Horror Short Film Comparison

The Smiling Man: https://youtu.be/zk-eY5S1Nck

The short film starts off with a high angle/close up shot that
looks up at the house at night which fades in to a pan of a little
girl watching TV with lots of toys surrounding here, while
watching TV she goes out into the corridor and finds a red
balloon floating which is held down by a little plastic bag
containing human fragments. While she is looking at the bag,
there is a low angle shot of her with the stairs behind her
where we see a hand place another blue balloon down the
stairs, this is done to lead the girl somewhere by the evil
monster. After picking up the balloon she sees a door
upstairs slowly close and the monster’s hand can be seen
behind the girls left shoulder. While looking down the stairs
the girl finds another black balloon next to the kitchen door
where she peers in and sees an object roll across the floor, showing there is something in
the house with her. As the girl walks into the kitchen, a creature is seen peering past a
counter at her, making her stop for a second and continue. Here
a birds-eye-view shot is used in the kitchen to show the girl
walking and the creature hiding behind the counter, waiting for
her to turn right at it. Turning the corner, she is confronted by
the weird creature in a close-up view to show its facial features
to the audience. After some weird actions from the creature it
starts to rub a red substance on its forehead and nose which we
find out is blood from the girls mum who can be been behind
the creature in a plastic bag, which switches to a close up of the
girls face showing her amazed expression of her dead mum on
the floor.

The short horror film is about a little girl who seems to be home
alone watching TV but finds 3 balloons in the house which lead her down the stairs into the
kitchen where she finds a weird white creature who wipes blood on its face from who
seems to be the little girls mum which is dead and wrapped in
plastic behind it.

The lighting used in the video is low-key, which is a key

convention of the horror genre, throughout the whole film
showing off a dim and dark, enhancing the tension and suspense
for the audience as they can feel something is going to come.

Sound has been used effectively as we hear diegetic sound used when the girl see her dead
mum behind the creature, showing her

Cinematography: A high angle shot is used to look down the stairs, over the girls’ head,
down to another view. This camera angle is used because it makes the girl look weak and
 endanger because she does know what’s going on and the camera is
looking down on her implying weakness. A birds-eye-view shot is
used when the little girl enters the kitchen, showing us her and the
creatures’ position as she gets closer and closer to it, this camera
used effective as it builds tension in the audience as they see her
close in on it and don’t know what’s going to happen next in the
scene

The editing style of The Smiling Man is lots of short takers in one continuous scene where
the little girl is attracted down the stairs by a weird white figure as it is shown in lots of
different camera angles

The weird demon that is seen throughout the video is seen to be crazy which is seen
through the blood which it wipes across its face and how it laughs while the little girl looks
at her dead mum lying on the ground wrapped in a plastic bag.

The Halls: https://youtu.be/QKfh6LECCBk

This is a short film about a man who is struggling to unlock the

door to his house/flat and there is a strange being in the hall with
him that’s playing with his mind as there a picture on the wall next
to him that changes every time he looks at it, showing what’s
down the hall from him.

The lighting used in the film clearly reflects the horror genre as its
low-key/dark which creates shadows and a dim due so that
tension can be created due to the mysterious and dark
atmosphere as the amount of surrounding seen is controlled by
the producers. This creates a dangerous mood

Sound is used effectively in this film as non-diegetic sound is used

to portray the frustration of the character through his heavy
breathing and exhaling, non-diegetic sound has also been used to show the main character
struggling to open the door and further in him panicking as he frustratingly tries to open it.
Diegetic sound has also been used to create a creepy vibe
from a sound effect used through the sirens used at the
start, the heavy beating of the characters heart as he
looks down the hall and what sound like a violin being
played as he stares at the picture with the weird creature
at the end of the hall.
The cinematography used in the film builds on the horror
genre and helps us as the audience engage with the
character as we see exactly what he sees as well as his
emotions which can be seen in when he tries opening
the door multiple times. A long shot is seen at the very
start of the film, down the hall, where we see the
character walk from the right to a door in the middle of
the shot. The long shot is used to establish the location,
so that the audience knows where the scene takes places. A close-up shot of the characters
hand is used next in the scene to show the character trying/struggling to open the door to
their apartment/room, which then switches to another close-up of his face to show his
emotions, here it shows frustration as it’s paired with
the sound of a deep sigh. There is also a shot-reverse-
shot used where the character steering into the picture
on the wall next to him, which shows the same hall he’s
in but there is a weird creature. This camera angle has
been used here to show what might happen in the
future or what has happened in the past. Low angle shot
has been used when the picture falls on the floor, facing
up at the character, this could potentially portray the character as more powerful than the
picture and make the audience feel weak. Finally, a handheld shot is used when the
character is running away from a demon, this shot is used because it makes the audience
feel like they’re the one running away which further immerses them into the film and makes
it feel real.

The editing of the short film uses a lot of little short takes between different camera angles
and scenes.

Playback https://youtu.be/oZ1khkuc58Q

The short film is about a man whose television mysteriously shows him a brutal murder
being committed in his building, a scream from the hallway compels him to investigate.
When he gets to the scene, he finds a masked individual who is
about to stab a woman but stops and tries to kill him, the man
dodges a punch and quickly runs up the stairs back to his
apartment where the television shows him being stabbed in
the chest and neck. This is where the camera turns back on him
finding out that his chest and neck has suddenly started to
bleed and the film ending

The lighting used throughout the video is low-key and dark,

which is a common convention of the horror genre, so that
tension can be built within the audience so they know
something bad is going to happen getting them on the edge
of their seat.
 Sound is used in this video to further build the
tension as non-diegetic sound is used for when the TV
loses signal before and after we see the masked
individual murder a girl in the hall, this is effective as
it shows the audience that the man is in danger.
Diegetic sound is also used effectively at the end
where the man watches the TV and see’s that he’s
been stabbed multiple time and he starts bleeding and screaming, its effective because it
show how much pain he’s in.

Cinematography is effectively used throughout the whole

video. The video starts with a close-up shot of the main
character on the phone, this is done because to establish the
main character to the audience right at the start of the
video. A handheld shot is used when the character is walking
out of his apartment, as the camera follows him out the
door and down to the scene which we saw on the TV, this is
effective as it creates a sense of reality, making the audience feel involved in the scene and
there with the character. An over-the-shoulder shot is next used when the character turns
round and finds the mask individual about to kill the woman which he saw on his TV, this
camera angle is used because it creates tension about what’s going to happen next in the
scene, which is the mask individual trying to stab him.

The editing style used in this short film is continuous as

there is no cuts, making the whole video one continuous
video recorded in one scene, this is seen from start to
finish where he starts on his sofa, runs down his
apartment stairs, finds a mask individual, runs back up
and finishes back on the sofa he started on without any
cuts to change camera/ angle.