Psycho Image Analysis

This is after the shower scene where Marion is stabbed by Norman’s mother; in that scene there is a lot of restricted narration where we hear the knife go in but we don’t see her get stabbed because of the strict Hays Code back then. This scene is very effective because of the suspense where you know something is going to happen but when (stabbing scene), Hitchcock was the master of suspense. However, the restricted narration still has power because it forces us to imagine the brutality of Marion's wounds. This image is so powerful because it shows her waste-less body has nothing anymore, and she can’t turn back the time to change anything and her blood/life is going down the drain. The drain is a perfect graphic match, because the drain represents the eye seeing her life flash a way like it’s nothing, the camera also follows the water down the drain like her future. Furthermore, her facial expression looks sad and lifeless because of the water from the shower near her eye looks like she’s crying, the montage helps with this effect where it goes fast from where she's getting stabbed and then slow again until the blood washing down the drain. 

Psycho Film Analysis 2

This image is where Norman talks to Marion and invites her to have sandwiches and tea with him. To me this scene is disturbing in a way because Norman seems sweet and tries to help Marion out (about running away). He also notices that she says her name is "Marion Crane" different to what she wrote in the guest book in the previous scene, she has called herself "Marion Samuels".

The mood changes when she mentions his mother “If I heard anyone talk to me the way I heard, the way she spoke to you “Norman starts getting very protective and says, “Every boys mother is his mother" and that he doesn't want her to go into some “mad house”. In this scene we see a lot of low key lighting, but on Norman’s face he has half a dark side and half a light side to show his mental illness (schizophrenia), and to bring the likeness of the disgusting killer Ed Gein. They're both very like each other the way their mother over protected them and how the women was always the "devils". 

The birds behind are his, where he likes to do Taxidermy. The birds to me represent Marion Crane, because a Crane is a type of bird and they’re beautiful harmless birds, but in this scene the shadows make the birds look alive and ready to attack like "bird of prey", who is symbolically represented by Norman . 

Psycho Image Analysis

In this scene from Psycho is where Marion Crane is driving away from what she has done, (stealing £40,000 from her work when she was supposed to give it into the bank). The camera angle in this shot is medium shot (news shot), so we can see what is going in the background and her facial expression.  In the car it’s very low key lighting with half covering her face, which shows she’s partly bad for taking the money but innocent to, also while the scene is going we hear a lot of voice over, “You lied about the £40,000 and I will replace it with fine sawed flesh”. This shows she scared if everyone finds out, but when the voice over is going on she’s smiling which suggests that she has fled away with the money successfully.

The background goes perfectly with this scene because the rain fits in with the atmosphere (pathetic fallacy), because she has just done something bad and the weather is reflecting off her personality, but also she is driving to her doom (the weather is warning her).This scene is more dramatic when she’s driving (point of view shots of the front); this creates tension to think that she is going to crash at some point. Furthermore, when the rain starts to get worse the high pitched string music stops, and we hear the rain more clearly until she pulls over the dark grimy Bates Motel. 

Zombieland Move Review

Zombieland was released on the 7th of October 2009 in the UK, it is a horror/ comedy film directed by Ruben Fleischer . It was produced by the well-known company Columbia Pictures. The film made on their opening weekend £1,240,984 and still making more (worldwide made over $102,391,540), the film was such a great hit they’re making a sequel.

The comedy/ horror is about a timid teenage boy trying to get to his family in Ohio, on the way he meets a crazy middle aged guy trying to find the last Twinkie (Tallahassee), and a pair of sisters (Wichita and Little Rock) trying to get to an amusement park. On the way not everything seems 'normal' and they're joined by unwanted  flesh eating visitors. Which these 'zombies' are more fast moving monsters then slow, not like the zombies in Dawn Of The Dead where they're confused and somewhat cute, these monsters are something you would not like to meet. The director Aeisher said he didn't want to go for Romero's style of zombies because he didn't want to copy other styles, he wanted his own. He wanted less thinking in his zombies and more fury, he also wanted them disgusting and scary, so they searched disease to get different make up effects.

 

The narrative begins by Columbus telling us about the virus related to the mad cow disease and the rules of survival, which turns everyone that is in contacted with the virus, into flesh eating zombies. The Earth's population has only a handful of humans left. In this part of the film they play "Metallica For Whom The Bell Tolls", which shows people in slow motion killing the zombies to get a taster of the film, and to show the destruction in it. This is a perfect song/lyrics to play as it fits the genre very well (parallel music), because the lyrics is about 5 soldiers left to defend a hill and are killed in an airstrike. 

The main person we meet who is a survivor is Columbus (played by Jesse Eisenberg), a timid, nerdish teenage boy who is a student at a university, and has just came back to see his family in his home town. On the way he notices things are a little different and hopes his parents are still alive because people are turning into a "human happy meals". The practical effects are not like the body horror in Dawn Of The Dead but more rough, (like guts ripping out and veins). When he gets home he's quite jumpy from what he has seen (tension rising in this scene as we think a zombie is going to pop out, there is very low key lighting). Instead we hear knocking from the door and it's one of his girl-friends who's been bitten. We notice that Columbus is an outsider, doesn't really talk to many people and don’t know how to react with them (which we see his friend laying on him), but he uses this to get away from zombies (avoiding them).

When Columbus comes back from his home he walks on the highway where he meets Tallahassee (played by Woody Harrelson) driving. Tallahassee is a crazy character killing as many zombies as he can, but to also find a Twinkie, he ends up agreeing with Columbus to take him to Texarkana. On the way they go to a supermarket to find Tallahassee's Twinkies, but instead they encounter zombies, where Tallahassee ends up killing them with any object he can (a guitar in one point, and quite excessive) blood flying up. When exploring the supermarket they end up finding two teenage girls, Little rock (Abigail Breslin) and Wichita (Emma Stone) who are both sisters. Little Rock portends to be beaten so they can rob the guys car to get to Los Angeles, where the theme park is. Columbus and Tallahassee finding a bag full of guns and drive off to get revenge on the two sisters, they end up finding the car broken down. Tallahassee goes to investigate while Columbus stays back just in case of trouble, which the girls are nowhere to be found. Tallahassee comes back to the car and finds the girls are in the backseat, they try and work things out and finally they agree to let them travel. The two sisters make it to the theme park in Los Angeles where it's zombie free, and Columbus was going to leave the sisters to find his family but ends up going back for them. They end up safe and travelling to Hollywood fighting and dodging zombies. Along the way, they use a map of stars to find Bill Murray's house and end up there for awhile. Little Rock has no clue who Bill Murray is so Columbus takes her to Bill's private cinema room to watch Ghostbusters, and to ask questions about her 'attractive sister'.

Tallahassee and Wichita look around Bill Murray's house to find the real and alive Murray. Turns out Billy Murray had survived by faking to be a zombie all this time, which allows him to go to the shops when he wants to. Tallahassee and Wichita decide to play a trick on the little sister and Columbus by letting Murray portending to be a zombie, Columbus catches him right on time and ends up shooting him. After the incident they have a little 'funeral' for Murray and they all get along in his house. Tallahassee finally lets himself go and tells everyone that he lost his son to the zombies, which suggests why he's so angry and full of attitude during most parts of the film, he's lonely and isolates himself from everyone. Wichita and Columbus end up getting drunk and nearly sharing a moment together, until Tallahassee interrupts. The next morning the two sisters leave because they’re scared they might loose each others trust and ends up going to the 'zombie free theme park' a quite creepy location . The two sisters end up turning on all the lights which makes a huge noise and attracts all the zombies near the surrounding areas. The girls are so terrified they end up going on one of the tallest rides where they can stay at the top of the ride to get away from the zombies. Going back to Columbus and Tallahassee, Columbus says he’s going to go after the two sisters while Tallahassee plans to go elsewhere, but agrees to save the girls. At the theme park they see the sisters are in trouble and decides that Tallahassee will distract them while running though the theme park (quick collision cutting and point of view shots in the van when saving the two sisters), but plans don’t go well and Columbus sees his hugest fear...a zombie clown where he has to face his fear in order to save his 'girlfriend'. Things go well and ends up being the hero and saving the two sisters, while the older sister (Wichita) has a moment with him and tell him her real name (Krysta). In this part of the film the most memorable scene is where Tallahassee locks himself in a little fair game box and shoots every zombie around him. Soon after that, Tallahassee goes to a restaurant where he finally finds a box of Twinkies, but the box didn’t survive because he accidentally shot them. The two sisters find them and Little Rock throws him a Twinkie she has found and eats it.

The end of the film they realize that they work well together and make a 'new family' and end up driving off looking for a home together. Which this leaves and open ending for a new film.

This film shows a different range of characters, like at first Columbus is a shy timid teenaged boy, who avoids people, but changes to a hero with the 'bird'. This a common thing for most action films and horrors, teaming up and ending up together, or you always have a maniac who is the 2nd hero willing to kill, a 'attractive' woman that’s in risk and a family member who is in trouble too. In this film there are two final girls who're ready to defend themselves, and get tougher thought-out the film (from stealing a car at first to survive then to killing zombies in the theme park by themselves).

For my own horror trailer I will use my own ideas and do a lot of research on how to make the make up effect decent, and different to other films. I want to also bring in a rememberable part to my trailer, so people will instantly remember that certain part of the film and tell their friends or family about it. I got this idea because watching Zombieland it had so many cleaver, quick moments like Tallahassee on the roller coaster killing zombies, and another part with him locking himself in a sideshow booth. This film knew what appealed to their target audience (genre) to maintain interest, like Thomas Schatz who wrote “Hollywood Genres”.

LostBoys Movie Review

Lost Boys is a classic comedy/ horror released in July 1987 in the US, and directed by Joel Schumacher. Lost Boys is about two brothers moving into a new town and are convinced it's not 'normal'.

The film all starts when the two brothers parents split up, Michael being the oldest (played by Jason Patric), and Sam being the youngest (Corey Haim) with their mum called Lucy (Dianne West). When driving to Santa Carla they play "People Are Strange" by The Doors but a cover version to fit the genre more (Echo & The Bunnymen), which is a classic song to use for this type of horror, ( new people  moving to a unfamiliar place where everyone looks creepy).

 

This parallel music is very cleverly fitted with the scene and narrates the song too, to give of the feeling of the characters moving to a weird town, (we also see more parallel music though out the film like the opening scene "Cry Little Sister" by G Tom Mac, which builds up tension to the film with the drum beat sounding like a heart, when we meet the vampires roaming around the fair i the town). 

 

They move to Santa Carla in California to live with their grandfather, but Santa Carla is the murder capital of the world. The town looks dark and dingy. The mother Lucy gets a job working in the local video store, while Sam meets the Frog Bothers, Edgar (played by Corey Feldman) and Alan (Jamison Newlander) who tells Sam the town has vampires. At the beginning of the film Sam looks quite neat, hair done up nicely but Michael on the other hand, is more casually dressed, with the light blue jeans and top with a leather jacket, he looks like he would have been quite popular in high school. When they are shooting the fair, it's low key lighting and as it's night the only lights that are on are the street lights and the fair rides.

Furthermore, Michael meets this beautiful pale brown haired girl wearing a stunning white dress, named Star (Jami Gertz) who is the girlfriend of David (Keifer Sutherland. The leader and the toughest boy in the gang, around Santa Carla. David meets Michael and takes him to their gangs hideout (remains of an old hotel) where it's an old dark place. Michael has a drink thinking it's wine but turns out to be David's blood and starts to develop side effects, making him not see straight, dizzy (handheld camera) making us be in his point of view, hearing echoes, ect. Michael starts coming in late and starts acting like himself causing his youngest brother to think he's a vampire, he then convinces Sam that he can make himself normal again, but then sleeps with Star. Sam starts thinking his brother is not going to change so he decides to do something about it with the help of the Frog Brothers , they then tell Sam the only way he can turn back normal as he's a half vampire is to kill the leader (David). Elsewhere, the mother (Lucy) begins to date the guy from her work (Max), and starts to think her boys are having trouble processing her dating after her divorce so shortly. 

Michael gets Star and they take the other half blooded vampire named Laddie Thompson, from David's clutches and brings his brother and the Frog Brothers out to kill David and his gang. The Frog Brothers end up killing one vampire, and leading David to build up and waiting for the revenge in the night. Meanwhile, the Frog Brothers start preparing for the vampires and start putting garlic in the bath, holy water in the water pistols and wooden stakes. At this time it shows high contrast lighting to show this is a dramatic scene. Later in the night, David and the rest of the gang turn up to Sam's and Michael's house were they will get revenge, the most rememberable scene. The Frog Brothers are saved by Michael's and Sam's dog, by pushing one of the vampires in the bathtub full of garlic. Here, they make the sound extra louder to create the scene more exciting. Michael and Sam push another vampire into electricity box, with the best quote in the film, “ Death by stereo”, leaving Michael and David to have the final fight in the film. 

As the fight goes on Michael pushes him onto antlers hanged up in the house, causing David to die, and Michael to still be a vampire (David wasn't the lead vampire). Lucy, their mother comes home with her date Max, and doesn't see what’s happened. Instead Max comes over to David and seems quite upset and angry by his death, turning out all this time David wasn't the lead vampire and Max was, the other vampires were his 'children'. Max tells them that he wanted the two brothers apart of their family, and his boys (who are dead) in need of a mother, he still wants her even though they’re dead. Max then takes hold of Sam and tells Lucy that Sam will die if she doesn't come with him, but then her dad comes though the house with his car on time, with a wooden stake, killing Max. All together, there are a few heroes. For a start Michael to go against the vampires and helping the “damsel in distress” Star, the grandfather for killing the main vampire and the Frog Brothers and Sam for help killing the rest. This leaves the film with an open ending leading to the sequels.

Watching this film has made me understand film-making and genre, by watching The Lost Boys, it has shown me you can make a quick, smart movie monster without making it look overly weird. The monsters in this film (vampires) are constructed very well  by their clothes and especially the makeup (pale face, contact lenses, darkness around their eyes and tangs). Also the body horror in the film is not excessive, but is very tastefully done. An example of this is the garlic in the bath scene, when the Frog Brothers put holy water on the vampires face it starts to burn his causing blood on his face, and when the husky pushes the vampire in the bath his face starts to melt (looking waxy and skin peeling off to a skeleton). 

 

This film is a classic with so many different dark characters and hidden story lines. The film gives off an alternative horror, that creates atmosphere by making the lighting quite dark (low key) and the slow music, Goth like music. During the film they play classics like Cry Little Sister, which at the beginning of the song it sounds like a heartbeat that increases the attention in the film, and relates to vampires in its Gothic way. Some aspects I would bring into my own film is definitely the lightening and parallel music to fit the scene, because it can be really effective and give off the right atmosphere, like David when he's ready to kill everything is blacked out behind him (low key lighting), so we can see his facial expression, his red and orange eyes and his large tangs. The lighting also shows his split personality, he can be kind to protect his identity but also has an evil dark side. On the other hand, for my own trailer I would have to avoid the comedy side, as it would be hard to do and wouldn't look professional, I would also avoid effects like shaking objects as it may look cheesy. 

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