The Haunting in Connecticut - Film review, trailer analysis and structure time line.

Title: The Haunting in Connecticut

Directed by: Peter Cornwell
Year: 2009
Paradigmatic conventions:
Setting: House
Character: Family
Villain: The supernatural
Props: Haunting/ possession.
Evokes fear: What happens when a new addition to your future, has its own past?
Plot synopsis: Set in 1987, Matt Campbell is being treated for cancer in a hospital in Connecticut, the effects the journey to and from the hospital has on Matt soon becomes apparent and results in the family renting a house in Connecticut. This house was once a funeral home as they soon find out. The family soon begin experiencing some weird events but blame it on the stress of Matt’s condition. Matt begins experiencing visions from a young teenager in the 1920’s called Jonah. When conversing with a minister Matt met at hospital they find out that the teenager is a ghost and was a psychic medium in his former life, involved in his owners activity with the paranormal and control over the spirits. How long will this haunting occur before someone gets hurt?


Structure time line:

The haunting in connecticut - Poster Analysis

• The fact that they are all holding hands at the table gives the impression that they are some type of mediums and trying to contact the dead.
• The room is dark therefore symbolises the dark things that has happened in that room.
• The room is lit by candle light showing an ounce of hope, a sense of a 'light at the end of the tunnel'
• Along with this a boy is also hanging on the ceiling in a similar stance as Jesus was on a crucifix suggesting the idea of sacrifice.
• The writing 'based on true events' is meant to amplify horror as it leads people to believe that similar events that occur in this movie could also occur in their lives.
• The fact that the border of the poster is red symbolises the bloodshed that the film contains.
• The title is white so that it can therefore stand out and catch people’s attention.
• The caption to the poster says 'What if the only explanation for what you saw was unbelievable?' again trying to scare the audience into thinking that some things that occur in this film may seem like the supernatural, but is in fact true.

30 Days of Night - Poster Analysis

• The red colour symbolises blood and therefore gives the audience the impression that this film is going to contain a lot of blood and gore.
• The black is usually a symbolism for death, again confirming the usual horror paradigms.
• The image of a face placed on the poster looks like it could be one of a vampire.
• This is confirmed also with the title '30 days of night', the fact that it highlights the word 'night' works with the structural views of vampires not being able to be in the sun and therefore doing their killing at night time.
• This could again link with the idea of death and the idea of the end of life being black and therefore linked with night instead of day.
• The font used to write the title looks although it has been written in blood again assuring the audience that this film is a horror.

Låt den rätte komma in (Let the right one in) - Film Review and Poster analysis

Title: Låt den rätte komma in (Let the right one in)

Directed by: Tomas Alfredson,
Year: 2008
Paradigmatic conventions:
Setting: Blackeberg, a suburb of Stockholm, in the early 1980s
Character: Oskar, a 12 year old boy who is getting bullied.
Villain: Eli, shares the physical appearance of a pale girl Oskar’s age, but is in fact a vampire.
Props: Fangs
Evokes fear: Will love overcome the temptation to kill?
Plot synopsis: Oskar a 12 year old boy who is frequently being bullied, dreams of revenge. When playing outside his apartment one night he meets Eli a peculiar girl his age that soon becomes one of Oskar’s only friends. Eli is odd, she cannot stand the sun or food and needs to be invited into a place before she can enter, Oskar over looks this as Eli helps him get his revenge. A Friendship has been built and love has been felt before Oskar realises that Eli needs to drink human blood to survive, and is faced with a choice. How much can love forgive?



Poster Analysis:

The black figure of the girl creates fear as it amplifies the mystery of this character building the tension and making the audience want to know her identity and why it is being hidden. The fact that the black figure is in the foreground and a white light behind it shows the darkness taking over the light adding to the horror and stimulating fear. The title does not stand out on this poster as the font is transparent however it seen against her black figure. The fact that her hand if pressed against the glass is almost as if her hand is pressed again your TV screen giving the idea that the two worlds the fiction world of this film and the real world of the audience can be merged together, again creating fear and horror. The credits are white so that they stand out at the bottom of the poster and are therefore readable. This poster is more focused on the image then the writing as it lets its image speak for itself.

Film review - Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Title: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Directed by: Kenneth Branagh

Year: 1994

Studio: American Zoetrope and Shepperton Studios

Paradigmatic conventions:

Setting: A Victorian village, Victor’s lab.

Character: Victor and Elizabeth. (Adopted siblings/ lovers)

Villain: A Monster made by Victor from the body parts of dead people.

Evokes fear: Something you have created turning on you.

Plot synopsis: Victor Frankenstein sets out to create a human that never needs to die after being mortified about his mother’s death at a young age. He sets out to create his version of the perfect man using the carnage of the dead, when life is finally brought to his creation he is disgusted by its ugliness and results to running away. Due to the feeling of loneliness the creature goes in search of a friend, he observes a family he comes across and becomes educated about man, with this he realises that he himself is different. Whilst many harsh encounters with man, he grows bitter in loneliness and decides to get back at his creator for making him ugly and unloved, creating havoc and spreading death among Frankenstein’s family and loved ones.

Improved Trailer idea.

BlWhen recalling our original treatment with our teacher we came across some difficulties that we may have encountered, therefore we decided to change the structure slightly, still keeping a similar theme but focusing on a different aspect of our initial treatment.

We therefore re-thought through our trailer and came up with a more cinematic construction of our ideas.
Paradigm key:


Character paradigm

Setting paradigm

plot paradigm

Villan paradigm



New Treatment:

On a spontaneous night out three friends (all girls) drive up to the woods to drink and mess around without worrying about getting in trouble. They are laughing around and having fun, however when they want to go home they soon find that the car won’t start.

They start panicking and go in search for a gas station, they soon come across a house and begin to knock at the door, after a while they push the door and discover that no one is in it, it seems abandoned as the house is dusty and all the furniture is covered by white sheets.

As they begin to explore around the house they realise that no phones or light switches work, they search every room and see that everything is either covered or empty where things have been taken and not replaced. As one girl goes to open on of the last doors she see’s that it is locked, whilst trying to open the door she see’s that someone or something is in the room. When the door finally opens she finds out that it is a little girls room which looks like it has not been touched, almost as if it has been preserved.

As the girl walks around the room she calls to here friends, she peers at the bed and see’s a teddy sat at the head of the bed, she picks it up and with that a flash of white light fills the screen as the girl has a vision of a little girl playing with her toys and then someone putting their hand on her shoulder and dragging her away. This then cuts to a picture of a grave stone and her parents standing over it. The vision ends and with this she drops the teddy. Following this is a series of strange paranormal activity and spooky events.

Strange Events:

Here are some of the strange events that we have agreed on to feature in our trailer.

1) Establishing shot of the woods.
    Car drives up through the woods.
    Close up on tyres.
    Establishing girls in the car and they get out with alcohol in their hands.
    They wander through the woods    Gets dark
    See house and open the door.

2) Exploring house and find a locked door.
    Tries to open it - pushing the door.
    Looks under the door and sees footsteps.
    Looks through the keyhole and there is an eye looking back.
    A jump back, turns around to shout for her friends and the door swings open.

3) Takes a teddy from the bed.
    Flash of white light.
    She sees a girl playing with a teddy.
    Hand on shoulder.
    Parents by the grave.
    Back to room/Drops the teddy.

4) Exploring the girls room more
    Finds a music box, opens it to hear music.

5) Another friend pulls a sheet off a mirror.
    (Nothing there) Girl looks into the mirror
    Little girl walks past the door behind her.

6) Lights cut out.
    Light switch not working
    The friends are all downstairs together
    They hear the music box being played upstairs
    Little girl walks from one place and appears in the other.

Trailer:

Our basis trailer idea (incomplete):

-Establishing shot of the woods and house.
-Girls mucking around in the woods and the drive up.
-Gets dark & the car won’t start.
-Find a house - no one is there.
-Shots of them individually exploring the house-Strange event with the locked door and the keyhole scenes that is involved there.
   -Sheets being taken off
   -Bussing sequences
   -Lights not working
-Weird events happening  -Music box being played
  -Bussing sequences
  -Doors slamming
  -Windows jammed, Can’t get out of the house.
Idea for the ending:

Panning out from house. Day light. Music box music playing. Car messed up (Doors and bonnet open), teddy sitting on the driver’s seat. Little girl skips/Crawls towards the camera giggling.

Horror time line - From the 20s-90s

Horror time line

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