This is the poster for Drag Me to Hell which was released in 2009 in the USA. The main image on the poster is a women being dragged down in flames by three un-human hands. As the woman is being dragged down into the flames this shows that she is the female victim, this is also goes with generic horror convention of the female victim mostly being blonde. The colours in this are mainly dull apart from the flames; I think this has been done so that the flames contrast well with the rest of the poster. The girl’s clothes are grey which suggest a balance between innocence and bad. The fonts are simplistic on this poster are in white; I think this was done so that it doesn't draw attention away from the main picture but still stand out against the flames. The tag line on this poster in’ Christine Brown has a good job, great boyfriend and bright future. But in three days, she’s going to hell’. This tag line is like a brief summary of the film but doesn't give away much detail, I think this is a good tag line as it draws the audience in as you want to find out why she is being dragged to hell. Because of the title it suggest this film could contain a religious aspect, this also could be why the hands are dragging the girl via her necklace. 

This poster is for the film sinister which was released in 2012 in the USA. The main image on the poster is a young blonde girl walking away/along a blood stained wall. The girl on the poster looks like a child, the image suggests she is the killer in the film. She isn't dominant in the image which suggests that the face in the blood is also the killer. This shows that it will be a psychological/gory horror. The girl is blonde which usually suggests she will also be a female victim. The colours of the poster are mainly off white/grey but also red is prominent on the poster. The white shows innocents which is in correlation with the young girl on the poster. The red stands out well against the off white/grey wall making it and the girl the main focus of the poster. The font on the poster is very simplistic; I think they have done this to not draw attention away from the main image.  The tag line is ‘once you see him, nothing can save you’ this is a good insight into the film it shows that the film is going to be about possession which suggests that the young girl on the poster has seen ‘him’. 

This poster is for The Final Destination which was released in 2009 in the USA. The main image of the poster in a smashed mirror with half a woman’s face over the top of a skull. The woman in the image looks distressed, this is also suggested by the half smashed mirror and the skulls mouth as it looks like it is screaming. The skull suggests the colour palette of the poster is mainly black, grey and white; this helps show what that the movie is going to be more of a psychological horror than gore as the only red used on the poster is for the release date.  This was done so that the release date stands out to the viewer. The fonts on this poster as very simplistic, I think this is done so you focus more on the image on the poster. The text is also mainly in white this is so it stands out against the cloudy black background.  The tag line for the poster is ‘Rest in Pieces’ this shows that death is heavily involved with this movie and it also goes well with the shattered mirror image on the poster. I think this poster is trying to aim for a target audience of mid 20 year old and above; I think this because of the simple tag line and the age of the woman on the cover. 

Personal film review

The Omen is a Horror/Mystery/Thriller which was produced in 2006 and was directed by John Moore.  The film is based around a man called Robert Thorn; he is informed at the start of the film that his wife Katherine has just lost her baby. Father Spilletto suggests he adopts another new born that lost his mother. Robert does so and names the boy Damien. Over the years Katherine realises he is evil and they are told he is the devil. They are shown evidence he is the anti-Christ and travel down to Megiddo to try and stop the boy.

The male hero in the movie is Richard Thorn where as his wife Katherine is the female victim and their son Damien in the Psycho killer. In the movie they use a lot of different key techniques such as montaging and parallel music which was used at the start of the movie when they showed Damien’s childhood. Collision cutting is used in the start of the film as well when the nanny hangs herself at Damien’s birthday party. Low key lighting and creepy, enclosed locations are often used at the same time in this movie such as in graveyard and the Priest’s home. Body horror is used much; one of the main uses of body horror is when the priest gets killed during the thunderstorm. Close-ups are used in the movie to show stress and upset, this is done when Katherine is in the hospital. The film ends with an open ending; this is because Damien is still alive at the end of the movie. The theme/ideology for this film I think is based on the fear of death to family; even though Damien is horrible his parents want to protect him.

One of the scenes that impressed me in the film is when the Nanny commits suicide; the collision cutting in this scene goes from slow to fast which draws you in. Another scene I liked from the film also uses collision cutting, this is when Richard is having a nightmare. I think that the collision cutting in this scene creates tension and slight confusion. The use of children in horror is unsettling; they always seem to look innocent as they are a child and this makes the audience have a connection which makes you feel worse when they kill someone. I would have liked to use this in my horror trailer but it would have been difficult to find a child to act.

Evaluation Screening

Final Cut

Personal film review

Stitches is a Horror comedy which was directed by Conor McMahon and was released in 2012. Stitches is about a Clown who comes back from the dead to haunt those who took his life 6 years before at a 10^th birthday party. The film has generic horror characters the main character Stitches is the Psycho Killer of the film, the male heroes are Tom and Vinny both of these boy have dark hair which fits the generic horror conventions. The final girl also fits the generic horror conventions, she is a dark hair called Kate, whereas the female victim in stitches is Sarah who is a blonde haired girl who is portrayed as a ‘slut’.  Generic horror conventions are well used in this movie, body horror is used a lot in the movie, and one example of this is the death scene of Stitches the Clown he falls on the knife sticking out of the dish washer and then pulls it out which releases a flow on blood on to 10 year old Tom. Another example of body horror being used is Sarah’s death scene; Stitched throws an umbrella through her eye which brings her eye out on to the tip of the umbrella. Enclosed creepy are used mainly throughout the film, as it is mainly set in Tom’s house at night or the graveyard. Both Contrapuntal music and Parallel music is used in the film, Contrapuntal clown music is played when Vinny’s ‘genitals are ripped off’ at school. Whereas Parallel music is played in the graveyard when Tom sees the clowns with the painted eggs when he was younger.  Lots of different types of shots were used in the film such as point of view shots; these were used whenever someone looked through the telescope in the tree house. Another type of shot used was close-ups, these where used a lot to create tension and show different emotions, an example of close-ups being used is after Tom falls down the stair after being chased by Paul dressed as Stitches, this was used to show Toms extreme fear of clowns. The flash backs are shown via montaging in the film an example of this is when Tom looks at the tree house and it flashes back to his birthday. The film contains a lot of scene with low key lighting, such as when Stitches rises from the grave and walks forwards, low key lighting is used this way to show the mood of the scene and to make it feel eerie. The ending of this film is an open ending, this is because there are 3 teens remaining and Stitches egg gets fixed at the end of the film.

The film was made in 2012 is up to date for context. The film shows how children grow up quicker in maturity since the 2000’s. The clown’s performance shows this as the 10 year olds do not find stitches funny and instead decide to play pranks/ torment him. This is also shown in the sequence 6 years later. The teenagers (16 years old) have also shown that people grow up quicker since the 2000’s as they drink, smoke and have premarital sex at the party. The film is also up to date with institutional context; the movie contains a lot of gore which correlates with people becoming more comfortable with gore so more movies are become more extreme to be able to keep the audience entertained/scared. Compared to movies made 30 years ago such as Dawn of the Dead (1979) the gore has become more realistic and more intense.

One of the scenes that impressed me most in this film is when Pauls head lands in the water, the slow motion effect used with shot is very effective. The face emerging out of the face at the end of this shot is unsettling because of how gradually it is shown. Another shot I was impressed with in the film is when Sarah gets killed, the detail of the body horror in the shot is well done and again the slow motion makes the scene more powerful. I would have liked to use slow motion kill shots in my trailer but I don’t think it would have worked with the pacing of the trailer. This film helped me decide that I wanted to avoid the comedy side of horror because it is really hard to portray correctly without the film seeming ‘cheesy’.

Shooting scheduled

Choice of trailer
The trailer for Francesca will be a highlights trailer. This type of trailer is used 90% of the time in real life. This is because it allows the producers to display all the best bits of their overall film in an effective way. Through quick montages; including slow and quick scenes, to present the narrative but keep it fast paced and exciting. This is shown in the trailers for Evil Dead (2013) and Pusher Trilogy (1996-2005), which always use slow to quick montages/ collision cutting to create a jump scare.

Synopsis (film)
   A young girl called Francesca was sexually abused by her father as a young teenager (14-15 years old). She continues to go to school and is picked on for being quiet and smart by the school boys. She later seeks revenge on her father and brutally kills him still at her young age.
   After this murder Francesca gets a thrill from the revenge she brought upon her father and continues this onto men that give unwanted sexual attention to her and other females.
   She does this by placing herself at pubs and night clubs in search of her next victim. One night she takes this too far and kills a married, decent man. This leaves the wife distraught and on a separate revenge mission to kill Francesca.
   At the end of the film Francesca is killed by the wife of the man she killed.

Synopsis (trailer)
   The opening shots to the trailer show Francesca’s father leaving a bedroom, doing his belt up, to delicately suggest sexual assault. It then continues to Francesca’s’ revenge on her father where she stabs him to death.
   The trailer then shows brief encounters with different men that have harassed her or other women, resulting in the death of the man. This is shown in alley ways, night clubs and a mystery ‘torture room’.
   Throughout the killings in the trailer, Francesca has frequent flash backs of what her father did to her, which is making her progressively emotionally unstable and causing her to self-harm and convince herself that she is bringing justice and helping the world. 
   The trailer ends with Francesca in a room with a man, who is struggling for his life and hints that he is going to be tortured.
        

Francesca Rough cut

Focus group screening

Positive Feedback:
Music works well x8
The inter-titles are good and effective x14
Good variety of setting/locations x10
Gore/ body horror was done really well x12
Good story line x6
Good use of angles
Easy to understand x4
Shots flow nicely
Good cinematography
Looked and seemed professional
Nice lighting in scenes

Negative Feedback:
Slow paced x9
Night club scene needs sorting- match lighting and music x13
Music doesn't fit the film x3
Narrative needs to be made more obvious x3
Needs to be more scary/ tense x2
Add a jump scare finish
Too long

Average score: 6.9 / 10

Props List

• Fake blood 
• Mirror door
• Fake knife
• Scissors
• Chair
• Rope/scarf 

6 Panel Practice Storyboards