Research: Essay: Codes and Coventions in WT, DM and DW

When watching a horror film, you will find that most other horror films also do the same thing. What I mean by this is that most horror films will have the same codes and conventions. The two types of codes are:

Technical
Technical codes in a horror film include things like camera shots, angles and movement as well as lighting, titles, editing and sound. Overall technical codes cover all of the technical aspects of the film and the film making.

Symbolic
Symbolic codes include the main elements of mise-en-scene within a film. This is the parts of the film like the costumes, make up, setting and props. This is so the audience can assume about the character before they even know anything about her/him.

Conventions
Conventions are a set of rules that an audience expect to see within the film. An example of this would be that there is a death in the first couple of minutes within a horror film. If this doesn't happen then you would expect a couple of jump/ false scares at least. Another example would be as the character is about to get away the character would trip. This will likely be over nothing but they would trip and then get killed after.

Dead wood- Synopsis
Four friends leave the city for a relaxing camping trip in the woods. Once they are there a strange women enters the campsite looking for her boyfriend who has disappeared. One of the four friends also goes missing and the rest are now trying to fight against unknown forces in a fight to survive.

Dead Mary- Synopsis
Kim and her boyfriend Matt have just broke up, but they travel together to a cottage nearby a lake to spend the weekend with their friends. The atmosphere changes very quickly because of the situation between Kim and Matt. One of them then suggests to play "Dead Mary". Matt, and two of the friends then summon the evil witch by repeating her name three times in front of a mirror with a candle. Through the night Matt hears weird noises, is killed and returns back to life. The other part of the group is possessed by the fiend that is Dead Mary. The group doesn't know who is possessed and fight to survive.

Wrong Turn- Synopsis
The film opens with two friends rock climbing, when all of a sudden they both get killed. Six friends then find themselves trapped in the woods of West Virginia and hunted down.

Editing and the pace of the editing used is to great effect in all three of the horror film openings. The opening to 'Wrong Turn' is a great example of how editing is used to capture the audience's attention and how easily they can affect the audience with the right editing. During the talking between the two characters in the opening scene the editing is very slow and the cuts between shots are minimal. These cuts that do happen are mostly between the man's face and the women's face. However when the man's body gets thrown off of the cliff the editing picks up a lot of pace in a short amount of time. The shots then become a lot more varied as well as the women gets pulled up the rocks the camera switches a lot between the reel of the harness and the rope as well as the women herself. The camera angles also change a lot. An example of this would be when she frees herself by cutting the rope of the harness and when she is trying to reach the other rope. The camera is at a low shot at this point. In the next shot there is a close up. This is to show the emotion on her face. Dead Wood also uses techniques similar to this. This is when the male victim comes crashing through the water. The editing is very fast paced throughout most of the scene. However this is not the case in 'Dead Mary'. The editing in the opening of this scene is completely different compared to the other two openings. This is because there is no death and the only part we see that could be counted as a jump scare was as the man walked up to the car and dropped the gas canister. The editing was clever in this opening though because you still wanted to know what was going on. Even though I was at ease throughout.

Camera movement is used effectively in all three of the horror film openings. The opening of 'Dead Wood' starts with a crane shot, that brings the audience down through the canopy. During this shot, we are transported through a holly bush. This could foreshadow that there is something bad to happen which is going to be painful. Then the camera stops over a murky puddle. There is also some symmetry during the opening. this because after the man dies the women comes out of her tent and shouts his name as the camera cranes back up into the trees. This is to signal that the chase is over and the terror has stopped for a couple of seconds. The opening of 'Wrong Turn' is very similar. It also begins with a crane shot of the forest and all the tree. The camera then brings the audience down to where the man and women are rock climbing and gives us a birds eye view on both of them. This can also be seen as an establishing shot as it tells you where the action is going to take place.

Every horror film opening uses conventions very well. One convention that is used in 'Wrong Turn' is that the victim nearly makes it away from the danger. But as it is a horror film the character trips and dies. The final shot that we see before her death is the car. This is to show how close she was from escape but still how very far away she is. This same convention is used in 'Dead Wood'. This is when the man tries to jump to safety and he loses his footing on the hills and gets pulled back down into the hole. He also falls over before this as well and this is to show that he will die whatever happens. As he trips it means there is less distance between the killer and the victim. This means that he is more likely to die. The last shot that we see in this film is him looking at the tent which would have been his escape. This convention is also used in most horror films. The convention is that the person has nearly made it to safety but then they get killed suddenly. The third film 'Dead Mary' has not used this convention in the starting of the film.

The next convention has all three films using it. This is that the female is reliant on the male character in the film. This is true for most horror films. In the film 'Wrong Turn' the women was reliant on the man to help her up. But as he died she then started to worry more and this is where the camera started to cut a lot quicker throughout the rest of the opening section. 'Dead Wood' is another example of this because the women is left in the car by herself. This could make the audience think that she could die in the opening. This does not happen and the only thing that really happens is that the man comes back to the car with gas. In the opening of 'Dead Mary' it still applies but is weaker compared to the other 2 films. The women looks very worried in the film when she realizes that her friend/ partner has disappeared in the woods.

A symbolic code that I have found in the openings is the amount of make up used. When you see the male in  'Dead Wood' running away from the thing trying to kill him you can see blood on his face. This shows that something bad has happened and that he knows he will probably die later on and he does. 'Wrong Turn' also uses a lot of make up in the film opening. The way that she realizes that the male friend of hers has been killed is that blood drips on to her face. This makes the audience think that she wont escape either as she still has her harness on. There is no relevance of blood in the opening of 'Dead Mary'.

Another symbolic code that is used is the clothing. All three of the females are dressed in a way that is inappropriate. This is a symbolic code. In the opening of 'Dead Wood' the female victim is wearing black. This could foreshadow death. She is also wearing clothing which isn't very good for camping. In the film 'Dead Mary' the female is dressed in blue and is showing a lot of flesh. This is similar in the 'Wrong Turn' as well as she is wearing very little clothes. This is the same as the others as the male in the opening is also wearing a lot. This is not really suitable clothing for rock climbing. In all of the films you don't see the killer either. This makes it more mysterious.

Overall, I think 'Wrong Turn' is the best out of the three films this is because it uses the most of the codes and conventions that you expect in the opening of the horror film. During the opening credits of this film there is non-diegetic sound. The credits that play over the opening are sharp and weird in most ways. They are bright white capital letters. 'Wrong Turn' uses the symbolic codes very well and the technical codes are good as well. In conclusion, 'Wrong Turn' uses a lot of good symbolic and technical codes this creates the most scary opening out of the three.