The devil rides out.

The devil rides out is a 96 minute long film, made by hammer productions. Hammer tried their best with every film to make it an 'X' rating, in other words an 18. Christopher Lee was hammer Films major star, he was an actor that they used a lot due to the way that they work together well, he was a reoccurring actor.


The title sequence has a satanic theme, with images of devil like creatures as the background to the text which has the cast and the crew names on, the sound recording company that was used was RCA sound recording. There is a high sense of iconography of black magic that it shining through this, there is dramatic music which goes along side to the text and images. After that there was a fade out by the effect of a set of flames. the next scene is Simon's house, the mise-en-scene of this scene is quite creepy although we were shown this in quite a dim light. the sound in this scene makes the audience sit on edge due to the suspense and tensity that it creates. Simon has joined an astronomical society which means that i links well to the si-fi part of the film.

The camera work within this film has more movement than Frankenstein, instead of the use of panning that was in the Frankenstein film, there is use of camera movement instead, making the audience feel like they are walking with the actors rather than watching the actor move. Within the first scene there is a lot of use of tracking which makes the audience feel a lot more involved with the film, as well as this the transitions between scenes and shots are a lot smoother than the ones within the Frankenstein film.  Rex and Nicholas are asked to leave due to the way in which they are not part of the group. As this scene carries on there is a lot of use of back ground music, with instruments like the Oboe/violin.

As the next scene starts you watch Rex, Nic and Simon walk into a room which has a black magic type symbol on the floor. Nic then walks up to the cupboard after seeing the floor, as this carries on there is the use of music getting more tense and louder as it goes on, it turned out to be chickens causing the problem, chickens were used due to the way that there was a lot of association with them to black magic. After this there is use of a handheld camera, which shows Simon being punched and landing on the floor which the devils mark was. After Simon gets up Nic tells him to look into a mirror and listen to him, Nic begins to hypnotise Simon and says that he will wake up at 10am the next day. Nic then tells him that he must wear a cross pendent for protection, meaning that god would be protecting him from the evil of the devil, as Nic tells him this there is creepy music playing in the background which adds to the meaning and suspense within this scene. As Nic says something important there is use of a close-up after a zoom on his face, this could have been used so that the viewer just focuses on the important thing that Nic was telling everyone in the room. After this the pendent around Simons neck got tighter, the butler removed it from his neck and Simon escapes out of the window. The background music at this part got louder and quieter depending on speech from the different characters in the scene. Rex and Nic walk back into the room where the devil/dark magic mark is and it started to get cold, they went straight to the cupboard and found a book that is associated with black magic, as they found this it went colder and colder and the lights dimmed. Smoke then starts to come out of the black magic mark that is on the floor and it glows red, the use of SFX is crucial at this point to make it look like the floor was glowing and something magical was actually happening. A man appears from the smoke that is created by this black magic mark, although he doesn’t just appear there is a white light before and then he fully appears, he was wearing red, which is the colour that is associated with the devil, therefore the audience would have got the feeling that something bad would happen. Rex looks into the man’s eyes and gets possessed and drawn toward him, Nic then throws the cross pendent at the man whilst saying a chant. As Nic and Rex get into the car they are told that if they do not find Simon within 24hours that he would be very dangerous to everyone. Due to the way that lighting and the techni-colour had developed in the years previous to the film being made, there are very few shadows within the film, Rex collects Tanith and then Rex starts talking to her in the car asking her questions, but she is really scared of a man called Mocata, She hadn’t been re-baptised and therefore it was easier for the devil to possess her and take her. All the car scenes in this film are done with green screens, due to the lack of technology at this time. As Tanith looks into the side mirrors of the car you can see 2 eyes, they both talk to her, but Rex cannot hear the, at this point we do not know who the man is. As they arrive at Mr and Mrs Eaton’s house, Tanith drives off, with Rex following and chasing her. The camera is currently placed on the drivers seat to get a POV shot, the eyes then appear in the side mirrors and they tell her to obey and listen, the audience do not hear what she is being told to do and therefore leave them in the dark, as the rest of this scene unravels there is a car crash with Rex’s car, he gets out of the wreckage and follows another car into to a housing estate, out of the houses were men in black robes which looked like some kind of cult. The cars that were parked outside these houses were driven into dark woodlands that was surrounded by fire. The chief of the ‘cult’ was wearing a purple robe on that robe had a satantic symbol, In the background the music was dramatic. There was loads of chants and spells that were being chanted with a goat as the sacrifice.  There is a symbol of power that is suggested by the blood off the goat being put in a bowl and held up high.

The lighting within the scene is different to the rest of them which is showing the different ways in which the lighting advances have changed, the people within the cult start dancing around with the goats blood and they summon the ‘goat of mentis’ a.k.a. the Devil. Nic threw the pendent and says a charm the SFX of smoke appears and there is a massive explosion. Nic and Rex take Simon and Tanith back to the house and Tanith says she must leave Mr and Mrs Eaton’s house by nightfall. There is a romance between Rex and Tanith, Simon and Tanith must not be left alone due to the way that they are an easy target for the devil. The man in the purple robe turned up, it was Mocata. He tries to take Simon and Tanith due to the way that they were an easy target. He hypnotises Mrs Eaton all done by eye contact and he plays with her head. There is close ups on Mokata’s face, he doesn’t blink when she is under Mokatas influence. This ends on an extreme close up on his eyes.  

A02 - Frankenstein - 1931

Frankenstein is a black and white film produced by Universal studios. At the start of frankenstein there is a warning notice to the veiwer as in this age and time there was not much that could get through the censors. Within this warning it states that there are certain things within this film that the veiwer may find shocking. There is the effect that with the start being a narrator like figure explaining that ther are somethings within the film that may be concidered shocking that it is more like a play in a theatre than a film in a studio. At the very start of the film there is a title sequence of credits which show everyone included in the production except the monster (Bela Lugosi), this was because they wanted to leave the audience believing that it is actually a monster not a person in makeup and costume.


As the film starts it has a shot of frankenstein and his friend looking through a fence into the graveyard. Having a scene like this at the start of a film was not seen as normal for this time in horror. the sound that is introduced into this film is crackly and therefore may make the audience cautious of what they are about to watch. there is a lot of use of Panning throughout this film which shows that there is a lot that the producers and directors want you to see within the mise-en-scene. As well as this there is a high sense of necrophilism throughout the film due to the way in which that frankenstein likes dead bodies and likes to experiment on them, and whilst experimenting on them enjoying himself as it is making him happy to do things that he likes. Within the graveyard scene there is a grim reaper on the right hand side and a cross on the left which suggests that they are being watched by the grim reaper, it could be seen as quite ironic as frankenstein is digging up dead bodies with the reaper staring at him. this film tackles many different aspects of religious issues, these being that it is not seen as ethnically or socially correct to be digging up bodies to experiment on them to make them come back to life. the ethnic issues is that christians believe that they should be left alone once dead and therefore digging them up from their grave disturbs them from their rest.


There is an enigma used at the end of this scene where frankenstein says that they need another brain, and the scene then blacks out and cuts to the university that frankenstein attended. during this scene there is a lot of use of shadows and low key lighting which is used to make the audience feel wary. there were two brains that he could of taken one that was an average person and then one that was a criminal, he picked up the normal brain but it dropped on the floor so he took the criminal brain,as it appeared to look undamaged. There is a suspicion that this is why the monster is the way he is, violent and murderous, as well as this there is a feeling that the audience thinks that the reason he is the way he is, is due to the fact that he wasn't treated right; torches used to train him, kept in the dark for a few days of its life. there is a high sense that frankenstein is mentally ill due to the way in which he is testing on dead bodies, his fiance in the film (elizabeth) shows that she is worried about him due to the way in which she never sees him due to his experiment. when the brain is brought to frankenstein, a close up is used to show the brain, and also shows how hypnotized that he seems due to the fact that his experiment is nearly at an end. the use of big machinery is crucial, due to the time that this film was made. The machinery that is used was seen as high tech, this is due to the age that this film was set in, for this time it was seen as a ground breaking new thing that was being introduced. when the machine is turned on it make sci-fi like noises to add to the effect of the fact that it makes the audience feel uncomfortable. The first few days of the monsters life was in the darkness and therefore was attracted to any sense of light; this suggests that he was curious of things and didn't want to be locked up. Even though he was attracted to the light he was also very scared of light which suggests that this is where his fear for fire came from.


Frankenstein shows the love for his work by the way that he tested on animals before trying to make it work with a human. Even though he had a high passion or human body parts rather than animals he wanted to try to make it work before making it work for a human so therefore wanted to try and perfect it so that the human body comes out perfect. frankenstein left college due to the way that he couldn't get bodies through the uni to pursue his passion for human life and the human body. It was suggested that Frankenstein had buried his sanity when he was digging up the bodies for his experiment. He had shown a real sense of pride about his work, as he made it with his own hands he seems to be happy with the fact that its a creation he made. the body of the monster had no blood and lots of stitches due to the way that he made it with lots of different peoples dead bodies. Doctor Waldman was always sceptical that it would work, but frankenstein made it work leaving most people speechless. there is a sense that Frankenstein feels a lot of power due to the way that he can make the monster come to like it is almost like he is playing god.


The weather shows alot of what the mood is in the tower, this is due to the way that when frankenstein shouts or when frankenstein walks into the room where he sees his friend hanging there after the monster had killed him there is claps of thunder and alot of lightning as things happen, this shows that the weather effects the way that the scene is portrayed to the audience. as the storm picks up there is a high sense of danger due to the way that the machinery is producing exposed bolts of electric. The monster likes the storm, this may be due to the fact that he was brought to life by the storm, and therefore has some of the storm in him, this would therefore make sense as to why he doesn't care about the storm and isn't freaked out by it; as he is with fire.


At the end of every scene there is a snappy transition which can be slightly confusing to the audience due to it being hard to follow what is happening. As well as this the lighting is very low key. apart from when the storm kicks in and the lighting became high key to insinuate the look of a storm.all the way through this film there is a lot of panning used, this may be due to the way that it may of only just been introduced into films and therefore they were testing it out a lot to make sure that they knew what ways it helps the audience interact with the film.


the father of Henry Frankenstein, baron Frankenstein, is portrayed as a determined eager father image. this is through the way in which that he is determined to make Frankenstein more successful and not 'crazy' as the people that they know would see him for making a monster out of dead bodies.


One of the most shocking scenes from this film which was cut out by the hays office; the river scene. during this scene a young girl is left on her own by her father whilst he goes out. the young child decides to play by the river, when the monster stumbles out of the bush he goes and sits with the young girl whilst she throws flowers into the river making them float. she teaches the monster that they float, and as a result of this he picks up the young girl and throws her in, and walks off as she drowns.


After this you see the monster climbing into elizabeths window without her noticing as she is getting ready for the wedding. Frankenstein knows that the monster had escaped the tower and was searching all roundthe house for him after locking elizabeth in a room. after Elizabeth realises he is in the room it is too late to escape. Elizabeth starts to scream which alerts Frankenstein that his monster is in the room elizabeth has been locked into. When frankenstein gets to the room the monster had already left.


Frankenstein then goes out into the streets, where he sees all of the towns people standing in one place, the next thing that the audience sees is the dead child in his fathers arms. this of course made people angry so they made an army of people to go and search for this monster and destroy it. Amongst the people were hunting dogs, which made it easier to find the monster. When Frankenstein finds the monster he finds out he has hurt more people, leaving himself bait to the monster to kill, he starts shouting for help as the monster trys to kill him. the monster starts to hear people comings and flees to a nearby windmill with frankenstein in his arms after he knocked him out. after dragging Frankenstein to the top of the windmill he wakes up and tries to escape, the men that were searching for him set the windmill on fire which scared and angered the monster, which made him throw Frankenstein off the balcony.


As the end credits role in there is a spinning globe with a line underneath it saying 'a good cast is worth repeating'. As well as the rest of the film the end credits were in black and white.

AO1 - part 1 - horror films.

Over the past 100 years horror has changed in many different forms, for example in the early 1920's horrors were renowned to be silent, where as nowadays there is a range of different techniques used such as dialogue and SFX. In 1925 phantom of the opera was made which had the actor Lon Chaney as the main actor. Lon Chaney was a huge star of this age and changed horror in a way that no one else has. Chaney changed the way that horror used effects like makeup to change the viewing experience for the audience, he was the first person to use this kind of extent of makeup; after this it became more frequent for horrors to use makeup as part of the effect. it is thought that because Lon Chaney had such an attachment to this film his ghost is in the universal studio in paris where this film was shot, this studio has now been used to shoot the new muppets film (november - 2011). Phantom of the opera was shot by universal studios who are renowned for their horrors, their films are normally high-end with a high budget to work with. In 1927 the first ever film with sound was introduced to the production line which marked the end of the silent era. Universal studios started to use the conveyer belt effect, this being that the same actors and production crew are used, this was due to the depression which changed studio effects in 1929. Actors such as Lon chaney took out contracts with studios to secure a job so that they had an income, even though they were on less money than before they didn't care due to the fact they needed an income to survive. the productions were scaled down because of the depression so the universal studio decided that because of the money from previous horrors that they got was so grand they decided that they would stick with what they know and just produce horrors until the depression had ended.

In the early 1930's Dracula was released; starring Bela Lugosi a hungarian actor who due to his accent was very limited to his work as there was very little people that wanted a foreign actor as the lead role. it was directed by James Whale who made the genre of horror blossom past the early conventions of horror to be more shocking. This film was the first film that had dialogue all the way through which marked another point in the stage of development in the film industry. like most horrors of this age the lighting was very low key which meant there was more shadows which made a better atmosphere within the film which gave the film an eery feel to it which effected the audience due to the feeling you get watching a low key lighted film. it was seen that the having Bela Lugosi, the sounds within this particular dracula film, the supernatural aspect and the lighting was the ideal horror film. Due to the age that it was made they were not allowed to include things like blood or fangs within the production, it had to be through suggestion and imagination otherwise the Hays office would step in and make them cut it out. they hays office are a censorship organisation which made sure that nothing that was to this extent was published to the public eye via cinema. there was a massive uproar with the hays office when the horror genre started to move forward due to the way that there was more and more blood as time progressed. The hays office didn't want the public to see any of this as it was seen as too graphic at this age, and they didn't want to shock the audience.

in 1948 another dracula film was released starring Bela Lugosi again. this time there was less censorship due to the hays office slowly allowing more things onto the production. this film showed a man jumping off a balcony and a women thrown out of a window, which although didnt push boundries alot it still pushed it slightly.

In 1951 Lugosi was sent to do west end productions as his career was slowly ending. He played dracula with sheila Wynn costarring in the play. the reason his career was slowly ending was because he believed that he could keep the audience happy by keeping them scared which he believed would keep the audience intised, but in actual fact they liked a bit of laughter at times. when he didnt make it onto westend he retired and died 5 years after. Lugosi was buried in his dracula cape as he was so into being the character as the charater had become him. it is thought that both dracula and frankenstein have their own unique subgenre and fan base to horror.

The first Frankenstein movie was made in 1931 starring Borris Karloff as the monster; originally it was meant to be starring Bela Lugosi but instead was replaced by Karloff. For this age there was a high sense of stylistic elements which helped towards the conventions of a horror. at the start of this film Universal studios pushed the boundries by having the high sense of necrophilism by the inventors taking such joy and love towards the making of a 'monster' out of dead peoples parts like arms legs etc. Borris Karloff added many different things into the film through childhood experiences that he had due to his difference in skin colour (indian in his blood). The makeup design that was used was also the most clever in this age of films. universal studios pushed the boundries abit too much to the point where they had to get rid of a scene in the original film due to the nature of the shock that it gave the audience of it. the scene that was made to be cut out was when the monster threw a young girl into the lake/river thinking that she would be able to float like the flowers they were throwing into the river. the audience of this film were shocked as it was seen as too boundary pushing for this time of films.

After Dracula, horror was now associated with the universal studios. Although universal studios were seen to have the best ways of building a horror warner bros. who where known for their gangster films made horrors in the present day rather than the past which broke traditions. 

In the early 1930's the film freaks was released. The film was seen as an outrage as it had a mixture of many different features which was not seen as normal. One of these key features is the fact that they used people with down sindrome and people with dwafism, which wasnt seen as normal in any way back then this was where the name Freaks came from as they were seen as freaks not people. Aswell as this, there are many key features of sexual harrassment within the film which also contributed to the outrage produced by this film.



In 1933 the first technocolour film was produced, this was done in the film wax museum, although it was not avery memorable film, and the monster was not as memorable as the monster in frankenstien and dracula, it was a still a film that changed horror and films for the better as colour was slowly being added to the films produced after this film was released. the use of mysterious killings and sillouhettes were added into films round this time due to the effect thst it seemed to create on the audience. for example in the bride of Frankenstein directed by James Whale in 1935 used these ways as it didnt push the boundaries as much as it would if the killings were shown within the camera shot.

In 1942 the film 'the cat people' was released. it was produced by RKO studios, directed by Jacques Tourneur. the concept of this film was that there was a cursed women who turned into a panther when caught in jealousy and sex moments. the film used  many different effects to make the film stand out, one of these being the looton bus effect used; a looton bus effect is where a tense moment is built up and then something small happens that it unthreatening which makes the audience jump, then the real type of scare comes along and scares them further. this effect was used in many films and still gets used in a few films today as it is an effective way to get the audience scared.

Borris Karloff was a huge actor in the old days of horror which was proved in many different ways. One of these was that he was on more than 2 different postage stamps which was more than the president, this proved that he was a very popular actor who everyone enjoying to watch as he was very famous.

Bray studios made hammer films which started in 1934 but then stopped due to the war, Hammer films then made its way back to Tv post-war. In 1958 hammer films made the film dracula staring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing (dracula), which was written by Jimmy sankster; He changed the script to fit better. For this particular dracula film it had a production cost which cost 70x more than the original dracula made in 1930. The Premiere for dracula was in NewYork. This turned out to be the first mainstream film to include fangs and dripping blood shown within the shots used within production, there was also a high sense of sexual references within the film when dracula lies her on the bed to bite her; this still troubled the censors in this time as it was still seen as shocking, hammar decided to improvise with the censorship office (hays office) to just cut out the bit where dracula bites her. This particular Dracula became an international hit. Horror was reborn after the war in what was described as the 'horror boom'. and soon made it onto the tele in 1970's.

the curse of frankenstein was released in 1957; Hammer Films. this frankenstein film starred Peter Cushing; who now is remembered in a museum. This was the Last frankenstein film to be released as it turned out to be a failure compared to the other frankenstein films that have been created. Due to the monster in the first frankenstein being killed, it was hard for the script writer to make a sequel to carry it on due to the monster already being dead, so they tried their hardest to make it seem realistic that the monster had come back to life or never died in the first place. English conventions shone through in most hammar films, leaving hammar responsible for the english way of horror.

Black sunday was released in 1960; starring barbara steele. Barbara steele wa starring as the witch that got killed, the use of makeup used with barabara steele was seen as almosrt real, and therefore had a high sort of impact on the audience as it seemed real. Black sunday was unfluenced by Dracula because of the sexual references and the gore used, which then had a high impact on black sunday as it was portayed in a stronger fashion.

 

Hammar studios went downhill after becoming more interested in sexual
reference rather than fear horror and action, which meant that they wouldnt last long if they didnt change their way of creating films. 

In 1960 The film psycho was released; directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock focused on many things, like phobias such as fear of birds and certain issues like the issues that most men have with t heir mother. He did this to make the veiwer feel uncomfortable with the issues that he put forward on the films. hitchcocks films always seemed to break the rules and conventions of normal horror films, this is due to the way in which he makes the final girl be killed very early on in the film. the use of confined spaces in the toilet scene where the camera is on a high angled makes the audience more weary of the film as it was seen as an outrage as it was not seen as the norm in them days to have a bathroom within a film.

In 1973 the film the Exorcist was released by warner bros. This was directed by William Friedkin, starring Linda Blair as the young child. This film was seen as a supernatural horrorm due to the nature of the narrative. the fact that there was a young child possessed by the devil in this narrative scared some of the public due to how it fit in with their beliefs.

In 1975 Shivers was released; directed by david Cronenburg. This film focused on the sexual references whilst the killing commensed, making a very unique audience. the idea of parasites crawling into the body and inducing the sexual erges out of people scared the public due to the way that they probally then thought that if they have this sort of feeling that they will be infected. The audience of this time watching in facination and fear of this film as it brought out the characters sexual erges it made the veiwers uncomfortable.

Halloween was released in 1978; directed by John Carpenter. the film had a high content of empty streets under suvalience which is to be expected within the slasher genre. Like hitchcock, carpenter followed the use of confined spaces to make the audience feel on edge which is also there to make sure that the audience picks up on some sort of fear or phobia of confined spaces; the closet scene. this film had a very low budget and therefore didnt have as much technical equipment or props to help make the effect that halloween is made to do. nowadays the streets in which this film was filmed on is now used as a tourism spot where people can see the different locations of the film in person with the effect of the film.

To conclude, their are many different ways that the horror genre has changed over the years, from silent black and white to not so silent colour films. there is also more blood and gore than what there used to be which shows that horror has evolved alot over the past 100years.