Timeline: 1920-2013

I decided to research well known horror movies and then I arranged them all on a timeline which I created on Prezi. The timeline shows the different types of movies including well known classics to the most recent popular ones from 2013. By researching different types of popular movies, it gives me the ability to compare different ones together and I can discover how horror movies have changed throughout the years.

Grave Encounters - Trailer

By watching the whole film of Grave Encounters, I decided to create a short analysis about the official trailer picking out typical conventions.

Here is the trailer:

As you can see, the trailer uses a lot of camera effects for example there is good use of hand-held footage which reinforces the fact that the film is targeting to be a documentary style film. This makes the audience feel like the film is realistic due to a lot of subjective treatment and plenty of point of view shots which makes them feel like they are actually going through the trauma of being trapped in the abandoned hospital themselves. Additionally, there is also a close up with a low angle on Lance Preston which expresses his emotions which are fear and confusion due to a lot of ghost encounters which weren't expected. At the start of the trailer, a pan is also used to set the haunted atmosphere and it makes viewers more alert that there has been paranormal experience in the mental hospital and this makes viewers more intrigued about the whole film.

Grave Encounters - Review

Film Review

As a paranormal film lover, Grave Encounters did not disappoint me! Grave Encounters was officially released in 2011 and in my opinion, it is a successful horror film as it follows and conveys horror conventions in the film. The plot of the film is very clear and I understood what was going on instantly and the film successfully kept me drawn in the whole time. The title itself shows that the film is obviously horror with the sub-genre of paranormal and it focuses on capturing ghosts on camera. The film starts of with the main character called Lance Preston and his crew who are all called Grave Encounters. They try to capture exclusive footage of ghosts as they have a ghost-hunting reality television show. The movie is an exclusive episode inside an abandoned mental hospital that had been reported haunted for several years. The crew then decide to lock themselves in the building for the night and start putting cameras up to record everything that will occur overnight. They eventually begin the paranormal investigation which is soon to be filled with a lot of unexpected surprises. 

The movie is filled with a lot of twists that will literally make you jump which made the movie more intense and interesting to watch. Every part of the film was filled with entertainment and as a horror film, I truly believe Grave Encounters is a great paranormal film to watch as it builds a lot of tension and it builds up its scares in such a slow pace which overall makes the film more enjoyable to watch. Also, characters reactions to moving objects and the strange noises also made the film look and seem more realistic. It had also made me more scared and worried due to the sudden vanishing of members. Throughout the film, we are also shown camera footage of what other members can't see and this makes us more anxious as we know what to expect as it acts as signs and warnings towards the crew. 

Grave Encounters has very similar themes to Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity and I believe this movie is more realistic and believable as the setting of the hospital and the past experience about the mental hospital made it more exciting to watch. Moreover, the unfamiliar actors and actresses also made the film tenser and there was also a combination of hand-held camera work with limited lighting, which also added more fear and tension. it made me look over my shoulder for hours after watching the film itself as the film starts off as a normal documentary with the confident crew not expecting to find anything but it turns into something they could have never imagined. Suddenly, we see there is a never-ending path and the hospital is impossible to get out as the crew realise that the hospital is alive with the ghosts of the former mental patients who end up terrorising them. 

Overall, I found Grave Encounters to be a very good and entertaining film packed with a lot of scares. The acting is believable and the plot is the best feature of the film as it had a lot of depth to it. The setting of the film also made it a lot scarier as the past history of the mental hospital gave a sense of realism to the film. The demon/ghost imagery made the film even more creepy as a paranormal film because I personally like the idea of exploring the unknown and the realism of being terrified by something you cant explain makes a film more intense and realistic.  

Common Conventions!

Below explains what exactly a convention is and how most conventions are portrayed in horror films to add extra effect for example it makes it more frightening and gory to the audience. Conventions are the expected ingredients in a particular type of media text and it is usually associated with genre. It essentially means grouping texts together according to certain kinds of shared characteristics: plot, characters, iconography (icons like masks, knives, religious symbols like crosses), and music. Before analysing any horror films, I decided to go through the basic conventions of a horror film so it would make it easier for me to analyse well known horror films in depth.