Film Review 1: Silent Hill (2006) Directed by Christopher Gans

Silent Hill is a film based on an old video-game from the 90's. It revolves around an old abandoned mining town called 'Silent Hill', which got burnt down after a mining accident. The population of the town were reported missing and Silent Hill was abandoned. The film begins with a girl who has dreams of the town. Her mother takes her to Silent Hill, to stop her from having the dreams. Consequently they are in a car crash, and becomes stuck in Silent Hill. Every night an air raid siren blares out, as a warning to tell people that the darkness is coming.

My first favourite scene is when Cybil and Rose are running to the church to seek refuge from the darkness. Their friend Anna is waiting on the stairs for them. “The Darkness” comes and Cybil and rose enter the church, and turn around to see 'Pyramid Head' ripping the skin off Anna's Body. There is also a low angle shot of pyramid head standing on the stairs to show that he has the power in this and to make him seem more evil. I liked this scene a lot because of the shock factor. As the film is only a 15 I was not expecting that amount of gore in a film, which made the effect better. The mise-en-scene is powerful in this scene because the church is very gothic and has an inverted cross on it. I also liked the swarm of dark-coloured bugs that creep through the walls and that follow pyramid head about because they connote death and evil.

My other favourite scene is the scene right near the very end, where the burnt Dark Alessa rises from the factory pit in the church on her bed, on a sea of barbed wire, with which she uses to massacre numerous amounts of people, and ultimately the witch hunter Christabella. Also the scene starts with very slow shots and is very quiet, but when Dark Alessa rises there is an extreme close up of her face and she opens her eyes. This then goes to very quick shots of the barbed wire killing everybody which is collision cutting. I like this scene because the CGI is very well done, and the concept of a bed-ridden killer that uses her mind to control barbed wire is very disturbing.

Watching Silent Hill has made me understand more about the sci-fi fantasy horror genre. Silent Hill uses typical horror conventions such as body horror, creepy locations and slow moving monsters. The themes of Silent Hill are the fear of loss of family and of death. We know this because Rose is trying to find her daughter to make sure she is safe. Rose is a prime example of a typical female hero or 'Final Girl'. She is persistent, tough, and has a sort of tomboyish look that you get with most female horror heroines. The other main convention that is used is the open ending. The ending that we are given is not definite, we have to decide what we think has happened.

In my trailer I would like to include the levels of gore that was depicted in some of the Silent Hill scenes, as well as creating an original creepy monster. Things I would not like to include that Silent Hill did are things such as having nearly a complete female cast and having a cheesy motivator (Such as mother has to find daughter).

The pyramid head on the steps scene is related very much to the institutional context of the film. the film Hostel was released in 2005, which sparked a massive response in censorship critics, with people saying that it is too disgusting to even be an 18, so Silent Hill were able to get away with more body horror in their scenes and keep it a 15 certificated film. In the aforementioned pyramid head scene, the film turns into more of an action horror, because the shots are very fast. This is because modern day audiences don’t have a very long attention span, so short shots are used. When pyramid head rips off Anna’s skin the gore is only shown briefly on the screen.

This is because modern audiences have become desensitised, so it takes more to shock them. Therefore when Anna is ripped apart, it is really the first part of gore in the film, and it is very extreme, so this makes it have more of an impact. In comparison to Dawn of the Dead (1979) which has lots of gore on screen for long periods of time. Also, the scene at the very end where Cybil is burnt and Dark Alessa kills everybody also relates to the same thing.      

Film Review 2: Cabin in the Woods (2012) Directed by Drew Goddard

Cabin in the woods review

Plot Outline

Five college students go on vacation to a cabin in the woods owned by one of the student's uncle's. When they arrive they encounter hidden secrets in the cabin such as hidden windows and a locked basement.  They are then attacked by zombies, consequently killing 3 students. The other 2 students escape into a lift, which takes them to a facility that houses every mythological monster possible, which the scientists use to kill people for a blood sacrifice to their ancient gods.

Best Scenes

My first favourite scene is when the SWAT guys are moving through the corridor, all the lifts open and various monsters are released. The monsters kill the SWAT and Blood is sprayed all over the walls and body parts are just strewn across the floor, following this one man is stabbed by a clown, one is killed by a robot scorpion and another is eaten by a werewolf. The gore in this scene is especially well done as it does not look like it is all CGI, it looks failry real.

The other scene that impressed me was the Mer-man scene. A scientist lays on the floor after being thrown back by an explosion. He is unable to move and from the shadows in front of him a figure emerges. It turns out to be a mer-man, which he previously wished to kill someone with. The mer-man east the scientist and blood spray from a hole in its back. I thought that the concpet of the mer-man was the best part, because it is not the sort of thing that you'd think you be afraid of.

I would like to include lots of gore in my horror trailer as in the elveator scene from CITW. I would also like to think of a unique monster or at least something unique that scares people. I would like the avoid whiney characters such as the men from CITW. To me it seems that if a character is whiney, you know that they are going to die. This means that the audience know what's going to happen, completely spoiling the build up to their deaths.

The best general aspect of the film was the surprising location and narrative change. It changes from a dark, cabin that is fairly quiet, to a underground science facility that houses things such as giant bats, ghosts, unicorns,mer-men,giant snakes and werewolves.