What follows are brief analyses of the films that first sprang to mind for research once we had come up with our treatment, and ways in which they may inform our film.
EVIL DEAD (1981)
The audience is introduced to the evil that inhabits the woods during the opening titles, when a swooping point of view glide-cam (a camera mounted on a piece of would with two operators running with it) veers between trees and over the leaf strewn, misty ground. Suspense is subsequently built through the score in fairly traditional horror style, with string drones increasing in pitch to a crescendo point to accentuate the (false?) tension. Reverberated percussive shakes and taps are also used to spook as well as the sound of crickets and whispers combined with low oscillated tones and winds. Once the mayhem begins it becomes a truly uncomfortable experience to watch. The gross-out levels of gore, whilst a little ridiculous and over the top, combined with an unrelenting score and the incessant screaming of the possessed characters becomes a barrage on the senses that, like the characters' isolated situation. is inescapable .
As a side note I can remember seeing a countdown of the greatest horror films in my early teens featuring an interview with either the sound designer or Sam Raimi explaining how an apple was used in place of an ankle when it is stabbed with a pencil to create that awful crunching sound, one of my first insights into the trickery of sound design.
EVIL DEAD (2013)
Upon watching the remake I realised the opening scene bares great similarity to a sequence in the script for our 10 minute film, though Jordan hasn't scene it so it is purely coincidental. It opens with a girl running through the woods before she is knocked out by the butt of a rifle. We are then taken to a basement where she is locked up and tortured by a family member, for having killed another. This is strikingly similar to what happens in ours so a slight rewrite may be considered to alter ours. The opening does feature some good camera techniques, with sun rays piercing through misty trees, and close ups shifting in and out of focus, with a low angle track from behind the character, something we have used in our 5 minute piece. There is also a homage to the original film in the form of the evil glide cam. Musically it is farely standard horror fare that echoes the original, with drones increasing in pitch to a crescendo and typical piano lines that switch between eerie and emotive as necessary. During the tree-rape scene the branches sound elasticated as they constrict, it sounds a little unnatural but something more subtle would be useful in bringing our own forest to life. This film makes up for the lack of bizarre humour inherent in the original with excessive amounts of bloody gore, and stands up well enough in its own right.
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
This is among my favourite moments in cinema, and is in equal parts haunting, disturbing and beautiful.
When the inclusion of a cloaked, venetian masked wearing character swinging a thurible was suggested for our piece my memory instantly flashed to the master of ceremonies in this chilling scene, and it is almost a verbatim copy. The camera enters the ceremony with Tom Cruises character and begins to circle the ritual of naked women. The eerie music and chanting gives the effect of being diagetic, with the blindfolded keyboardist seen to be playing the stark string sections. There is also underlying timpani percussion which cannot be seen however and the creation of what I originally thought to be some kind of bile chanting leaves the possibility of its diegesis dubious. Jocelyn Pook's composition features a Romanian Orthodox Divine Liturgy played backwards.
An English Translation:
And God told to his apprentices...I gave you a command...to pray to the Lord for the mercy, life, peace, health, salvation, the search, the leave and the forgiveness of the sins of God's children. The ones that pray, they have mercy and they take good care of this holy place.
This generally creates an ethereally morbid atmosphere, although the moments when it shifts into a major key do give it a more heavenly tone appropriate to the nature of this quasi-religious sex ceremony.
Beneath the veneer of the masks the sinister nature of this secret society is heavily implied throughout the rest of the film, to the extent that conspiracy theorists believe Kubrick's death five days after completing his cut can be attributed to his insightful depiction of illuminati symbology and practices.
Kill List (2011)
What really sets Kill List apart from other horrors is the believable realism grounded in its first act, through the authentic deliverance of naturalistic dialogue by actors perfectly cast in their respective roles. With its unhurried realist approach allowing for the tense relationship between Jay (Neil Maskell) and his Wife (MyAnna Buring), and later his former partner Gal (Michael Smiley), to be explored with lingering close-ups and jump cuts there is little to indicate this will be anything other than a typical British social drama. The only sinister foreshadowings to sow the seeds of unease come in the form a few periodic ominous tones to keep one from getting too immersed in the nuanced family life, and the carving of a symbol in the back of a mirror, something easily missable and forgotten on a first viewing. The second act becomes bleaker however as the two hit men embark on a road trip to take out their targets. Their contractors are immediately intimidating, with their chosen meeting place being an imposing hotel that fills the frame in dominance. It's clear from their mannerism that they're powerful men, and the score begins to use disjunct strings and percussion to reflect the discomfort of the situation. After dispatching a target and uncovering a child porn stash they confront 'the librarian' responsible for the collection.
This scene is made all the more tense by its use of silence in the score, and the subsequent impact sounds are all the more painful in their loudness. The visuals are sparing with the close ups, leaving most of the hand-maiming to just out of frame until the money shot. As with Sightseers (2012) Martin Pavey's sound design in Wheatley's films leaves little to the imagination, with gore and impact sounds foregrounded prominently in the mix, something I tend to emulate in my own works.
The third act is where the film really devolves into a horror, with their final hit on a politician unearthing a human sacrifice ritual on his estate. On second viewing I realised the ritual scene is almost identical to how I envisioned ours, from the flickering torches visible through the trees to the gradual build up of haunting voices and tribal drums as they approach the clearing, so perhaps I need to rethink my approach a little, especially considering this is also filmed in and around Sheffield. The final twisted reveal of the film recalls not only Wickerman (1973), in that the main character has been manipulated from the off for the purpose of a cultish ritual, but also parallels the influence and menace of the clandestine powerful secret society in the aforementioned Eyes Wide Shut.
Wickerman (1973)
One cannot hope to make a film with any sort of cultish ritual without paying Wickerman its due. One of my favourite horrors, though it doesn't build scares in the same ways others in the genre do, instead there is a constant air of strangeness as the mystery unfolds amongst the quaint townsfolk. The score is used in a manner that both evokes the pagan nature of the villagers whilst underpinning the uncertainty of the protagonists investigation, using a mixture of English and Scottish folk music, with flutes, fiddles, bagpipes, harps and traditional drums primarily used at intervals as a new plot element is discovered.
The day of the Mayday celebrations becomes increasingly sinister, as the detective fails to start his plane and is watched from afar by the townsfolk, now adorning somewhat terrifying animal masks, who duck away behind the wall before they can be seen.
After infiltrating the parade it turns out (shock horror) that he is in fact the intended sacrifice and has been played from the offset, and the film iconically ends in a fervorous sing song for all concerned as he is burned alive in the titular pyre. There is an ominous marching drum played as he is lead before the wickerman and realises in horror what his fate will be that is very befitting of the build up to such an execution.
In the 2006 remake the eerie build up of suspense through the peculiarly benevolent behaviour of the townsfolk in the wake of a disappearance/murder was instead replaced by one of Nicolas Cage's most outlandish performances, with no woman (or bee) safe from his rampage. Enjoy.
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
The ever theatrical Tim Burton shrouds the western woods of Sleepy Hollow with gratuitous amounts of smoke and lightning. The camera navigates the tree lines with side-angle tracking shots at various distances, sometimes swaying behind trees adding a voyeuristic element. The trees themselves are bare and wintery, often silhouetted against the sky, which is also reflected in the desaturated use of colour. Little is done sonically to characterise the woods, and suspense is drawn instead from Danny Elfman's typically gothic score, both dark and humorous, that compliments Burton's directing so well.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
This scene gives the impression of approaching evil through a camera trick by zooming in whilst tracking away from the focal point, which would be an effective way for us to enter our woods/ritual scene. The leaves are also blown with an accompanying wind sound and the earsplitting screech of the ring wraith that can only mean something bad is about to emerge.
Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (2001)
This scene is swathed in blue lighting to evoke nighttime, however it comes across as a little too artificial, or at least extremely well moonlit. Again there is a great deal of mist shrouding a menacing hooded character. I'm a big fan of the way it silently glides across the forest floor before becoming upright, however this menacing effect is somewhat diminished when you realise that for Voldemort to approach Harry like that, Professor Quirrell would have had to have been walking backwards. This scene features a typical John Williams full orchestra score that makes everything feel bold and dramatic, but in the case of building a magical world of wonder he was the right man for the job.
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