body horror genre
TRANSCRIPT
Camera
Common Camera Techniques in Body Horror:
Close ups
Medium Close ups
Pan
Long Shot
Zoom
Tilt
Dutch
Eye Level
While to man begins to mutate into the fly the camera cuts to close ups at different angles such as low and high angle showing the stages of the mutation with great detail. An example of from the film is when his feet split open as his skin rots.
The reason for this camera shot is to exaggerate the detail of the gore and gruesome of this genre. This is typically found in body horror as the audience expect to see clear detail in mutation/change of the human body.
Sound
Sound Techniques Used in Body Horror
Parallel
Contrapuntal
Diegetic
Non-Diegetic
Sound Bridge
Pleonastic
Ambient
During the end of the film (the fly) the woman in danger screams (diegetic) multiple times to send across her emotion of fear to the audience and that she is a dangerous environment. This is always found in all horror genres.
Secondly during the ending scene the non-diegetic music starts to create tension and suspense. There is a crescendo in the non-diegetic music as the man mutates into the fly to make the narrative more dramatic and more thrilling for the audience.
Editing
Common Editing Techniques In Body Horror:
Match on Action
Short Shot Duration
Shot Reverse Shot
Special Effects
Order of Shots
Continuity
The duration of each shot as the man mutates into the fly decreases (short shot duration) as each body part either rips off or rolls off.
This is to exaggerate he extent of the transformation to the fly. This makes the narrative a lot more exciting for the audience to watch and enjoy.
Character Types
Throughout a horror film and any film, all
the characters making up the drama and
the plot all have different characteristics.
Furthermore this is how a particular film
is identified by the audience.
Examples- Main and
stereotyped The protagonist- this is often the female role, they are
usually the most morally standing and smartest of the group, who end up surviving.
The antagonist- The character who manages to escape death through fear and cowering away. This is also quite set up mainly to prove a point.
The ‘irritating’ guy- In films such as Jurassic park although not a horror, as the team are slowly eliminated, this person is one of the first to go, portraying the irony of the character.
The shy/Unlikely hero- This character during the film almost opens up towards the end of the film.
Mise En Scene
The depiction of a characters attributes
other than sound is their physical
appearance and Mise En Scene.
An example could be the knife and mask
in the Horror film ‘Scream’(1999)
Elliot sears
Plot
This is the typical plot of a body horror…
There will be a group of friends(in most cases) and
they will take a risk of going somewhere
dangerous or creepy and they get trapped.
Once they get trapped something weird
starts happening and maybe a deformed
human like creature will stalk/attack
them or maybe they turn into something
bad…
After all of that usually there will be a lot of
gore and limbs being cut off, at the end of
the body horror plots usually 1 or 2 people
survive or maybe they all die…
Narrative Structure
The narrative structure of body horror has alinear structure (i.e. the story follows a strictpattern mainly formed 3 areas. Equilibrium,disequilibrium and conclusion. An example ofthis could be a fairytale.
In the body horror genre it is structured in a 3act structure.
1st Act ( equilibrium)
2nd Act (disequilibrium)
3rd Act ( conclusion)
Examples of ‘three act
structure’
The first act(equilibrium) is usually the
characters getting introduced to the
viewers and seen in a threatening
setting.
Disequilibrium& conclusion
The 2nd act is where the characters should start to
encounter the villain and then some characters will
die.
The 3rd act is the final part of the film where they
should come face to ace with the villain and kill it
or die….
Themes
The most common theme in body horrors
are mutations as body horrors are
usually people who have been mutated
into other beings through science or
naturally. Example The Fly
Settings
In body horrors the settings are usually
isolated locations to allow the antagonist to
commence the body horror (removing body
parts and creating fear with the parts). Also
these may be isolated laboratories as the
mutation is usually because of a failed
experiment
EXAMPLEThe film ‘The Fly’ seems to be set in an abandoned/isolated laboratory,
this can be seen as the colours are dark, low key and gloomy. This
looks to be a laboratory due to all the scientific equipment around
Body Horrors Purpose
The body horrors purpose is to scare the
viewer by using body parts, this also
disturbs viewers as some scenes in body
horrors will show limbs being cut off (these
scenes will also be gory)
Sub Genres Within Body Horror
• Body / Action
• Body / Slasher
• Body / Thriller
• Body / Si - Fi Slither
See No Evil
Wrong Turn
Repo Men
Questionnaire
As a group we asked people to guess our subgenre
(body horror) by looking at the collage we created.
Iconography Interviews
Name: Alistair
Genre Guessed: Body Horror
Correct or incorrect: Correct
If incorrect, why?
What else comes to mind when you
think of the body horror subgenre: Lots
of blood and body parts.
Name: Salmon
Genre Guessed: Body Horror
Correct or incorrect: Correct
If incorrect, why?
What else comes to mind when you
think of the body horror subgenre:
Murder, body parts, blood.
Name: Callum
Genre Guessed: Body Horror
Correct or incorrect: Correct
If incorrect, why?
What else comes to mind when you
think of the body horror subgenre: Blood
and sawn off limbs
Name: Tom B
Genre Guessed: Crime Horror
Correct or incorrect: Incorrect
If incorrect, why? Never heard of the
genre.
What else comes to mind when you
think of the body horror subgenre:
Mutation, blood and gore
Name: Kai
Genre Guessed: Body Horror
Correct or incorrect: Correct
If incorrect, why?
What else comes to mind when you
think of the body horror subgenre:
Human Centipede, Crazy Scientists and
Body parts