crimson peak clip analysis

 

 

 

Low key lighting at the start of this scene immediately makes us think that something bad is going to happen and that this film is a horror film because low key lighting is one of the key horror genre conventions.

The lighting coming from the candles gives off a red glow, red is signified with anger, blood and evil. This could signify that she is in danger and that something evil is following her or that she is possibly evil, but we know she is not evil as she is wearing white and white links with innocence, vulnerability and purity. The establishing shot of her in the corridor with her dog highlights this even more as everything is dark and she is there in white showing she is vulnerable, we also see that she is on her own and this indicates to us that something is going to happen to her because she is the prime target as she is on her own in a dark gothic looking corridor.

Later on in the scene when the monster comes out we see that is red , the colour red has been seen before, in a stain glass window and the girls candles gave off a red glow, these have foreshadowed the monster which we discovered after seeing these red elements. Also in the red glass window we saw a faint outline of what could possibly be a face, this could also have been foreshadowing the future of when the monster came as the face in the window could well have been the monster.

A the girl is running away from the monster the angle being shit is a Dutch angle , this angle shows that she is disorientated and in danger and things aren’t as they should be hence why the camera is at a tilted angle and the main character is off entered.

The diegetic exaggerated sounds make the audience feel how the girl is feeling which is possibly paranoid as she is on her own and its night and in the night your mind plays tricks on you so the exaggerated sound could trick us in to being paranoid and thinking that we are hearing things that aren’t actually there.

The non- diegetic tense music puts the audience on edge as tense music is also a prime convention in horror films so the audience knows that the music means something is going to happen, the sound also sound like tiny high pitched screams , this indicates that whatever is going to happen will definitely not be good.

The music softens when she is in the elevator this signifies that she is now safe and away from all harm, accept when she reaches the destination the elevator takes her there is what looks to be red paint or possibly blood on the back wall of where she is, this could mean that the monster is still there or something bad has happened down there, also the monster came from the ground so maybe the monster lives where she is so she is not safe.

The music picks up again when the girl finds the chest and traces the initials with her hand, the initials are in red so who ever this person is could link to the monster she just encountered as it was red, the music rising could signify danger and the first time the music rose was when she was getting chased by the monster so this could be linking to past events.

In conclusion the scene shows all the correct horror conventions you would expect to see in a horror film.