SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

THE DESIGN SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT

NAME: Clement Chen Kit Seong

STUDENT ID NO: 0319574

FILMS SELECTED: The Woman In Black & The Babadook

WORD COUNT: 911

ENGLISH 2 (ELG 30605)

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY

LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA

SUBMISSION DATE: 5TH DECEMBER 2014

Horror movies- It’s all about the excitement, the intimidating atmosphere and an unforgettable

experience. This experience is one that is not experienced frequently and it is one of the main reasons

why people are so fascinated in it. But have you ever wondered what makes a horror movie so

entertaining and intimidating? Horror movies tend to place a trigger in the mind of the audience. The

audience are placed through the jolts and a rising atmosphere and then suddenly to break the cycle with

a jump scare. This setting in the two films is a key significance used to establish a threating atmosphere.

In the movie “The Woman In Black”, the director began with three little pretty girls dressed in nursery

dresses playing with each other when suddenly they looked into each other stared at the window, and

without a word held their hands, approached the window and jumped according to their own accord.

There is a moment of silence. This is a part where the director builds suspense through the happenings that leave the audience going: “What happened to the three little girls?”

The mystery remains unsolved until Arthur Kipps, a young agent was committed to solve the

mystery. He went to the place where the three little girls jumped off, giving a feeling of deja vu to the

audience, with an intimidating feeling that something is going to ‘pop out’ of somewhere. After that, the

suspense builds when Arthur enters an isolated mansion where nobody seems to be at home, he then

went up to the second floor, ready to work on a pile of papers when he sees a nest of ravens rushes out

flying from a room, startling him. Here, the audience’s attention is startled too, wondering what’s in the

room. Close up shots are being used frequently, portraying the relaxed emotions of Arthur and the

creepy environment. When Arthur went in the room and looked out of the window, a black shadow

appears on the garden. And when Arthur looked again, there is nobody there! This is the part where the

woman in black is softly revealed, not in its ful l form yet. These effects create an atmosphere of confusion and this is exploited well.

After more and more people died, the excitement builds behind the mystery, wanting to solve it

as soon as possible. The woman in black reveals herself in shadows again behind Arthur in the mansion.

When Arthur wakes up and walks along a dark corridor into the locked room, he tries to open it but

can’t. But suddenly when he looked, it’s wide open and a rocking chair is moving on its own, and for a

second, the woman in black appears rocking herself. Under the wallpaper, it written “YOU COULD HAVE SAVE HIM” written in blood. Red gives a sense of violence, and develops tension.

In another horror movie “The Babadook”, the director used a similar approach to “The Woman

In Black” but in different contexts. The movie began with a boy of erratic behaviour, Sam, which also

caused him to be taken out of school. One night when Sam asks his mother to read from a mysterious

pop-up book he found on the shelf, titled “Mister Babadook”, which is about a supernatural creature

similar to the woman in black. His mum, Amelia, a widow is disturbed by the book’s contents while Sam

becomes aware that the babadook is stalking them in their home. Just like Arthur when he was in the

mansion in the woman in black. When strange events began occurring throughout the house, Amelia

began tearing the book apart and threw it in a rubbish bin outside their home. Strange events kept

occurring and one of them was Sam’s seizure after experiencing a vision of the monster.

One morning, Amelia hears knocks at the door and finds the reassembled and altered “Mister

Babadook” on the front step, she reads about how the monster becomes stronger, and see herself die I

it, reaching the climax of the atmosphere building using close ups of the book, horrifying suspense

sounds and lightings. Then one night when Sam is about to sleep, he heard rumbling sounds on the

door, the door began opening by itself and a shadow cast over his blanket. “BA.. BA… BA…. Dooookk….

Dooookk……Doooookk” in a breathless voice. Then a moment of silence. Sam opened his blanket and

then the monster appeared suddenly, creating a huge jump scare and revealed the Babadook in a flash,

creating a horrifying image in the audience’s mind.

In conclusion, I think that both “The Woman in Black” and “The Babadook” portrayed similarities

by just showing a short flash of the main characters, which is The Woman in Black and Mister Babadook.

Overall, I believe that “The Woman In Black” uses horror genre conventions to the best effect together

with “The Babadook” which builds the horrifying atmosphere towards the end and leaves jump scares

and images of the main horror into the mind. The director merges his own ideas with traditional

conventions to great effect in the film which made the audience experience being in it and part of the

horrifying experience.