The exorcist- William Friedkin

Analysis of horror classic

Background Information • Released in 1973, June the 19th. Although it was banned in some towns of the UK, some

people had to travel to the nearest town which hadn’t banned it if they wanted to view it in the cinema.

• Release- The film was only released on Video in the UK in 1999. • It also received good reception from film critics being nominated for several awards and

winning some as well in countries all over the world. The awards won include:• Golden Globes USA ‘best director, best motion picture (drama), best screenplay (motion

picture), best supporting actress (Motion picture, Linda Blair)- 1974.

• Golden Reel Award-1974- ‘best sound editing (sound effects and dialogue’.

• WGA Screen Award- USA-1974- ‘Best Drama adapted from another medium’.• 1975- Golden Scroll USA- ‘Best horror film, best make-up, best special effects, best writer’. • 1978- Golden screen- Germany • Empire Awards UK ‘Movie Masterpiece Award’- 1999• Often referred to the scariest horror movie off all time.

More background Information

• Rated as an 18. • It is rated as and 18 because it has the following elements

included in the film: -Alcohol is seen in the film with a character drunk -Drugs are mentioned -Sex is mentioned verbally in narrative context and sexual

gestures are made in the film. Violence- There is a strong sense of violence in the film. Bad language- There is a strong element of swearing in the

film. • Genre of horror/ Classics

The plot

• The plot of the film is: A visiting actress in Washington, D.C., notices dramatic and dangerous changes in

the behavior and physical make-up of her 12-year-old daughter. Meanwhile, a young priest at nearby Georgetown University begins to doubt his faith while dealing with his mother's terminal sickness. And, book-ending the story, a frail, elderly priest recognizes the necessity for a show-down with an old demonic enemy. (from IMBD.com)

• The story comes from a novel written by and been adapted into a screenplay William Peter Blatty, who was an american screen play writer.

Editing

Cuts- The cuts are of a medium to long length which means that the introduction flows at a slow pace, this means that when things do start to go wrong for the characters the audience are less likely to expect it because it is almost like you are looking through someone’s eyes and seeing their perspective and not like you are watching a film with fast cuts straight away.

Titles0.49-’A William Friedkin Film’ – Red type-The directors name is placed as the first title this is because it is important that it is clear who made the film so that the director gets the credit for his work. I think the text has been placed in a red font because it signifies danger because red is associated with blood, so it implies to the audience that there is going to be danger and violence in the film.

-0.55’A WILLIAM PETER BLATTY’S -(goes from red to pink type)-I think the font has been made to change to pink because it is commonly used to symbolize females, it could be implying that the girl will be harmed with the use of the red and pink transition.

-0.59-’THE EXCORCIST’ (from pink to red)- red could connote the blood later seen in the film and the pink could imply the girl who is harmed.

-Font used for all of the titles--Is unclear has a kind of blur to the edge of it and the shape of each of the letters are not quiet even and slightly curved out kind of like they are distorted or misshaped but it also has sharp angular shaped serifs, this creates a tense atmosphere and isn’t implying that the film will be relaxing to watch like a smoothly edged font would which would be used in a romantic comedy.

Lighting

Low key lighting- At the beginning of the introduction low lighting has been used to set create a moody atmosphere and to make it seem eerie. By using low lighting it puts the idea in the audiences mind that something could in the storyline later on, this is because by using the low lighting it creates the connotation of danger in the audiences mind because the night is associated with crime and with sprits/ ghosts. Also people are more weary when walking outside at night on street corners because they cannot see as well as in the day time so it brings a sense of the unknown into the audiences minds.

High key lighting-

Sound

• It opens with a distorted soundtrack which is music with elements which sounds like diegetic wind. This also adds to the eerie/creepy atmosphere which has been created because the wind sound creates the connotation of a haunted night implying that there are sprits around

Narrative context

There is no narrative context in the introduction of the film, I think the producers have done this on purpose because they want focus the audiences minds on the setting of the story to create a creepy atmosphere so that they can build the tension up slowly to create shock for the audience when things do go wrong and things start happening out of the ordinary, even though it has been implied.

Location and Setting

• Isolated house- A modern house is shown which is located in a town but slightly isolated away from the rest of the town as it is placed right on the corner of the street. This is a usual code and convention of films in the horror genre.

• Church area- this connotes sprits and ghosts because around a church you will often find a graveyard.

Props

• Religious statue- This represents the religious element of the storyline, this is seen at 0.45, it is in a high key medium shot, I think this has been used to create an obvious contrast so that the statue is brought to the audiences attention. It creates an effective contrast because the first shot is a low key tracking shot which creates a tense mood and an eerie effect. The shot is still moody because of the colour tones used like red which connotes danger and blood.

Shots

• 0.15- W.B production studios logo but in greyscale and with a grainy effect.

• 0.24- panning shot going from high to low angle. This is showing the isolated house

• 0.41- Fades into new shot • 0.45- New shot of religious statue, close up. • 0.49-’A William Friedkin Film’ – Red type • 0.49- music gets higher with squeeky sounding violin • 0.55’A WILLIAM PETER BLATTY’S -(goes from red to pink type)• 0.59-’THE EXCORCIST’ (from pink to red)- red could connote the blood

later seen in the film and the pink could imply the girl who is harmed. • Then Indian music is heard and a sunset is seen when the film goes into

the main part to the first scene.

Conclusion

• The exorcist fits the rating of 18 well because it would be shocking and disturbing for a younger audience to see, it would be inappropriate to expose them to the sex, alcohol and mention of drugs for very young audiences.

• The film does not go straight into the violence I like that they have established the mood and atmosphere of the film by introducing the audience to the setting and the storyline slowly by using mise en scene to imply the danger which is approaching.

The Shining

Analysis of film and age rating certificate

This movie is about a family that go’s on holiday to an isolated hotel for the winter where then an evil and spiritual presence influences the father of the family into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.

The genre of this film is Horror/Thriller, as is contains scenes of violence, strong language and sex. The Shining was rated an age certificate of 15 by the British Board of Film Classification(BBFC). It was given this age certificate as it is only suitable for people aged 15 and over to watch. People under 15 may not watch this as it will affect them in negative way, meaning it could put disturbing images in their mind. This movie has many scenes that contain sex and nudity, violence and gore, profanity, alcohol, drugs, fighting and intense scenes which are only suitable for people ages 15 and over to watch, as there is no strong or graphic detail of sexual activity and nudity. There is a lot of strong language in this movie, but it is not continued and aggressively used, so it is suitable for 15 years olds. There are scenes with the use of drugs, but there is not specific enough detail to influence or encourage misuse.

We chose to analyse this film, as it relates well to our opening title sequence as the genre of our opening title will be the same and we will contain similar scenes in our opening title such as violence, gore and horrific scenes such as screaming and panicking and the presence of a evil spirit. This is why we gave our opening title sequence an age rating of 15,as it is only suitable for someone aged 15 and over. We also do not want to influence anyone, as we will be playing the Ouija board and younger children get influenced very easily and try to copy things, which is another reason why we rated our opening title 15.

Woman in black

Analysis of film and age rating certificate

This movie is about a young lawyer travels to a remote village where he discovers that the people are keeping a secret from him. He soon discovers that the ghost of a recently deceased woman is causing trouble and has spread fear into the locals.

The age certificate for this film was a 12A. The target audience is males and females who are over the age of 12 who may be familiar with the Harry Potter series because Daniel Radcliffe starring in the movie promoted it heavily. Horror films are rarely rated 12A’s but they are not rated on how scary they are, there is a set list which the BBFC compares the movie against (amount of strong language, amount of violence and if The film includes taking drugs.) woman in black was rated a 12A by the BBFC because there was a small or no amount of strong language, the film also included no drug taking. At parts where the movie was violent, there was not a lot of detail which prevented the film from being rated a 15. The woman in black did not include any nudity, discriminatory language or behavior which also contributed to why the BBFC rated this film a 12A.

Our film will be rated a 15It will be a higher rating than ‘The woman in black’ because it will involve more violence and blood and the movie would become more intense and the amount of violence will increase. Our audience may also be similar to ‘the shining’ because the target audiences were people who enjoyed psychological and supernatural films. However, our audience may be similar to both of these films because our film will attract people who are interested in supernatural movies. Our target audience will be people who enjoy horror and supernatural movies and who are around the age of 15, our audience will be similar to people who watched the woman in black, however it may be the opposite of the audience of the exorcist because it involves much more violence than ours.