Possessed girl's 'lair'- Practical

The child who is possessed will sleep at the bottom of the stairs i the derelict building. This area will be filled with dirty blakets, teddy bears, broken platic and china dolls and lots of demonic drawings and signs.

I have done a practical which will show the placement of these objects

 

In the actual film we will use dirtier sheets to show how the girl has been there a long time. As well as this, we will have many more ragged, dirty, old looking teddies with broken dolls. I have used some drawings stuck to the wall by he bed, but ideally we will have loads all clustered together to represent the manic, unchained demon.

 

Demonic symbols will feature also and the candles will be placed in shapes and symbols. However, this practical gives a rough idea of postioning and i like the looj of the cardboard ad the tossed around sheets.

Practical- Children's costumes

For our film we want the child to be the killer who has been possessed by the demon. To do this we want to use a costume that is stereotypical of little girls so that the contrast in innocence and demon is evident.
 I think using a pink dress would perfect because it is very stereotypical to little girls, the puffy looking sleeves our innocent and cute. As well as this, the fact that the dress is slightly dated creates a contrast between the girl and the modern day teenagers in the film. This contrast will make the girl seem even more different and make it look as though time has left her behind.

the girl should also wear white, frilly socks liked so strongly with children's school days. 

to match with these, the little girl should wear very simple shoes, either shiny black or brown. this will finish the outfit making the girl look completely innocent and young. 

As well as this the young girl should have her hair in ribbons and pigtails. 

Overall this look is very stereotypical and represents the perfect image of a young child, this is important because the child is far from perfrect or normal and so this juxtaposition can be more frightening. As well as this, it makes it more of a shock to the audience when they realise that she is in fact the killer and not the victim. Audiences will view her as vulnerable and therefore feel more protective over her- so this will make them more uncomfortable when they see she is possessed.

Kids in Scary Movies

Kids in Scary Movies

  Here, I am looking at the portrayal of young children as the antagonist in a supernatural horror film.

The first one that I looked at was the young boy from The Grudge:

  The young boy's skin tone is clearly a lot paler than it should be, so that it gives off a deathly feeling, which adds to the supernatural horror of the film. There is a lot of heavy eye makeup used to emphasise the eyes, and also make them seem a lot bigger than it should be. Normally, larger eyes would make a person look cuter, but due to the dark circles around the eyes, and the pale skin, it makes it look very scary and weird.
  He wears only boxers or shorts, because it shows that he is still a child, because children are socially accepted to wander around near naked, meanwhilst, if it was an adult wandering about half naked while haunting someone, it will gradually shift into the comedy genre.

The next child is from 'The Orphanage':

  What is really obvious here, is the weird potato sack mask which the boy wears, which gives the boy a sense of mystery, because you do not know what his face looks like under there. He seemingly looks very innocent, due to his clothes and the way that he is standing alone, makes him seem almost harmless. The mask may also mean that he is very different from other children.
  Compared to other children, they seem to be very secluded, and not as outgoing. This is probably due to there being past trauma or they have a weak ego, so that they are usually bullied by other children.

The last child that I looked at, was Samara Morgan from 'The Ring':

  Samara Morgan's dressing is extremely simple, as it only consists of a plain white, over sized T-shirt. This is like the child from The Orphanage, as this makes them seem very innocent and childlike due to the excessive bagginess from the T-shirt.
  Comparing these two versions of Samara Morgan, there is a clear difference between the appearances, because in the top picture, she looks very introverted, but there is still an innocent to her. However, in the bottom picture, she looks almost demonic, with the same hairstyle, but with wrinkles and blood stains underneath her eyes. Her eyes give off a very deep hatred in the form of a glare.

Some conventional traits I found during this investigation is that, even though the children has a demonic presence within them, they are still portrayed as a child with the way they are dressed. Their skin colour is also abnormally white, which gives them a supernatural feeling. The eyes are also an important factor, as they are highlighted in different ways, either with very dark makeup or emphasising it with blood. 

children in supernatural horrors

Orphan

The girl in the poster has her hair tied in pigtails- a stereotypical look for children her age, this adds to the feelings of inoccence and vulnerability.

She is also wearing a shirt/dress with a typically girly collar that represents her as young, sweet and childish in her ways. This makes the viewer find it difficult to understand how she could be the complete opposite and infact be possesed by a demon, however that makes them feel more uncomfortable and makes the film scarier to watch.

The children
The little girl in this film is wearing pink which is stereotypical to girls her age and is something people expect to see/ She looks sweet and innocent with simple brown hair. The use of different materials such as fluffy gloves and wooly hats shows her youth even more because she is likely to like the comforts of these materials. Also, the fluffy material is similar to the material of teddy bears showing her youth and innocence even more.

Silent hill

This girl has very long brown hair- long hair is a sign of youth and typical of most young girls as they want to grow their hair long. It is curled which gives it a softer look and also gives her a softer, inoccence. Again, this is wearing a collar on her dress- this promotes innocence and makes her seem sweet and gentle. It again has an old fashioned look to it which makes her seem different from the other children- this is unsettling and unnerving for the audience.

Possessed drawings- children

In our film we are thinking about using a child as the possessed and to go with this we want to use pictures that take the innocence of a child and contrast it with the evil of the demon. Doing this will make the audience fear something they usually find vulnerable and want to protect.

The initial images 

The images after adding tea stains and burning

The girl is found in a dirty, derelict looking space and so it is important that all of her possessions reflect this, it wouldn't make sense for the paper to be neat. In future I would use a stronger tea colour so that they look dirtier and also i would use thick crayons because these are more babyish and allow a thicker line when drawing through the drawings. 

As well as this, i would draw specific characters in the girls life- like her dad or the demon itself and show how they have had an affect of her. I would ruin certain images with lack pen to create anger. 

Deconstruction- Drawings in possession films

Mama

In the film muma young girls draw all over their bedroom walls with haunting images that no one understands. the way the images are covering the whole wall makes it seem more spooky because it is as though they are real people watching over the lives of the children 

The stickman-style drawing is childlike and this makes a contrast between that and the demon. However, the person is standing in a completely impossible way, as though they are something more than human and so don't have bones or organs. This is disturbing especially because its drawn by a child. 

The ring 

The use of dark, thick pencil is good because it makes the drawing look more manic as though the person drawing them cannot stop their hands from producing the pictures. 

Also, the way the images are scattered around the boy makes it look like he is haunted by the images- a circle, like he cannot escape them. 

Sinister

Compared to drawings in other films, these are very artistic and actually well drawn- especially if you look at the tree. This creates a new dimension because it gives the feeling of total possession, a girl so young wouldn't be able to drawn such good pictures so the talent conveys to the viewer that she is a completely different person and not herself at all.

The use of the light blues and bright colours makes a contrast between cheery happiness and the horrible, angry drawings.