El Orfanato And El Orvino

‘If movies are the dreams of mass culture… horror movies are the nightmares.’ (Stephen King, Danse Macarbre) The film genre horror was designed for many different purposes; generally it is to cause terror and evoke an adrenaline rush in audiences, as well as, to present a fear of death by opening the dark side of life, without the audience being in any harm. (Freeman, 2010) The two films, that will be critically analyzed, is Sinister, directed by Scott Derrickson (2012) and the original Spanish film, ‘El Orfanato’, (The Orphange) directed by J.A.Bayona. (2007)

The primary characteristics of a horror film include, an emphasis on themes such as, good against evil, death, mental issues and the supernatural. The settings of horror films are normally located in places that create the protagonist to be vulnerable. For instance popular locations include, isolated and dark areas, haunted houses, old churches, orphanages and hospitals. Both films attempt to cover these themes.

The sequence selected from The Orphanage was the ‘bathroom sequence’, which focus on the protagonist Laura, who is plated by Belen Rueda. In this sequence sound plays quite a significant part. Without sound, there would be no suspense or fear in the film. With all the elements in film and with sound added creates terror among audiences. In the sequence, both diegetic and non-diegetic sound is illustrated. At the beginning of the scene, there is children laughing, however when Laura walks inside the laughter begins to echo and the music starts to fade away. This embodies an idea of the spirits becoming awake in the house, as it starts to become silent and whenever the house is silent, the ghosts begin to appear. In this sequence, sound also contrasts with the lig...

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...ng masks in the sequence, hence creating it s mystery for whom could be a ghost, whereas in Sinister it is much more clear to who are the ghosts, as it is evident from the scars and dead facial expressions. The mental states of both protagonists are illustrated quite differently in the scene, Laura appears to be hallucinating the child however Ellison cannot see anything but can only sense a presence of the supernatural.

Overall, in both Sinister and The Orphanage have used many common characteristics of a horror genre, where they have created fear, terror and bone-chilling scenes through the viewers. Sinister has explored themes of wanting too much power, supernatural, good vs. evil and hysterical through the use of iconography. Whereas The Orphanage has emphasized the themes mental issues, the supernatural and the power of the house in contrast to the family.