Research : Analyse the codes and conventions of horror films as shown in the openings of 'Dead Wood', 'Dead Mary' and 'Wrong Turn'.

Codes are systems of signs, which create meaning. Codes can be divided into two categories – technical and symbolic. Technical codes are all the ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a film. One example could be the use of a high angled shot to show the dominance of one character over another. Another example of this would be a POV shot when running through bushes. This gives the viewer the experience of being on the set and feeling like you are running from the danger. A symbolic code is something that you a persuaded to think. If a character is shaking, we think of them as nervous or cold but if a character is making a fist with his hand, you know he is mad or angry. Conventions are something that happens in most films of the same genre. In a horror film, one general convention would be someone seeing a safety point e.g. their car, but not being able to reach it. Another convention would be someone tripping over when trying to escape the villain. I looked at three openings for horror films and looked at the similarities and differences. My three film openings gave me a good insight into what codes and conventions are used in horror films.

Dead Mary-2007

Kim and her boyfriend Matt have just broken up, but they travel together to a cottage nearby a lake to spend the weekend with their friends Eve, Dash and his wife Amber and Baker and his new girlfriend Lily. The atmosphere becomes heavy with the situation between Kim and Matt, and one of them suggests them to play "Dead Mary". Matt, Eve and Dash summon the evil witch repeating her name three times in front of a mirror with a candle. Along the night, Matt hears weird noises, is killed and returns to life, while part of the group is possessed by the fiend. Without knowing who is possessed, the rest of the group fights to survive.

Dead Wood-2007

Four friends escape the grime of the city and head out into the woods for a peaceful, relaxing weekend. Events take a sinister turn when a mysterious girl appears in their camp looking for her boyfriend. Soon the nightmare begins as they find themselves lost in an endless wilderness stalked by a deadly force. As those left fight for survival they will discover the true nature of fear.

Wrong Turn-2003

Chris Flynn is driving his car for a job interview in another city. However, an accident with a trunk transporting chemical products blocks the highway and Chris looks for an alternative route through the mountains of West Virginia to accomplish his schedule. Due to a lack of attention, he crashes another car parked in the middle of the road with flat tires. Chris meets a group of five friends, who intended to camp in the forest, and they decide to leave the couple Francine and Evan on the place, while Chris, Jessie, Carly and her fiancé Scott tries to find some help. They find a weird cabin in the middle of nowhere, where three violent cannibalistic mountain men with the appearance of monsters live. The two couples try to escape from the mountain men while chased by them.

Some of these films were made in different years and were directed by different people but nearly all of them follow the same codes and conventions as each other. Dead Wood and Wrong Turn are very similar whereas Dead Mary doesn’t follow as many of these codes and conventions. Dead Wood opens with a peaceful scene and some non-diegetic sound which sound spiritual and all of a sudden someone running disturbs the peace. The non-diegetic helps the audience feel the atmosphere and tension in the air. The sound will normally speed up when action is about to happen which builds the tension. This is very similar to Wrong Turn as it opens with panning shot of a forest and it also has some peaceful non-diegetic sound being played. When the main characters in the opening part of the film are running, the camera turns to a point of view shot allowing all sticks and branches to hit the camera of the lens showing how beaten someone would be. This happens in both Dead Wood and Wrong Turn where as there is no action in the start of Dead Mary. Dead Mary uses the start of the film to show certain items that may come in handy later like the flare gun. However, Dead Mary’s opening does use some general conventions like the phone having no signal. This isn’t used in the other openings but the lack of communication is. The character in Wrong Turn doesn’t alert is rock climbing partner about the danger and neither does the man in the opening of Dead Wood, he would easily be able to shout to the female in the tent but instead he is silent meaning that the other partner in blissful unaware of the danger lurking in the bushes. When the male character attempts to jump the ditch, slow-motion is used to mark the moment and makes the audience remember what happened because it will be relevant later on in the film. In all three of these openings there are similarities, one being the characters are all in their early twenties. This means that they match the age of the target audience allowing them to relate to them. This encourages people to come and watch the film. Every opening contains one male and one female and the women are always wearing very little and are perceived the weaker sex of the pair. This is backed up by the codes that the camera makes. To show that the male is the stronger sex in Wrong Turn, the camera uses a high angled shot to look down on the female climber. The female climber in wrong turn is wearing very little which shows more skin and backs up the point that the females are shown are the weak sex. In Dead Wood, as the woman climbs out of the tent, you she her bare leg first which shows of skin like in every other female in my chosen films. The camera also shows when the pace is picking up because the camera with have an extreme close up on the point of action and the non-diegetic sound becomes of a quicker tempo and often becomes strings or a piano.

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