The Descent Grade a

This film is a black and white film and the lighting is more towards dim effect which terrified the audience. Music plays the biggest effect in the film. Bernard Hermann’s theme is used for this film because it uses mostly high-pitched string instrument notes so the suspense and horror mood can be formed to the audience.

Ever since the creation of horror there has been more than what meets the surface. Movies in the horror genre require much attention to the details of the film. Whether it be sound, acting, visuals, and the overall foreshadowing of the story. A truly good horror movie utilizes all key aspects of suspense. The 1980s horror movie The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick utilized these aspects very well. This allowed The Shining to be one of the most successful and truly suspenseful horror films of its time.

Although the violence in both films is quite obvious as the films progress, both film’s psychological horror is present in the early stages of the films, this form of horror is essential to both films in gaining the audiences attention and developing their own horror. This is portrayed effectively by the use of bland, uninteresting isolated settings. This isolation establishes the tense atmosphere of the films, and the everyday settings of a small village and a block of flats gives a sense of reality to the horror. This creates a relationship between the audience and the setting of the horror, and this is developed to create some effective jolts as both films progress. Characterisation can be used to isolate the audience from the horror, or develop a relationship with it, depending on how the characters are established.

One of the ways why cinematography made the film was the lighting. To get the feel, the lighting appeared to be fake shadows that were painted on the set. The fake shadows that were painted on the set gave the lighting appeared to be harsh and sharper to set the mood for the audience. If it weren’t for the painted shadows, the movie wouldn’t have been so successful in the horror genre. Since it was a silent movie, if it weren’t for the shadows, you wouldn’t of seen it as a horror film, but as an original film that was trying to be creative.

The opening scene features visual effects in order to emphasise the theme of despair in the film. Initially we are introduced to the character of Alice Paul with a long-shot of her on a swing. The shot appears as a horror film, setting off a daunting tone. We are then eventually displayed with a montage of flash-forwards and flash-backs into Alice's future and past. A close-up is used of Alice's eye, which appears fearful and exhausted, blood-shot and struggling to remain open. This sets an initial sense of despair. Following this the montage features sped up passing storm clouds to foreshadow the darkness and despair to come. These editing techniques were used by Garnier to convey the theme of despair in the film by allowing little easing into the situation. In relation to the wider world, although this theme of despair was being emphasised by these

Incoherent horror movies also can be characterized by a lack of definite closure or conflict resolution. Coherent horror movies leave us feeling safe and secure in the knowledge that the monster is destroyed and all is right with the world. Incoherent ones are meant to leave the audience feeling uneasy because the source of the horror is not really gone. This is perhaps one reason why incoherent horror movies are "open-ended to allow for sequels and to tease the audience into expecting a closure it never delivers" (Modleski 160). Despite the obvious economic rationale for movie sequels, the ideological impact of a horror that never really goes away is profound in such movies. As such, incoherent horror movies are subversive because they do not reinforce the dominant themes and values of the culture--rather, they function as a cultural critic by pointing out limitations, hypocrisies, or omissions in the coherent master narrative, thus unveiling the social roots of horror. In this way, incoherent

Critics tend to say it is too lazy and weak when defined as a horror film. Although these assumptions are brought up, there are factors proving otherwise. For instance, when director Robert Zemeckis uses the close up shot to minimize the audience's peripheral vision, it makes the scene more suspicious. For example, when Claire figures out that Norman does not really call the police, she looks around to discover where

There is great focus on the laboratory scene of creating the monster, as most films tend to do; as

Another critical element is the music, music is used to create a focused feeling for the audience. The Music was also creating a dark tone within the film. It seemed brooding moving slowly, then went higher to create an ambience of tension.

Another feature was the video store it was located by a walkway by the water which it gave it a calming feel. The Comic Book Store had so much super hero comics to horror comics. The grandpa’s house was filled with taxidermy animals and the house was made out of lumber wood. Maxes house had fences around it and a dog outside to protect max while he was asleep since he was the head vampire. The whole change of scenes seemed to either lighten up the mood of the movie because it was centered around being a horror movie with vampires, blood, and gory scenes in which were to surprise an audience.

The first obvious clue to the viewers that this might be more of a horror film than a love film is the very controlling a devil like character that we get introduced to very early

First of all, this movie does come off to a quick start, in which the portrayal of the undead is a one of a kind portrayal. The unique illustration of the undead is evident within the next few examples, as well

In the opening of the film the director uses an ethinc style of music that

has is that it seems like it's in a horror movie, its dramatic and it

The film could also be seen as a response to the American Monogram Pictures, which is famous for B-movies, particularly film noir. In the sequence, the place is rapidly changing; the time is uncertain. What stays is a criminal (reducing to voice, and perhaps gaze) and a femme fatal (reducing to beautiful profile) in a relatively still car in a sunny day with the lasting jazz music. The jumping-cut is an elegant tool to simply the image with what to be focused, with which film noir is stripped down to bones. To begin with, the constant appearing fast-paced, hysterical Jazz music could be thought of as an acoustic signal, which seems to repeatedly remind the specter that it is a film noir cinema and that everything is happening under the structure of it. Music is counter-image here in the sequence. When the Michel and Patricia are talking about trivial things under sunny daylight, the unsettling music in the background brings the image back to the circle of film noir. Another obvious counter reflection on the genre would be the natural light light-weighted handheld cinematography. The high key cinematography, as well as the trivial conversation under the exaggerated music, seems almost absurd. This absurdity runs through the film: Michel killed a police for no reason, Patricia's sudden betrayal and Michel's