RESEARCH: Conclusions

• All the films are tense in some way at the start. They give off negative feelings about the events taking place, like in Nightmare on Elm Street, it starts with heavy breathing, quietness, footsteps, traditional things that you’d expect to hear in a horror film that puts the audience on edge.

• Night of the Living Dead starts to be tense even with the credits and company logos are being presented. The music creates tension as it helps the audience be prepared to be terrified out of their skins. Sounds outburst occasionally, signalling that there are unexpected moments in the film.

• 28 Days Later starts to be scary right from the first second. Immediately, there is fast camera movement and panic, and that tells the audience that this film is seriously frightening, as we see footage of the public in crowds of chaos as the angry zombie-like people start to attack anyone they can.

• Even though the other films are filmed professionally, the Paranormal Activity series is filmed from the point of view of the actors, as if the events actually happened. But the second film is only scary for a few seconds at the very beginning, as a white text glowing green appears on the screen, telling the audience about the deceased and the police department of the hometown of the people. So it makes the audience question why there are deceased people in this film, and what happened to them that killed them.

• Another similarity with the films is that we don’t know where the cause of the problem came from. Like in Nightmare on Elm Street, all we know is that the villain created a claw weapon thing, and then there’s this random girl running from him. We don’t have any idea what made him a villain, all we know is that he’s out looking to scare/kill someone.

• In Night of the Living Dead, we don’t know where the zombies have come from; we don’t know if it’s some sort of disease or a scientific experiment gone wrong. All we know is that the zombies somehow spread their unknown virus when attacking others, and we can only stop them by decapitating them or shooting them in the head.

• In 28 Days Later, we don’t know where this rage virus comes from, but we know that scientists have failed to cure whatever it is. The ones with the rage virus are very similar to zombies by the way they act and the way the virus is spread. Some people call them zombies, except they’re not, they’re just very angry people with a blood virus.

• In Paranormal Activity 2, we don’t know where this ghost demon thing has come from, and why it’s stalking these two sisters. The only thing we know is that it can hurt them, possess them, kill them and scare them to death. We don’t know what it wants, but what we do know is that it would kill anyone who gets in it’s way to get it.

TECHNICAL CODESCamera Work

• In the first two deconstructions, I noticed that some of the camera work was quite similar. I noticed tracking shots, such as in Nightmare on Elm Street where we track the villain’s feet at the start, and in Night of the Living Dead where we track the moving car at some points.

• There’re also some high angles where the camera looks down on something, like in Nightmare on Elm Street where the camera is looking down at the man picking up some materials to make his glove thing. It also happens in Night of the Living Dead, where the car is driving into the graveyard. Also in 28 Days Later, the camera looks down on the monkey that is pinned down to the operating table, showing us that it is captivated and cannot escape. Also when the people walk into the room with the cages, the camera is pointing down so we can see that there are lots of them and where the people are walking. So this camera angle shows us what is meant to be the main focus.

• The camera work in Paranormal Activity is different from the others, as it’s all from the point of view of the people as they’re using a handheld camera. This creates the vibe that all of the footage is real life, so this makes the audience believe what id going on.

TECHNICAL CODESEditing

• In the first, third and fourth deconstructions, all of the editing is the same. They only consist of jump cuts, whether they’re seconds later or maybe a few minutes. There are not any special transitions, they only go from one and straight to the other.

• Only in Night of the Living Dead are any special transitions, as they all fade in and out from one to the other, as though indicating to the audience that a little bit of time is passing between each shot that is taken.

TECHNICAL CODESSound

• The first three deconstructions, I noticed, have some scary sounds in the first two minutes. It isn’t music as such, although it might be ominous drones of one tone. In Nightmare on Elm Street, the majority of the time you can hear heavy breathing of an old man, and that is a traditional sound to have in a horror film, trying to raise the hairs on your arms or give you goose bumps. In Night of the Living Dead, we hear droning tones as the title and company industry logos are being presented, with the occasional sudden high note of violins, etc. This indicates that the film could have some unexpected moments in it that make the audience jump, so this creates the tension.Lastly, in 28 Days Later, The first noise we hear is distortion of radio signals, screams of petrified crowds, sirens, crackling fires, gunshots, as panic spreads all over the location we’re in.

• Because Paranormal Activity is filmed differently from the previous films that I deconstructed, the sounds are only of the people talking.

TECHNICAL CODESMise-en-Scene

• In my opinion, none of the scenery are similar. Nightmare on Elm Street starts in what we assume to be some sort of basement when we see the villain. Night of the Living Dead begins outside in the middle of nowhere when the car is on its journey. 28 Days Later begins in something like a laboratory when we see the pinned monkey. And Paranormal Activity 2 starts in a street, a built up area where the people live.

So in all of the films, we see a few similarities to do with the openings, tension, how the

villains create questions in the viewers mind and the four technical codes.