whereas in Dead Wood a lot of the symbolic codes were in the make up, with the
mud showing that he'd been running for a while - and supported by the technical
code of diegetic sound where you could hear his heavy breathing - and that he
must have fallen a lot to get all that mud on him, also with the blood to
show he wasn't just going for a jog, but that he was in danger and he was
injured and running for his life, trying to get to safety. The only prop used
was the tent, which was small and offers no protection the horror that was
chasing the victim. Also in Dead Wood the clothes used were clearly
inappropriate for where they were, the man in a Hawaiian print shirt, white
trainers and chinos, the girl in muted colours and a skirt, showing how unprepared
and unprotected they were. Contrasting greatly to the clothing used wrong Turn
were dress and prepared fully for what they were doing - which also worries the
audience, because even though they were prepared for everything they were
easily killed - the man in climbing gear shorts, trainers, tops, harness
and other safety gear and the woman in shorts, trainers,
safety gear and a small sports bra showing flesh and how unprotected
her and her vial organs are. Wrong Turn like Dead Wood also used blood as a
symbolic code as it drips from her boyfriend onto her making the scene intense
and builds up tension and like in Dead Mary, Wrong Turn used more
props like the climbing rope, the carabineer clip she tried to undo as she
was being pulled up towards danger, the knife as she cuts herself
free - showing she may not be as vulnerable as we thought and
the car to show how close safety is, but how unattainable it was to
her as she tripped onto the barbed wire prop showing how prepared the hunters
of the girl really were and show that this was premeditated, that she and her
boyfriend were prey.
The conventions used were
quite similar in all three films with only slight variations; these are seen in
almost all horror movies. An example of theses are an isolated location to
show how vulnerable and un-protected the victims are, a vulnerable female
character- who is often left to fend for herself, where she will ultimately
fail. Dead Wood uses quite cliché conventions, the forest secluded location,
while running away coming upon an obstacle causing tension for the
audience, tripping over while running away from danger, nearly making it
to safety - this was also in Wrong Turn, when she was running away from danger
and nearly made it to the safety of the car, before being caught - this can be
used as a false scares, it also builds up tension because it makes the audience
wonder 'will they, won't they?' even though they subconsciously know they
won't. Dead Mary uses the conventions of being watched - stalked, the phone
with no signal and the radio not picking up a station, just static, to show how
truly isolated they are from the real world, from help. They also use the man
going to get the fuel showing him to be the 'hero', while leaving the
unprotected woman all alone, vulnerable and unaware. Wrong Turn uses the
horror convention of death, however they've made it so you can't actually see
the death, but the aftermath of it, also using the convention of being dragged
off one caught making it mare dramatic and showing how strong her captor really
is, as well as the laughing killer, making the girl shaking the trees playing
with her and the audience. In Wrong Turn, Dead Mary and Dead Wood all the
danger is kept hidden, almost like a secret, so you can't put a face
to the killer, so you are more scared about what you can't see rather than what
you can see.
In conclusion I think
Wrong Turn uses and works with the most codes and conventions throughout the
opening. Because even though they share a lot of similarities of the other two
movies, they also play on these conventions more, using more of them and using
them more effectively. Wrong Turn also used the codes and conventions to create
the tension which is done better and more effectively than the other two
films, whether it be by the diegetic and non-diegetic sound or by the props and
make-up, as the dripping of blood creates a tension because now that you know
that her boyfriend is dead and bleeding you start to wonder how long its going
to take until she gets that way or if she'll manage to escape. Wrong Turns
effective use of codes and conventions creates the most nerve racking opening
that terrifies you, so it gives the audience and indication on what to expect
for the rest of the film.
