Analyse the codes and conventions of horror films as shown in the openings of 'Dead Wood', 'Dead Mary' and 'Wrong Turn'

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.