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Transmitting Fear Through the Screen Aesthetics, Narratives and Media in Contemporary Horror Films

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Transmitting Fear Through the Screen Aesthetics, Narratives and Media in Contemporary Horror Films MA-Thesis Transmitting Fear through the Screen Aesthetics, Narratives and Media in Contemporary Horror Films --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: Britt Kaandorp Student number: 10170936 Date: 3 May 2015 Supervisor: Dr. Marie-Aude Baronian Educational programme: Mediastudies: Film, beroepsgeoriënteerde specialisatie University: Universiteit van Amsterdam Word count: 23.441 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Film Still 1 Ellison watching found footage in Sinister ABSTRACT This thesis examines emotional experiences of the viewer when watching a contemporary horror film. It looks at various cinematic aesthetics that are able to evoke particular responses within the spectator. This thesis focuses on the case studies The Conjuring (James Wan, 2013), Paranormal Activity (Oren Peli, 2007) and Sinister (Scott Derrickson, 2012). These recent feature films are all productive in generating the emotion of fear within me, a response that is both bodily and cognitive. Found footage is a crucial aspect in this research. Paranormal Activity is a found footage horror film and Sinister is a film that has incorporated found footage into the diegesis. I will look at the way in which found footage is able to create a more intense and scary experience than horror films that employ a classical and fluent film style are able to do. Obviously, the narrative, the monster, the characters and their performances, are essential when it comes to eliciting a response within the viewer. However, the camera, the possibilities of the camera and the process of filmmaking turn out to be crucial in evoking an emotional response. Furthermore, screens are a salient motif in every case study, although in different ways. They add multiple cinematic layers to the film, which creates a fascinating and complex image. Due to the multiple layers, filmic boundaries become blurred. This occurs often in found footage horror films and in horror films that incorporate found footage. The monsters in Paranormal Activity and Sinister address the viewer at the end of the film. Because of the blurred boundaries, the monsters successfully challenge the screen that stands between our world and the world of the film. This creates a terrifying and overwhelming experience. In short, the three case studies aim to pull the spectator into the diegesis via particular cinematic aesthetics. Key words: emotional responses, cinematic experience, horror films, found footage, aesthetics Page 2 TABLE OF CONTENT Film Stills Page 4 Acknowledgements Page 5 Introduction Page 6 Chapter 1: Spectatorship in Suspenseful Horror Films Page 13 § 1.1 Emotional Responses Page 13 § 1.2 Horror and Suspense Page 18 § 1.3 Found Footage Horror Film Page 26 Chapter 2: Haunted House Stories Page 31 § 2.1 Narrative and Opening Page 32 § 2.2 Ubiquitous Presence of Media Page 35 § 2.3 Demonic Entities Page 36 § 2.4 Characters, Expressions and Performances Page 38 Chapter 3: Camera Functions Page 45 § 3.1 Camera as Another Presence Page 45 § 3.2 Camera as Third Protagonist Page 46 Chapter 4: Screens as Portals Page 49 § 4.1 Mirrors in The Conjuring Page 49 § 4.2 Recordings in Paranormal Activity Page 51 § 4.3 Found Footage in Sinister Page 52 Conclusion Page 56 Bibliography Page 60 Films Page 63 Page 3 FILM STILLS Film Still 1 Ellison watching found footage in Sinister Page 1 Film Still 2 Micah and Katie in Paranormal Activity Page 10 Film Still 3 Samara coming out of the screen in The Ring Page 27 Film Still 4 Opening shot The Conjuring Page 32 Film Still 5 Opening shot Sinister Page 33 Film Still 6 Opening shot Paranormal Activity Page 34 Film Still 7 Bathsheba in The Conjuring Page 36 Film Still 8 Bughuul in Sinister Page 38 Film Still 9 Lorraine in The Conjuring Page 39 Film Still 10 Christine in The Conjuring Page 40 Film Still 11 Carolyn in The Conjuring Page 41 Film Still 12 Katie in Paranormal Activity Page 42 Film Still 13 Ellison and his moving box in Sinister Page 43 Film Still 14 Micah and the camera in Paranormal Activity Page 47 Film Still 15 Micah talking to the camera in Paranormal Activity Page 47 Film Still 16 Carolyn visible in the mirror in The Conjuring Page 50 Film Still 17 Micah watching his recordings in Paranormal Activity Page 51 Film Still 18 Bughuul addresses the spectator in Sinister Page 52 Film Still 19 Ellison becoming part of the footage in Sinister Page 54 Film Still 20 Ellison becoming part of the footage in Sinister Page 54 Film Still 21 Katie addressing the spectator in Paranormal Activity Page 55 Page 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For this thesis I would like to thank the University of Amsterdam for providing me with knowledge and insights regarding media, culture and film. The Bachelor Media and Culture and the Master Film Studies broadened my horizon within the field of media studies. The university gave me the chance to focus on aspects of media studies I found fascinating and interesting, while also stimulating me to develop myself as a scholar and deepen and broaden my knowledge and skills. I also would like to thank Dr. Marie-Aude Baronian for her supervision, critical and constructive feedback and advice during the process of writing this thesis. She helped me with formulating my ideas and arguments and did so with genuine interest. Her guidance and knowledge were of great importance and she always encouraged me to keep working. Mashya Boon has helped me structuring my thoughts. Together we brainstormed about my arguments and how I should transfer this onto paper. The conversations we had inspired me to keep going when I momentarily got stuck in my thoughts. I owe her thanks for this. She also gave me useful feedback regarding my writing-style, as did my fellow student and friend Eva Bakkum. Thanks to them, I could optimize this thesis. I owe much gratitude to my parents, Theo Kaandorp and Marian Velzeboer, for giving me the chance to study in the first place. They value education greatly and always motivated me to keep learning and studying. Finally, I would like to thank Eric Hoogland for being a sounding board and motivating me to keep improving this thesis. He encourages me to always be the better version of myself. Page 5 INTRODUCTION “The cinema offers complex and varied experiences; for most people, however, it is a place to feel something.” - Carl Plantinga and Greg M. Smith Plantinga and Smith’s quote captures exactly why so many people enjoy watching films, myself included. Films have the power to make us feel happy, sad, angry, frightened, and much more. They are able to generate an emotional response within the spectators. Or at least, that is what a film aims to do. Consequently, the main goal of any horror film is to scare and horrify its spectators. But why would an audience want to be scared? In his book The Horror Film, Peter Hutchings claims that horror films offer us thrills, shocks and iconoclasm, which send us on a ruthless roller-coaster ride. A horror film can be seen as a fast journey that contains amusing and mighty sensations that generate a memorable experience within the spectator (Hutchings 82). This sensational experience thus makes a horror film appealing for the spectator. Hutchings explanation of the appeal for horror films captures precisely why I myself love to watch a good horror film. It is the promise of the adrenaline rush that lures me to the cinema to see the next horror film. The horror genre is always trying to generate a greater adrenaline rush and sensational experience within the viewer. Monsters become scarier, narratives are presented in new ways and special effects become more elaborate. The relatively new phenomenon of the found footage horror film is an outcome of this ongoing development. A found footage horror film is presented as filmic material that is discovered or found by someone, usually the viewer of the film. Logically, this footage contains frightening content. The footage is filmed by one of the protagonists to document a particular thing or event, mostly an evil presence. Handheld shots, direct sounds, an amateur look, presence of the camera and a voyeuristic viewing mode for the spectator are some of the typical aesthetics of a found footage horror film. The Do-It-Yourself aesthetics and amateur look of a found footage horror film make the film personal and subjective. Next to this, it looks like something everyone could have filmed with his or her cell phone or camera. Because of this, found footage horror films are linked to our own reality, which make them scary and overwhelming for the viewer. In addition to the found footage horror film, there are horror films that employ a mainstream film style but incorporate found footage in the narrative. In this case, it is mostly one of the protagonists who finds the footage and watches it. My focus lies on how horror films, and especially found footage horror films and horror films that incorporate found footage, are able to generate an emotional response via specific treatments of aesthetics and the narrative. Page 6 I want to make clear that this research and the books and articles that I read for my research are not about reception or reception studies, but about how a film can direct the emotions of the spectator. For instance, Passionate Views. Film, Cognition, and Emotion by editors Carl Plantinga and Greg M. Smith and Feeling Cinema. Emotional Dynamics in Film Studies by Tarja Laine focus on emotional responses, aesthetics and narrative theories. Passionate Views contains many essays by different scholars who shed a light on this subject. Jennifer M. Barker also deals with spectatorship in her chapter “Musculature”. Barker focuses on the musculature relationship between the viewer’s body and the film’s body.
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