Textual
analysis: The Conjuring
The
film I am analysing is ‘The Conjuring’, directed by James Wan, a successful
film producer known for the unique content of his other creations such as saw
and insidious. The film was released July 15th 2013. Also it shares
the same subgenre genre of my 5minute A2 film supernatural/horror.
Narrative
structure
The
title slides slowly up the screen then goes into a p.o.v shot of a window with
the car pulling up outside. The camera is slowly zooming in order to create a close
up which could represent evil/ supernatural spirits lurking around the new home
the family is about to move Into. The
camera Pans across two windows and stops at the front door then slowly zooms in
revealing the new family moving into their home. We can state this as the
equilibrium, as it is a state of normality and no ghastly occurrences has
happened as of yet. The camera is slowly zooming into a close up of the family
dog strongly resistant and scared to go into the new home. ‘The Family
preparation’ moving all the furniture into the new house with non-diegetic 70’s
music playing creates sense of normality.
The
mother, father and 5 daughters are unpacking their belongings and beginning to
turn their old fashioned and tarnished house into a home. The youngest daughter
suggests a game of hide and seek with her other siblings, which results her hiding
within a big hole in the basement. The dad is alerted by a terrified scream and
so hurry’s to find his youngest daughter. When he retrieves her there is a
reaction shot of his concerned face in which he is holding a flash torch
looking at this cobwebbed hole that looks unappealing as if someone has carved
this into the wall years beforehand. Non-diegetic echoing sinister music plays
at a low volume in the background as all the family look at each other confused.
However the mother calmly tells the father to patch the hole up. It is evident
that the family takes this as they are overthinking the situation. This is the
disruption of the equilibrium as things has shaken up the normality service.
Also it has given the audience a clue that more unusual things will take place
within their home as the storyline progresses.
Each
time a new scene appears there is an establishing shot of the home isolated
within the middle of nowhere emphasising to the audience that there is ‘no
escape’. This is a typical feature of the genre as many supernatural/horror
films wants to make the audience feels discomfort as we know a vulnerable
family will be targeted. There is a long shot of the mother peering out of
their window then the camera pans down onto their front garden revealing a dead
pigeon. A close up of her face is revealed in order to show her bewilderedness
of how the bird happened to die. Soon after the camera whip pans towards the
daughter entering the mother’s room which gave her a slight shock. She is
stating that is was cold in her bedroom at night even with the heating on. The
camera whip pans to the other daughter coming out of her room stating that her
room had a funny smell. The mother makes excuses for their concerns but when
they enter back into t their rooms there is a close up of her face scanning
down on her arms as she can see an unknown bruise on her arm. Judging by her
facial expressions she looks paranoid but is confused as to how this occurred.
This can be established at the recognition of disruption because there are
several clues revealing that something is not at a normality stare within their
home.
The narrative is restricted as we find out the
stages leading up the disruption the same time as the characters do. However the
clues leading up to the disruption of the film such as the repetition of the
mother waking up with unknown bruises, the children complaining about the room
being cold, funny smells in the room every night, the daughter continuously sleep
walking into the wardrobe and the dog resistant to enter the home. Showing the
equilibrium structure is clearly structured in order to raise the audience’s
attention and empathise with the characters. Due to research it is apparent that these are
all signs of a ghostly figure lurking within a home.
There is a close up of one of the daughters
sleeping with the camera slowly zooming out making it a medium shot of her
sleeping in bed. The zooming out could represent the ghosts p.o.v. spying on
the girl. High key low contrast lighting is used as it is night time and makes
it more of a tense atmosphere. A long shot is slowly panning down on the bottom
of the bed building of the tension as the audience doesn’t know what will
happen. An eye level shot is used to show the little sister’s leg being rapidly
pulled by an evil spirit. However we cannot see this spirit but suspect this.
There is a p.o.v shot showing her looking under the bed which pans left to right.
This is effective as it makes the audience sympathise with the character and
become scared for her. In addition there is an arc shot when she rises up from
looking under the bed. This could represent her feeling of the moment which is
mixed emotions and physically sick knowing that something is not right within
her room. Her frightened facial expressions define that she is disturbed by
what she is seeing. The audience still cannot see what she is seeing. This is
what makes the scene effective because it is tension building and what you what
expect to see within a supernatural genre. This is typical of the genre as evil
spirits or ghastly occurrences happen to the most vulnerable. As she is the
youngest daughter the ghost sees this as an advantage to raise the attention of
the elders.
The
conjuring is in chronological order. Except from when they use a short
flashback at the beginning in order for the audience to define what the ghost
hunters do and how good they are at their profession. It is effective that it
is in chronological order as it makes it more tension building for the audience
to find out the source of the problem towards
the end which is very common is supernatural genres. Also considering that it
is based on a true story doing it in chronological order would be more
effective.
Binary
oppositions
The
Conjuring explores several binary oppositions such as ‘good Vs evil’. This is
because evil occurrences are happening to good people such as the evil spirits
trying to sabotage the family’s lives. As the audience, we give our allegiance
and sympathy to the targeted family. And label the evilness as the evil
spirits. Binary oppositions was introduced by Levi Strauss in 1959 he believed there
was a certain concept of how the audience view a film. He argued that the “savage”
mind has the same structures as the “civilised” mind. For example the typical convention of a
superhero movie there will be “hero vs villain”. Embedding these ingredients
within a film makes it easier for the audience to relate to a character and
also allows for the equilibrium structure to be clearly identified.
‘Superiority vs inferiority ’. In the film the
males are not the vulnerable targets which explores how the conventions of the
genre is for a mainstream audience and will not however this is highlighting
the conventions of a supernatural genre as the female character is invariably
the vulnerable target in most films of this genre.
Genre
conventions
The
supernatural horror genre contains gruesome, demons and ghosts lurking within an
isolated setting targeting innocent people, it also contains elements within
the film related to religion. The family is Christians and so they keep
religious ornaments such as crucifixes and pictures of god around their home.
This is an effective convention of the genre as we can base the narrative around
they are being targeted by evil spirits and heavily have strong beliefs in
this.
The
film is typical of the supernatural genre as the setting is an abandoned house
in the middle of nowhere. This creates the feeling of isolation and “no escape”
which increases tension because help cannot be called instantly. Also a family
with the majority being female (6 daughters, mother and father). This makes it
typical of the genre as horror movies target females as they portray them to be
the more vulnerable and the fearful character.
The
title is in simple bold time’s new roman font with a black background and yellow
writing. Yellow normally connotates happiness and sunshine. However it could
also connotate madness and physical illness. This could be representing the
unusual and peculiar circumstances in which the family go through. Moreover the
black represents the mystery, gloom and evilness happening within the family’s
home, but the yellow could represent the family’s strong bond and happiness
never the less. The combination of these two colours correlate well as it
explores the binary oppositions of ‘good and evil’.
Overall the story begins with minor clues in order
to build up the tension, it also has many conventions of a supernatural genre
such as the jump scares and non-diegetic orchestral music. They also show close
ups of ghosts faces for jump scares for the audience. The way the family are
positioned within the frame show they are less superior within this situation
as the ghostly spirits lurking in their home has more power over them. Moreover
when the ghost hunters, a husband and wife, come over to help the family out
the way how they are positioned in the frame is powerful, professional and
superior to the ghosts as they are a threat. By their fearless facial
expressions and confident body language. There are several close ups of the
ghost hunters stern faces implying to the audience they are serious about their
profession.
