Laurie Dyche Founation Portfolio Research: Textual Analysis

Foundation Portfolio Research

My sub-genre is ‘Ghost’ so in order to get some ideas for my own horror film, I watched Gothika. Even though I have seen this film before it never fails to make me jump and the first time I watched it it gave me nightmares so I thought it would be a good film to watch and pick up some ideas.

The camera shots varied to portray the victim and threat in the film. At the very start of the film there is a close up of Chloe’s face when she is speaking about what happened to her; this is so that the audience only focus is on her and you aren’t distracted by the surroundings so you can listen to what she is saying. It is also so that we can see the emotion on her face clearly and feel sympathy for the character because she looks distressed and upset. Later on in the film, when Miranda is in the shower, the camera illustrates what Miranda can see when she sees distorted faces of the people in the shower. This is so the audience can see what she sees which is effective because the images are frightening and confusing as you don’t know if what you are seeing is just her imagination, the ghost taking over her mind or her eyes playing tricks due to the drugs she’s been given by the hospital. The camera frames the victim by doing close ups of the girl ghost under the bridge because it showed that she was shaking, hurt and you could see that she was crying which engages the audience because you want to find out what is wrong with the girl and find out what happened to her. However, in contrast to this, the girl ghost is also conveyed as the threat because when Miranda is in the shower the camera shows another close up of her face which looked angry and evil which is again engaging to the audience because you become scared of the character as you don’t know what the girl will do next and you want to know why she is so angry and violent towards Miranda.

All through the film there isn’t much light as whenever the film is outside it is at night time. Inside the hospital there is artificial lighting which is always flashing, this makes the scene seem jumpy because you are always afraid of what you can’t see so when the light goes to darkness you don’t know what is there. Due to the little light in this film, you cannot see the actors/actresses face as it casts shadows over their faces which makes all the characters seem suspicious and eerie because you can’t see them clearly.

At the very beginning there is not any music only Chloe talking about what happened to her. This is used because it is very dramatic and also highlights what Chloe is saying as there is no back ground noise to distract. After Miranda and Chloe have a conversation, Chloe suddenly shouts which makes the audience jump because it was so unexpected. When she is carried away by the guards she is screaming and shouting after Miranda which links with the choice of instruments which is then played as Miranda walks away. These are violins and pianos which are used because those instruments typically are related to emotion and sadness.

Gothika is set in a mental asylum which was used to great effect because it creates fear as you a typically afraid of people who have been branded ‘crazy’. The mental asylum is dull and grey with huge gates, locks and lots of security. This again links to fear because it portrays that the people inside have either killed someone or who are mentally unstable.

In the opening scene there aren’t many key props. However, throughout the film there are other props which we see such as the murder weapon (axe), the newspaper article (which is where we find out what happened to her husband), a computer (where Miranda finds the information about the tattoo and what happened to the ghost called Rachel), the cameras in the hospital and the TV screens they appear on, Medical equipment (drugs). All of these things are crucial props because without them the plot wouldn’t be as gripping and wouldn’t flow.

There are conventions of my sub-genre in this film such as flashing lights, the lightening outside, shadows, ghost writing and things moving on their own which i think we should take in consideration when deciding what conventions to put in our film.

The scariest part of the film was when Miranda is in a cell and she bends down to pick something up the ghost is stood right behind her. What makes it so scary is because you don’t expect to see her stood behind her which made me jump. I think I’ll use something similar to this in our film.