Research: Demonic Symbols.

While searching for demonic symbols, I found a few demon sigils, and decided to include them on here, I looked at one of the demons on this list called Adnachiel: the hunter demon. 

Adnachiel: The hunter demon.

This Demon is only young, but is very tall and pale. He is a noble in the underworld and he has a very high social status. He alternates between plain clothes and usually wears an animal skin that is clasped near his throat. It is difficult to spot this demon when he possesses somebody as he is usually extremely well mannered and polite. However, he does not let this get in the way of business, as honor is a great thing to him.

He is extremely efficient, and very cunning. He often uses charm to get people to do what he wants before he kills them. He has a particular soft spot towards young children and animals, as these are very vulnerable and innocent and easy to possess. Also young children appear very cute and innocent and can easily charm adults into quieter places so he can kill them. 

The Sigil of Baphomet:

The symbol at the top of the image is called the de Guaita image, and was created by a man who was an Occult member. As you can see it has the names, "Adam" and "Eve" written inside it and it is described in the book as a "White-light symbol of man."
it also incorporates the star of David within it.





However orientated in a different direction, it becomes a symbol of iniquity, perdition and blasphemy, (to quote De Guaita)
The two star points in the air become this goat threatening heaven, and many aren't entirely sure where this images came from, and this image was printed onto the front of the Satanic Bible, and this began the Satanic religion.
This goat also depicts the devil in many tarot readings, and this symbol has been around since the 13th Century.


The Satanic Cross:

This is the sign for Sulfur in Alchemy, which is often linked to the Devil in the way that Hell is made of lots of volcanoes and fires and sulfur attributes to the putrid environments of burning flesh and disease causing fungi.

This symbol was placed above the Nine Satanic Statements and is used in rituals performed by Theistic Satanists.
Sulfur and Mercury are considered to be the parents of all metals.

If a person was supposed to be a vampire, then this symbol was put on their gravestone after they had died to ensure that they would stay in the underworld and never rise into the living world again. But that was just a suspicion from a very long time ago.

The Possession: Deconstruction of Possession Scene

I couldn't find the scene I wanted to deconstruct on YouTube therefore, I had to find the full movie online and deconstruct it that way.
The first thing I noticed when watching this film is all the objects that have a significant meaning. For example, oil and water. Oil represents light whereas water represents darkness. Due to science these two cannot physically mix therefore they will stay seperate, just like good and evil should. The little girl who is possessed becomes very strong and forceful. This enhances the idea that there is a demonic presence inside of her that is controlling her. The other people within the room are suddenly inferior as they cannot physically control the demon.

As Emily becomes more possessed, her facial expressions begin to change. For example, her eyes become pure white without any pupil, her mouth becomes a dark red colour, almost black, and she develops these very long fangs. This is a sign to everyone, including the audience that there is definitely nothing physical or emotionally wrong with her, but something more dark, evil and sinister. 

As Emily's father approaches the door she has just run in to the tension builds dramatically. This is due to the fact that there is now no sound what so ever, there is just silence. Another feature that adds to the tension building is the lighting. The doorway is pitch black with very low level lighting surrounding it. This puts the audience on the edge of their seats. 

When it comes to lighting, I noticed that they used an orange light to illuminate Emily once she is possessed. This works well as it is very difficult to see clear features until this type of light therefore causing the audience to become more scared. In addition to this, Emily repeats the same words and noises over and over. This creates a sense of fear and being caught up in something she cannot escape from. Emily's voice slowly changes into that of a scary possessed, demonic voice, scaring the audience beyond belief, then she suddenly disappears. 

SOUND
There is parallel non-diegetic background noise that builds the tension. This isn't music but they are constant sounds that draw the audience in and puts them on the edge of their seat. As the demon becomes more powerful and begins gaining strength over Emily, there is a lot more diegetic noises. The wind in the hospital room picks up causing it to become louder and noisier. In addition to this, Emily begins screaming which builds more tension yet makes the audience feel sorry for her as she is currently claimed by the evil presence that she cannot shake.

Typography Deconstruction

SINISTER

When I began looking at Supernatural Horror Film typography, the first movie to pop into my head was Sinister. This is because I have studied the film before as well as having a memory of the typography they used.

In this movie poster, the typography they used is very stereotypical. Although the font may be plain and simple there is a very evil feel about it. This is due to the fact there is a shadow behind and underneath the font itself. This is a very good attribute to include in our opening titles typography. 

MAMA

This poster is slightly different to Sinister. The typography is extremely simple with no hint of stereotypical features. The font is plain white and very basic. Although we want our typography to be basic and simple, we also want it to be attractive and intriguing at the same time. There are no features from this poster that we would want to include in our typography. 

SHUTTER

The last typography I looked at was that of Shutter. Although this font is very basic, it does have a feature that I would like to carry forward into our typography. And that is the fact that it looks like the letters have faded and cracked. This causes the text to look older and more creepy that if it was simple and blocked in. 

Therefore I would like to combine the featured from Sinister and Shutter in order to create our typography. 

Independant Study: Mask Research.

We decided that we might use a mask in our piece because masks carry a sense of mystery. They're very scary because you don't know what's underneath them and the audience often begin to imagine what could be.

We also had to choose what kind of mask we wanted, there were three options that we particularly liked:

-Clown masks

The mask on the left would be more ideal than the mask on the right because the mask on the left is slightly more creepy because it doesn't looks as happy and bright as the mask on the right.
If we were to duplicate this mask we may not even need to make the mask, we could paint this design onto the persons face, because face paints also hide a persons personality and are very easy to do.

-Blank masks

 These two masks are good because they don't show emotion, however they are maybe a little too blank and too white, we could make this effect without the mask so what's the point in buying a mask when we could just paint the child's face white anyway? These masks lack the creepy factor that we want.


This Mask is a hockey mask that has already been used in a film before, because it does not have a mouth it hides any kind of emotion and completely drains the wearer of any kind of personality and feeling, making it a very scary mask, especially if the person does not talk. Eyes don't give away much in terms of emotion, but if we can see the eyes it makes the wearer appear very cold and creepy. We should add eye holes so that the child appears cold and emotionless.



-Potato sack masks
This mask is particularly scary because of the way it has been stitched together, essentially a mask is what everyone sees so it is like a secondary face. This mask leads the viewer to believe that underneath the mask the person is also disfigured in some way because of how the mask is also disfigured. Again there are holes cut out for the eyes, which show no emotion and are very cold and creepy. I like the way the mouth is stitched, however I think that instead of the mouth looking sad it should look happy instead because that is far creepier when it seems like the villian is having fun playing with their victim or murdering their victim. 

This mask actually has a child underneath it which is what we would do with this mask, and overall it is extremely creepy.
The mask looks like the child has decorated or made it themselves as the eyeholes are wonky and not perfect and the makeup on it looks like clowns makeup.

Personally I believe that we should make a mask that is just like this one, as it is a mixture of all three mask types that we liked, and it is also the creepiest. It has the eye holes to show the stone cold eyes and the emotionless personality. The clown makeup makes it seem like an innocent child, but also clown makeup is creepy and clowns are a huge phobia for many people. I also think we should stitch a smiley mouth into the mask as well in order to make it extremely creepy. 

Independent Study: Location Souting

When deciding on a location in which to film our opening scene, we began to look for abandoned buildings. Many of us thought of the Klinger Factory in Foots Cray, therefore I decided to go down to Foots Cray and see whether we could film there.

Upon finding the factory, I had to trouble of getting into it. This however became a serious problem. There is physically no way into the factory. All around the perimeter there is a double 8 ft fence of wood and wire. This made it impossible to get into the factory without getting caught. Therefore I decided it was better to find another location that was not only safer, but easier to access. 

Research: Survey Results

We conducted a survey using www.surveymonkey.com in order to collect data about what people find scary within a horror film. We had 10 different questions and asked teenagers between the ages of 15 and 18 to fill it out. We asked this age group as they are our target audience. We were asked to gather 70 responses however, after each group member posted the survey on a social media site, we managed to gain 132 responses in less that 24 hours. We gave our interviewees a brief and asked them to fill out the survey:

We then collected our results and viewed them as bar graphs. Here is what we found:

Although the participants said they would prefer a death we have decided to go against the results and not include one. 

We agree and are going to use a China Doll Mask.

We agree and intend to use demonic symbols.

We have decided to go with the minority of this vote. 

We agree and are going to carry out our filming within a derelict building. 

As the vote was very close, we are using a small teenage group.

We intend to use all over the above besides teddies. 

We will use Ring-a-Rosies

Independant study: Doll Research

CHUCKY (1988 - 2013)
Chucky is one of the most famous horror dolls in the history of films. At first his appearence within the first three films was very decieving. Although he was a crazed cereal killer, he almost looked innocent.

As the films progressed, Chucky began to become mad. At the end of the third film, he gained his famous scars and stitched due to the fact he was cut up into many pieces. This gave Chucky more of a horror look to him therefore making him scare the audience to such an extent, they want to turn the film off.

DEAD SILENCE (2007)

The second film involving dolls I looked at was called Dead Silence. This film doesn't particually take on the roll of dolls but more of a ventriloquist. Although these dummies do no have scars and cuts all over their facy like chuckie, these Dolls still have the desired effect on the audience.

These dummies have the black paint around their eyes which make their white eyes stand out even more. This also gives the effect that no matter where you go, his eyes are always upon you, watching. Another this that is creepy about this dummy is the fact he has red paint on his lips. This could be just to define them and make the stand out against his pale skin, however it could be to make the clear representation of blood and passion.

PINOCCHIO'S REVENGE (1996)

This film is slightly different in terms of killer dolls. It takes on the traditional view of Pinocchio, being made of wood and very similar features to a real boy. Here the Pinocchio doll looks very innocent, raised eyebrows, wide-eyed, simple facial expression and trypical childish clothes.

However as the film progresses on we later find out that Pinocchio was never as innocent as everyone thought. Here we find Pinocchio holding a knife above his head, in an attempt at stabbing someone. In addition to this, we see that is eyebrows have now furrowed and his eyes are not wide and innocent anymore but contain a glaring look within them. Finally, Pinocchio's facial expression has shifted dramatically. He is no longer content with those around him but he appears to be angry and displeased with them.

The I looked at how we could create out own scary looking dolls. I did this by buying a cheap china doll from a charity shop then I added characteristics to it that are typically scary. For example: 

I blacked out the eyes with black acrylic paint. This is naturally scary and appears in quite a few horror films when a person or thing becomes possessed.  

Following this, I sewed the lips up to give the effect that all this is happening against their will and they cannot control it.

The final thing i did was singe all of the dolls hair as this gave the effect that she has been pulling her hair out and going mad in the process. This meant the doll looked as though she had a back story and actually was alive. 

Here is the final product:

Camera angles and editing- natural born killers

Camera angles
Establishing shot shows where the scene is set, remote location fits in with the murders because the murderers can get away with it.

low angle shot shows the two men but makes it so that the audience cannot see what they are looking at creating suspense and anticipation. The policemen are sleezy and after the female so the low angle shot showes the men looking at her in awe as though she is an object.

Wide shot shows the contrast between the conversation the two men are having and the dancing in the background. It also shows how one set of action will effect the other set- showing they are joined in one shot and also joined in action and consequence. 

Also, the camera pans to the right slowly as the man on the right moves the newspaper from his face. As the camera reveals more of the shot, the man reveals more of his identity showing himself to the viewer.

Editing

A black and white shot is used at many times during the extract. This could be done because it is abnormal just like the murders taking place. It could also be used to represent the madness of the murderers. 

Once she has killed the man, the scene flashes back for a moment to when he was dancing. His face is full of laughter showing the contrast to his death and also showing the life that has just been taken away. The laughter and happiness mixed with the brutal and graphic killings fill the whole scene with a feeling of madness and this makes the viewer feel uncomfortable. 

In contrast to the black and white, special attention is paid to the specific colour green at different times in the sequence. 

Green has connotations of nature and life so using this shows a contrast in the lives being taken away in the scene

This is also a close up shot allowing the viewer to focus on the pie that looks unnatural and of a strange substance. This unusual thing and abnormality represents the strange abnormality of the brutal killings. 

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.