'Crimson Peak' Clip Analysis
Analysis of the 'Crimson Peak' Clip
At the beginning of the clip the audience is met with a medium shot of a young girl lying down. The low-key lighting and the dark green atmosphere immediately indicates that this movie is of the horror genre. For the most part, the first couple of seconds is quiet, apart from the abrupt gasp that may catch the audience off guard; this could show that she may have had a nightmare. As she slowly wakes up and looks around at her surroundings, the camera zooms out, revealing more of the mies-en-scene to the audience. In the background, the non-diegetic sound is that of a choir, creating an eerie atmosphere, almost like the voices are travelling through the halls of this apposed large house; accompanied with this is the diegetic sound of a dog barking, which is actually a common horror convention. It relates to the theory that animals have a sixth-sense, so they are able to see something that humans cannot. This relates to the mystery and the tension as the audience notifies that the dog may have seen something unusual but both the main character and the audience cannot see it, both because it is not on screen or it may be something supernatural.
Continuing on, the main character is seen walking down the hallways, now revealing more of the mise-en-scene. The audience can now see part of the house, including all the antique furniture, the wooden wall panels and the candles that she is holding. This indicates that the horror movie is not set in the modern time, as there is no technology that we relate to the 2000's and onwards. Another indication that this movie is set in olden times is what the main character is wearing; when she starts walking, the camera zooms up, revealing another medium shot but with more of the environment in the background. This zoom shows that the woman is wearing a long, frilled night dress, something that was common for victorian women to wear to bed. Her hair is perfectly wavy too, showing that she takes pride in how she looks, no matter if she is out or going to bed.
Furthermore, the camera then switches to a tracking shot as the main character is walking down the corridor. This both shows her and the mise-en-scene; however instead of seeing what is behind her, we now see what she sees. This is used to put the audience in the main character's shoes and now we feel more scared and possibly alarmed as we cannot see what is behind the camera, so something could pop up behind us. There is also a contrast in colour too, the mise-en-scene has a very blue and green atmosphere, resembling that of coldness, eerieness and possibly even hinting at illness. However, because of the only light source being the candles, it reflects a rather warm orange and yellow onto the main character, possibly showing hope and safety in this dark place she is in. In addition, at the same time she is walking towards the long, empty corridors, the quite high pitched choir is continuing in the background, giving it the impression that the voices are travelling through the walls almost, meaning she is not alone, despite what the camera is showing. Following along with the topic of sound, loud creaks and doors slamming are used to both intrigue the audience and scare the audience. Doors opening by themselves indicate the supernatural, but door's slamming show something darker and more evil may be present with her. Echoes are also used to show the audience that the place is open and large, possibly hinting at an old victorian mansion.
After this scene, the camera and the actress both work together to create this disorientating and confusing cinematography, almost creating this image for the audience that she is in a maze, promoting the fear of being lost. This is a common horror convention, in which directors will focus on very real fears to scare the audience even more, or take advantage of them if they already have those fears. They create this by the camera tracking her every move, no matter if she spins around or turns back on herself, it follows her. The director has also used a lot of close ups of when she spins, not showing the audience where the main character is anymore to emphasise the confusion. At first the audience may have got to grips on the mise-en-scene and where roughly everything is placed, but very suddenly they are left confused, not knowing left from right or where she even started from. This eventually clears as she is met with the main event from the scene, and it all takes place in a very small but long hallway. This could play on the fear of claustrophobia. Another typical convention of the horror genre is that a lot of the time, the director will want to make the audience believe that everything is okay, and that the mystery is now gone. In this scene, it is showed when the main character thinks that her dog has ended up in one of the rooms, and that all is well. However, just before she opens the door, the dog appears next to her, leaving the audience to believe that something bad is about to happen when she does eventually open the door.
Before the main event, the camera zooms in towards the handle, showing that she is about to open the door. Zooming in towards the main character's actions shows the audience what is about to happen and also, it's like the director is opening the audience's eyes and not letting them look away; it shows exactly what is going to happen. There is then a series of quick scenes, one of which being a reverse zoom dolly. This is when it shows the main character looking at her dog, and the sudden realisation of that it's not who she thought it was behind the door.
We as the audience can see her realisation as the curiosity and relief that was once shown on her face is now fear and dread. This creates even more tension as the audience does not know what is about to happen, and with the sudden close ups and cuts switching from the dog to the main character, there is an instant fear for them too that something will appear. Very quickly it moves to a medium shot, of both of the actress and the door opening, showing a red monster in the doorway; this is combined with a very loud door slam, putting the audience on edge. Horror films like to use extremes when it comes to sound, and this is shown through the quiet build up to the door opening, with the emphasised door creaking, and the sudden loud slam of the door to catch the audience off guard.
After having seen some of the monster, some of the mystery has been revealed but this is followed by a very quick increasing build up to the main character opening the door again. The camera pans down her arm, showing her body movement and then quickly cuts to a medium shot of the door being opened again, but this time there is nothing there. Like I mentioned earlier, horror movies typically use the idea that everything has been resolved, and this is another example of that. It cuts to a close up/mid shot of the main character, but this time the camera has been placed inside the cupboard. This may have been done to put the audience in the place of the monster, and now we are watching her. It may have also been done to show the depth of the cupboard, as we once thought it was a room where the monster was hiding.
The next turning point is very close to the above scene. It shows an extreme long shot of the mise-en-scene entirely, both leading up to the corridor and then straight down it too, showing the main character and her dog. It cuts back to a close up of her facial expression, showing the exact same confusion and dread as we once saw before. This time however, it is built in with loud groaning sounds, followed by an immediate pan of a demon crawling through the floorboards. A long shot is then put into action, showing the audience the very bloody and missing body of the demon and the main character slowly backing away down the corridor. The close up of the demon is then used to create fear in the audience, it looks like a very bloody human in complete pain; this could be the 'uncanny valley' theory, which is that humans are programmed to fear things that are supposed to look human, but they're not, like this demon. The very loud operatic sharp notes mimicking a heartbeat in the background combined with the groaning sounds from the woman makes the entire scene very uncomfortable and scary to watch. It's almost like she needs help, but since she looks so scary the main character immediately runs away. The long shot of the main character running is used to show the audience that the monster is still very much trying to chase after her.
Furthermore, the camera then switches to a tracking shot as the main character is walking down the corridor. This both shows her and the mise-en-scene; however instead of seeing what is behind her, we now see what she sees. This is used to put the audience in the main character's shoes and now we feel more scared and possibly alarmed as we cannot see what is behind the camera, so something could pop up behind us. There is also a contrast in colour too, the mise-en-scene has a very blue and green atmosphere, resembling that of coldness, eerieness and possibly even hinting at illness. However, because of the only light source being the candles, it reflects a rather warm orange and yellow onto the main character, possibly showing hope and safety in this dark place she is in. In addition, at the same time she is walking towards the long, empty corridors, the quite high pitched choir is continuing in the background, giving it the impression that the voices are travelling through the walls almost, meaning she is not alone, despite what the camera is showing. Following along with the topic of sound, loud creaks and doors slamming are used to both intrigue the audience and scare the audience. Doors opening by themselves indicate the supernatural, but door's slamming show something darker and more evil may be present with her. Echoes are also used to show the audience that the place is open and large, possibly hinting at an old victorian mansion.
After this scene, the camera and the actress both work together to create this disorientating and confusing cinematography, almost creating this image for the audience that she is in a maze, promoting the fear of being lost. This is a common horror convention, in which directors will focus on very real fears to scare the audience even more, or take advantage of them if they already have those fears. They create this by the camera tracking her every move, no matter if she spins around or turns back on herself, it follows her. The director has also used a lot of close ups of when she spins, not showing the audience where the main character is anymore to emphasise the confusion. At first the audience may have got to grips on the mise-en-scene and where roughly everything is placed, but very suddenly they are left confused, not knowing left from right or where she even started from. This eventually clears as she is met with the main event from the scene, and it all takes place in a very small but long hallway. This could play on the fear of claustrophobia. Another typical convention of the horror genre is that a lot of the time, the director will want to make the audience believe that everything is okay, and that the mystery is now gone. In this scene, it is showed when the main character thinks that her dog has ended up in one of the rooms, and that all is well. However, just before she opens the door, the dog appears next to her, leaving the audience to believe that something bad is about to happen when she does eventually open the door.
Before the main event, the camera zooms in towards the handle, showing that she is about to open the door. Zooming in towards the main character's actions shows the audience what is about to happen and also, it's like the director is opening the audience's eyes and not letting them look away; it shows exactly what is going to happen. There is then a series of quick scenes, one of which being a reverse zoom dolly. This is when it shows the main character looking at her dog, and the sudden realisation of that it's not who she thought it was behind the door.
We as the audience can see her realisation as the curiosity and relief that was once shown on her face is now fear and dread. This creates even more tension as the audience does not know what is about to happen, and with the sudden close ups and cuts switching from the dog to the main character, there is an instant fear for them too that something will appear. Very quickly it moves to a medium shot, of both of the actress and the door opening, showing a red monster in the doorway; this is combined with a very loud door slam, putting the audience on edge. Horror films like to use extremes when it comes to sound, and this is shown through the quiet build up to the door opening, with the emphasised door creaking, and the sudden loud slam of the door to catch the audience off guard.
After having seen some of the monster, some of the mystery has been revealed but this is followed by a very quick increasing build up to the main character opening the door again. The camera pans down her arm, showing her body movement and then quickly cuts to a medium shot of the door being opened again, but this time there is nothing there. Like I mentioned earlier, horror movies typically use the idea that everything has been resolved, and this is another example of that. It cuts to a close up/mid shot of the main character, but this time the camera has been placed inside the cupboard. This may have been done to put the audience in the place of the monster, and now we are watching her. It may have also been done to show the depth of the cupboard, as we once thought it was a room where the monster was hiding.
The next turning point is very close to the above scene. It shows an extreme long shot of the mise-en-scene entirely, both leading up to the corridor and then straight down it too, showing the main character and her dog. It cuts back to a close up of her facial expression, showing the exact same confusion and dread as we once saw before. This time however, it is built in with loud groaning sounds, followed by an immediate pan of a demon crawling through the floorboards. A long shot is then put into action, showing the audience the very bloody and missing body of the demon and the main character slowly backing away down the corridor. The close up of the demon is then used to create fear in the audience, it looks like a very bloody human in complete pain; this could be the 'uncanny valley' theory, which is that humans are programmed to fear things that are supposed to look human, but they're not, like this demon. The very loud operatic sharp notes mimicking a heartbeat in the background combined with the groaning sounds from the woman makes the entire scene very uncomfortable and scary to watch. It's almost like she needs help, but since she looks so scary the main character immediately runs away. The long shot of the main character running is used to show the audience that the monster is still very much trying to chase after her.
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