Mise en Scene of Killer's Den

In Hayley's shed, we placed candles on some of the shelves to add a romantic ambience which is ironic because he is going to kill her. cut her open and take her foetus. Also, the candles add additional lighting, but it was not a lot so we used other lighting to aid the filming process. We used a lamp because it had an orange undertone, adding to the ambience of the scene. 

 We placed plastic on the floor because, firstly it would help keep the floor clean from any fake blood, and secondly because our group is trying to emphasize the killer's obsession with death and gore. He is a doctor and likes everything to be neat and orderly. As well, we did this because we were inspired by Dexter's Room from a previous post. When we film the rest of the opening, we are going to put plastic on the garage door and along the walls, as seen in Dexter's room.

Also, we put black bin bags on the windows to block out any natural lighting, but some still came through which was beneficial so we could film and see what we were doing. However, these bags will not be shown in the film opening.

 In the room, the shelves still had all the garden tools and bags on them because we did not put any books or chairs by it as this section will not be shown in the flashbacks. However, when we film the second part of the opening, we will take off these items and put on health and pregnancy books and the foetus jars.

This is where the killer will sit and we are going to put a chair there. We are going to change the stickers on this small cabinet so it says things such as:

• "nails"
• "hair"
• "teeth"
• "fingers"

However, we will not make the killer open these drawers, it is only suggestive to make the audience squirm and to stress his obsession with human bodies.

Deconstruction: Victims and Villains Clothing

Deconstruction of the outfits worn by the villains and victims:

ATM:

~ The mysterious anonymous killer in ATM is never revealed, throughout the film he wears a winter coat with the hood up to hide his head. This is unusual as it seems like an ordinary item of clothing, not something a serial killer would wear, but the simple change of having the hood up and the use of lighting to darken out his face makes him appear so much more creepier and scary. 

~ The victims of this particular attack are three colleagues who have come from work, this is why the men are wearing smart business clothes, but slightly different shades so they don't look identical. The woman is dressed in a smart yet casual coat, possibly over smart work clothes so we can assume they all have a 'high-paid' successful job and are just three ordinary people stopping at an ATM. 

~ These outfits aren't typical of a victim from a slasher film but they are suitable to their individual characters, this gives me the idea that our costumes for our victim(s) should be linked to their personalities and attitudes, not just because they are the victim. What I found from researching victims is that their outfits are closely linked to either their jobs or personalities, so unless we go for a specific type of victim (which we might be) then our characters costume should be based around them.

A Nightmare on Elm Street:

~ Freddy Krueger's outfit in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise could have been considered ordinary (excluding his skin and hands) but has now become an iconic costume, related to the character and will also be connected with it. He is usually seen wearing a dark coloured trilby hat and a red and black stripy jumper with dark coloured trousers. If worn separately, they would look normal but when put together someone would instantly see the resemblence to Freddy Krueger.
~ Taking inspiration from outfits like these, I think it would be effective to have our character wear something slightly ordinary, but as it's them wearing it, they should make the items of clothing creepy and well-known to a killer. On the other hand, it can also be good to have something completely out of the ordinary but relatable to our villain.

Practical Investigation: Victim and Villains Clothing

Villain:

~ For our villain, I think it would be important to have a costume that either we already own, can be made easily or is relatively cheap. At the same time it has to be relevant to our character so the audience can understand that they are the villain. At the moment, our villain is an adult male, somewhere in his twenties or thirties and his main victims are young teenage girls, who become pregnant when underage. I liked the idea of our villain being simply dressed in something completely inappropriate, such as a pristine suit. This would be confusing as not many serial killers would wear a suit whilst murdering their victims. 

~ We could even take it a step further and make him wear a tuxedo or a groom's wedding suit, maybe hinting that he was jilted or his wife died suddenly. If we did decide to do this however, we would possibly have to make sure that the reason for his inappropriate outfit was explained during the two minute opening as we wouldn't want to confuse the audience. 

~ Similar to the ideas above, I also liked the idea of our villain wearing a police uniform. This would be juxtaposition as well with the idea of good vs bad, police vs criminals. Again, if we chose this option we would have to explain why he would be wearing it, maybe in the past he was a police officer but something happened so he had to change jobs or he saw something that changed him mentally. 

 

~ We are currently thinking of including a scene in our opening where the villain cuts into the victim, almost like a cesarean and then we had the idea of dressing our villain in something related to a hospital, as that would be related to the character but creepy at the same time. If choosing this option, then we could also include a surgical mask that are normally worn by dentists although nurses wear them as well, this could have negative effects on our audience and maybe bring up bad memories. 

 Victim:

~ If we did decide to go with the underage pregnancy/prostitute obsession then as our villain's targets are so specific, they would all be wearing very similar clothing. Our victim would be wearing very revealing clothing, depending on the time of weather, but if we choose to set it in winter, then it would be more obvious to the audience that she was a prostitute as she wouldn't choose to go out in revealing clothing in the freezing cold weather. If we definitely go with the pregnant idea, then we would have to make sure the top would be loose enough for the victim to have a 'baby bump' but still cling to her body. I think our victim should almost definitely be wearing a short skirt, to exaggerate her femininity and her attempt to show off as much of her body as she can. Below are some of the outfits I could imagine some of our victims wearing, although it depends on how far into the pregnancy he takes them, but these photos give a general idea. Obviously the summer-y aspects would need to be changed, they might not be as colourful or pretty but in terms of size I think they are accurate.

Deconstruction of the Costumes of Killers

 Stitches' costume consists of a rugged, dirty and old brown coat with matching trousers. His hair is untamed and dry and he is wearing gloves. This is to keep his fingerprints off things because he is killing the people who killed him (he has returned from the dead). Some people already find innocent clowns scary but this particular clown is killing people and his eye is stitched up, so this is terrifying because clowns are supposed to be fun-loving and kind.

Leatherface's costume in Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a normal workshop man's outfit - a t-shirt, trousers and apron. However, he is often carrying around his chainsaw and hurting/killing people, and this shows because his clothes are ripped and dirty with splatters of blood on them. This tells us that he does not change his clothes - he is more concerned about killing people.

The killer's costume in ATM is very realistic, it is a man wearing a dark coat with a fur hood and dark trousers. Because of the hood, we cannot see his face so he remains anonymous, similar to the examples above. As his clothes are realistic and many people wear that today, it is menancing this makes the movie more effective and scary.

The costume from Scream follows the conventions of it being dark and consisting of something which covers the killer's face. Darkness is associated with evil, death and bad and it blends in with the night which is when most killers attack. Plus, the ragged ends of the 'wings' could be ironic - good = white, wings = angelic but in this case, bad = black and ragged wings = trouble.












Chucky is a killer's spirit which has gone inside a Good Guy doll , which is ironic because Chucky is evil. The doll is a baby who is smiling and in baby clothing. A baby is not capable of killing which is why this costume is frightening yet interesting. Chucky has cuts all over his face and he carries a knife which is similar to Scream's and Leatherface's weapons.













A slasher convention is for the killers to hold their weapons in their hands as a way of indicating that they are going to kill and to have their face disguised to add more suspense as the killer remains anonymous to us. Also, wearing dark clothing to camoflauge in with the night and/or the clothing being worn-out and ragged is also a typical horror and slasher convention. So, our killer should wear dark clothing, which could be realistic, such as a t-shirt and jeans because, like ATM, it makes it more scary because it is believable.