How far do you think the following "interior elements" would add fear to a horror movie ? http://themissingslate.com/2014/02/22/in-praise-of-shadows-tanizaki-and-horror/#.Uw3WdYXlVG0 -Tanizaki talks of the Japanese dwelling hoarding shadows, as opposed to the Western custom of flooding houses with as much light as possible. Consequently for the West, shadows take on an othered, ominous quality, whereas in Eastern cultures, shadows are a homely blanket and a beautiful robe for interiors and interiority. Tatami shots -Shadow becomes a vehicle for the uncanny,In more Eastern horror, the evil blossoms from within the house, the family, the psyche. In Eastern horror, the uncanny grows from that which is part of the material of the home (illustrating its German etymology of unheimlich); those shadows which have been a comforting, beautiful mother become abject and give birth to a horrific domesticity. Eastern horror is often clouded; it carries traces of a heavy past. It is subtle and slow, the terror is paced like shadows gradually deepening in a room before at an indeterminate juncture the viewer realises something is crouching in a corner. Hollywood flings a juddering jump-cut into the face of the viewer, arcs of gore framing the revealed nebulosity. There is patience in the horror of Japan and Korea: like jade, the horror is opaque, inscrutable, demanding. Darkness in Eastern aesthetics is necessary for beauty, and as a consequence light takes on a more fragile grace in the careful restraint of its use. Imperfection is not desperately erased at every instance, but instead it is included in the whole, whilst colours respond better to dimmed, sparse light, becoming more profound, less distracting and easier to tonally manipulate. h... ... middle of paper ... ...t Story related to a particular cultural mythology/belief Minimalism (to encourage imagination) CGI Effects (Computer Generated Imagery) Realism Ability to build slow tension (No shock tactics) Isolation 13. From the movies mentioned above (Ring,Ringu,Ju on,Grudge) or any other horror film, would you like to mention about any particular scene that you did find very terrifying? Could you please spare few minutes to fill the following questionnaire and help me get reviews to analyse, for my thesis. Being an interior designer, I'm looking forward to investigate the differences between the interiors of Japanese horror movies and their American remakes. Cheers ! Currently 27 letters that finely define the Japanese horror movies http://journals.sfu.ca/loading/index.php/loading/article/viewFile/85/82 http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/techno-horror-in-hollywood
Paul Santilli’s “Culture, Evil, and Horror” gives us several ideas of what horror means. Horror is a type of cultural breakdown. There is also a type of horror called Ontological Horror: “It is characterized as a disturbance before an indefinite and unnamed presence” (180). In the story “The Spider”, the men all suffered an ineluctable death. This story demonstrates an unnamed presence causing the loss of control.
The horror genre is synonymous with images of terror, violence and human carnage; the mere mention of horror movies evokes physical and psychological torture. As remarked by noted author Stephen King “the mythic horror movie…has a dirty job to do. It deliberately appeals to all that is worst in us. It is morbidity unchained, our most base instincts let free, our nastiest fantasies realized.” (King, 786). At manageable intervals, we choose to live these horrific events vicariously through the characters in horror movies and books as a means of safely experiencing the “what if”. The horror genre allows us to explore our fears, be it spiders, vampires, loss of our identity, or death of a loved, under the most fantastic and horrible circumstances conceivable. King also points out that by watching horror movies we “may allow our emotions a free rein . . . or no rein at all.” (King, 784). According to psychiatrist James Schaller, by vicariously “experiencing contrived fears, a person develops a sense of competence over similar types of fears.” (Schaller). Horror films allow the viewer the opportunity to safely examine their fears safely and to the depth and extent they wish to do so. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 provides the opportunity for the viewer to consider a diverse range of fears, with a little humor thrown in for balance, from the safety of a darkened room, a comfortable seat and in less than 120 minutes.
“As a broad answer, we might say that horror addresses fears that are both universally taboo and that also respond to historically and culturally specific anxieties. Horror movies exploit timeless themes of sex and death, the self and the soul, and our own beastly inner nature – fears that exist within our collective unconscious – as well as more topical fears such as, for example, atomic radiation in the 1950s, environmental contamination in the 1970s and 1980s, or, more recently, post-911 tourist horror with films such as Touristas (2006), The Ruins (2008), and the two Hostel films (2005, 2007).” (Grant ?)
In horror movies there is always the antagonist. The evil spirit or monster that is attempting and sometimes succeeding in killing some of the characters off. There is always the good versus evil. There is a difference between how the good versus evil is depicted. American movies focus on the idea that the good and evil fight and that the good should defeat the evil. On the other hand, Japanese movies tend to focus on the balance of everything. There is always a reason that the ghost or monster is haunting/killing people in the movie. That reason is usually related to the ghost trying to bring back the balance that was lost with their death or with something that went wrong before or after their death. The spirits aren’t seen as enemies but as a thing that coexists with
The use of imagery or personification increases the suspense in the story, ‘Shadows cower’ is a very descriptive way of showing how frightening the mansion is. It sounds as if the shadows which are linked to darkness themselves are afraid of a greater evil. We wonder what this great evil could be that makes evil itself tremble. Another personification used is ‘candles writhing’. Candles are usually associated to gothic stories, as it is only small source of light within a vast darkness of the room.
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. (Horror Films)
There are people in today’s society that are always looking for a source of adrenaline, a thrill. They could find this source from jumping out of a plane and opening a parachute to watching a scary movie. The genre of horror has become a major part of the film industry some films even have a cult following such as the film series Paranormal Activity. Horrors films are built to scare the audience watching the film and are made through the uses of suspense and/or gore. These films have become a large part of today’s culture and what is being represented in horror films takes influence on society. The images presented on film influences how the audience views certain groups of people. The way hegemonic masculinity and femininity are being represented is repeated and has in turn become a trope that has placed itself as a normal ideal in the minds of those who watch horror
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
What marks horror as different from other genres is both the relationship it has with the audience and its tendency to twist and subvert cultural norms. I intend to explore that subversion today, and hopefully arrive at a deeper understanding of certain features.
In Robert Wise’s 1963 film adaptation, “The Haunting,” Wise uses architectural nuances in tandem with certain angular choices to convey the protagonist’s journey of self-discovery, as well as her simultaneous descent into madness. In keeping with the gothic genre, Wise demonstrates not only the coexistence of the diurnal and nocturnal worlds, but also their point of collision as the protagonist pieces together her sense self out of shards of her own repression. As the nocturnal world progressively takes over, Eleanor loses the ability to hold a firm grip on her long-repressed feelings toward her deceased mother, as well as her sexuality. While the character steadily erupts within herself, Wise uses distortion and reflection as a means to demonstrate
Horror movies have become a staple in the movie industry. In theaters worldwide, but primarily Hollywood, the women of horror are often portrayed as the damsel in distress, usually lacking independence and often victimized. This portrayal of women in horror is not internationally acknowledged. Japanese horror (aka J-Horror) has gone to great lengths to make the wrath of the female feared amongst all audiences. As a country known for its “slow progressing cultural movements” (McRoy 54), Japan has used film as away to express the changes in traditional and cultural practices. In comparison to Hollywood, J-horror makes the role of the female much more significant to reflect changes in both tradition and society. Various J-horror movies like Ringu, Ju-on, and One Missed Call are particularly good examples of expressing these changes, but not necessarily the only ones.
Prof. Paul J. Patterson, Ph.D., co-director of Medieval, Renaissance and Reformation Studies at Saint Joseph's University says that throughout history each generation has defined horror largely on the idea of something outside of our understanding that is threatening us. In his class, 'Horror in Literature and Film', he and his students analyse works such as Homer's Odyssey, Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), Alfred Hitchcock's works (1940 - 70), the slashers of the 90s, and the post-9/11 movies. Their analysis is that many of the post 9/11 horror films are about torture, while the zombie wave is because of the menace of biological warfare.
As a qualitative research project I would aim to explore key issues in the adaptation of significant horror texts from Literature to film and then onto stage; whilst trying to gain an understanding into the cultural phenomena of horror. Adaptation theory will be one of the fundamental theories to analyse my question as a means to fully comprehend the
A fine example of the separation of foreign and American horror can be found in a comparison between Dario Argento's Suspiria and Sean S. Cunningham's Friday the 13th (1980)...
Felicia has “four school dresses” with “little buttons shaped like hearts and [a] white collar”(182) as well as the privilege to always have “milk in her glass”. (180) Despite Felicia having all of these inanimate objects to make her life more pleasurable, she is still unhappy because she is lonely and feels unloved. While Felicia is alone and waiting for her mother to return home, “...the New York apartment in which Felicia lived was filled with shadows, and [Felicia] would wait alone in the living room…”(Boyle 178) Despite Felicia living in a luxurious apartment, it is filled with shadows when her mother isn’t around. Kay Boyle uses imagery like these “shadows” to help the reader understand that when a child’s mother is not around, the child’s world is shrouded in darkness even when they are otherwise satisfied with objects like “[books] of fairy stories”(181). When the sitting parent that takes Felicia into, “[a] sphere of love and intimacy”(183) arrives at Felicia's apartment, the shadows in the apartment, “were suddenly bleached away”. All of the food and material items that Felicia has access to do nothing in order to illuminate the darkness of Felicia's world. What does illuminate the darkness, however, is the loving presence of a mother figure: Felicia's sitting parent. Because of the material object’s ineffectiveness to “suddenly