In this essay I will be looking at how different codes and conventions typically determine how particular characters are represented in the film I have watched. Horror films are unsettling films designed to frighten, panic cause dread and to invoke our hidden and worst fears, often in a terrifying shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining at the same time in cathartic experience. Horror films effectively centre on the dark side of life, the forbidden and strange and alarming events. They deal with our most primal nature and its fears. The Horror genre looks to touch upon our nightmares, our vulnerability, our alienation, our terror of the unknown, our fear of death or fear of sexuality. The horror genres intentions are to also leave you in edge if the story is not settled and to challenge what you think of your safety in life, they make you fear what you never use to fear, the horror genre leaves you with no security over what happens in reality. In this essay I will be looking closely at how the horror genre conventions determine how particular characters are typically represented in the films The Horror of Dracula (Terrance fisher) and The Descent (Neil Marshall).
Conventions are elements which are repeated in such a way that they become any elements which are repeated in such a way that they become familiar, predictable and associated in their use with a particular genre. For example in the film The Descent the final girl in this film is almost ironic and very cliché as it happens in most horror films were the final girl is the least expected character of all characters that exist in the film. Sarah, the final girl, would have been the least expected character to make it to the end as her character at the beginning is startled by things such as the past death of her husband and child haunting her when she is sleeping, also hallucinations of herself and her daughter being together would lead the audience to believing that she maybe one of the first to be killed however this is contradicted by the view in which the film has been shot from, as the director has almost filmed it from Sarah’s life and so when looking into greater detail of this film you cant help but think that if the director has focussed so much on Sarah’s life and how it got to the point of entering the cave then why should she be the first to die, perhaps the way the film was shot and from which characters perspective that it was shot gave some indication as to who will be the last to survive in this film.
The conventions of the horror genre have been set up by the use of micro features and the way in which the director has used cinematography and mise-en-scene in a specific way to show the rebirth of the character that is Sarah and to show her change from being the hunted to being the hunter.. The only aspect that this film differs in with regards to the sub genre Urbanoia is the film would end with the death of the wilderness creatures, leaving the survivor to go back to the place they come from, bloody and traumatised. Some aspects of the ending of this sub genre Urbanoia can be referred to The Descent but the part about the death of the wilderness creatures and the fact of the final survivor find their way back into civilisation cannot be linked to this film as Sarah dreams of leaving the wilderness but the audience are unsure of whether she did in the end and the audience can also establish that what exists in that wilderness has not been ended as the crawlers are still left down there to hunt on what is left of Juno.
The mise-en-scene and cinematography show this change by the way that they have used specific elements to communicate this to the audience. The specific elements show Sarah go through several challenges of being hunted by the crawlers every time she survives until she is finally reborn in the pool of blood as we see the transformation of Sarah’s character through the cinematography as she rises out of the blood with a look in her eyes that suggests that the fear inside her is no longer there. The mise-en-scene also has contributed to the representation of the final girl as her transformation has also been shown by the way she adapts to the setting around her and how she uses the props to aid her in fighting off the crawlers. The props in the film represent this character as one who has almost been twisted into fitting the final girls traits by the way she is just a caver to start with and uses her tools only for exploring but then changes to use them for weapons as she almost becomes more like the crawlers as she adapts to the cave setting and the hunting lifestyle that exists down there.
The Villains in the films The Descent and The Horror of Dracula have been constructed in different ways yet attempt to do the same objective within the film and that is the intention to scare the audience. The crawlers in The Descent have been constructed in a way that best suits there habitat that they live in (the cave) this has been done in the way that they have no need for sight as the caves are pitch black, all they need is hearing and the ability to climb with ease in order to hunt and it is the way in which these villains have been constructed that strike fear into the audience as they know that the crawlers have been made specially for the caving system in order to prey on the victims that enter the caves they live in. Count Dracula on the other hand has been constructed in a much more different way as he is represented in a more different way from the crawlers as he strikes fear into the audience by the way that he sleeps in a coffin and lives off human blood from his victims. The way that the villain count Dracula has been represented reflects the time that the film was made as some audiences of today would feel that the intentions of the villain character that is Dracula doesn’t scare them at all, however if you was to put yourself in the shoes of a person back in the times that it first came out then the character Dracula may scare you and frighten you.
The setting is represented in both films differently as one is ironic in the way it has been used as a place to frighten the audience, the other setting used in the other film has the intention to scare the audience into believing that anywhere underground is never safe and that evil lurks within the darkness. The first setting that is represented as a place that is seen as safe in every day life is from the film The Horror of Dracula, the directors intentions with this setting is to alter it to make it seem to the audience that the setting shouldn’t be underestimated and that it isn’t safe in reality even though the definition of the word castle is ‘a type of fortified structure’, which means that is a safe construction that has been designed in order to protect and is made for defense, however this interpretation of the setting that is the castle within the film is destroyed as the castle is made out to be a place of danger and that any character that goes inside this place will come out a vampire. The Descent constructs the setting differently to The Horror of Dracula setting in a way that amplifies that the underground is the scariest setting by the way it amplifies the using of claustrophobia within the film. This can be once again linked with the sub genre Urbanoia as the setting initially offers the characters an escape from their daily experience, but will eventually isolate them from any sense of modern society in the face of mounting horror. The settings in an Urbanoia film are usually spaces that the characters assume to be beautiful and passive, often equating them with romantic notions of escape. By thinking this the characters enter these spaces supremely confident that they are capable with the equipment they have to deal with the landscapes that they enter. This can be applied to the Descent as all of the girls are overly confident that the setting they are about to enter is just a tourist attraction and that it is no big problem but they underestimate this setting that strikes fear into both the characters and the audience.
In-conclusion, in this essay I have looked in detail about how genre conventions determine how particular characters are typically represented in the two films that are The Descent and The Horror of Dracula. I have referred to the sub genre Urbanoia and looked into how the final girl, the villain and the setting have all been represented in either The Horror of Dracula or The descent, or even in fact both.
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