Crimson Peak  

The scene from ‘Crimson Peak’ shows different areas of the film such as the camera, lighting, mise-en-scene, and sound, but some of these have been used more effectively. The genre of the film is horror and the low-key lighting and how the director uses smoke and mist to add the atmosphere show this.

In the scene, a lot of different types of shots were taken and they were taken at different angles.

In the beginning, a medium shot was used because this shows that the character is in a comfortable position so in this part of the clip the audience thinks nothing bad is going to happen.

Throughout the clip a lot of long shots have been used because it shows the setting or the sense of time, so therefore in ‘Crimson Peak’ it shows that its dark, so therefore because it’s the night time, people are more likely to have nightmares and this links with the genre horror because in horror films most of the time there is someone who is having a nightmare.

A close up has been used in ‘Crimson peak’ to show an evil character because it draws attention because it leaves out the context of the film and a close up also helps to show that something is about to be revealed. Alongside the close up they have used a low angle because it shows an evil character. Additionally, a low angle shows that the evil character has more power and it shows characterization. On the other hand, they use a high angle to represent the young girl because it shows that she has less control and she is the weaker character.

An oblique angle has been used to portray the evil character; this is effective because it shows there’s an evil character so therefore it gives the audience a sense of mystery because they get the idea that something bad is going to happen (so in the clip from ‘Crimson Peak’ the demon is the bad things).

In the scene from ‘Crimson Peak,’ the lighting varies and this is because the lighting has an effect on the audience. At the start of the scene it is really dark and misty so therefore this builds up tension and suspense, the lighting on the girl is very bright which then draws the attention to her, so the audience is focused on her.  The dark atmosphere can also represent the genre of horror because normally when its dark outside people get more scared easily. The genre horror is represented throughout with the lack of speech but mysterious music and sounds being played, also low-key lighting shows the genre of horror.

Even when there is some light it’s only a little bit of light. In the clip candles are use a lot to show the light, the candles can also link to the house because candlesticks were used in the Victorian era so it shows that the house is old fashioned.  The candles also show the time period that the film was set in, which is called mise-en-scene. This can relate to the historical history behind the film because people were really religious in the Victorian period so they believed in ghosts and demons. This shows why the girl was scared to find the demon.

In the scene from ‘Crimson Peak’ the director Guillermo del Toro has suggested some different meaning such as darkness, also another theme that has been portrayed in the scene is a nightmare because nightmares happen at night and it is something you fear and the girl fears what could happen to her.

Some techniques have been suggested throughout the scene such as genre, mise-en-scene, lighting, camera movement, and sound. For example, the sound has been used really effectively because the noise from the squeaking door echo’s because of the emptiness of the house because the only people in the house is the girl and the dog until she finds the demon. Iconography has also been used throughout the clip because it shows the genre of horror and the low-key lighting because the only lighting there was in the clip was from the candlestick.

The film uses narrative structure really well because the aim of the film was either to solve a problem or to kill and if we were able to watch the rest of the film we could see how it ends, but we can already see some of the narrative structure is shown.