The Insane

Insane is a suspense filled hard hitting horror film directed by David J Ellison and Mark Cripps, the film conveys many typical horror conventions specifically its use of sound camera movement to create tension and build up anxiety in the audience. I will be exploring the various technical codes used in this short film which help in narrating the story. The film is based around John Vincent, a police detective whose family has been brutally murdered and we see him seeking his revenge upon the people who he believes killed his family. As the film progresses we become slightly more aware that there is something seriously wrong with John and in the end we find out that the people who he killed were innocent passers by and that in fact he was a manic lunatic who had murdered his own family urgently looking for someone to blame it on. There is only one main character in this film, John Vincent, he is a manic crazy serial killer, but this is kept as a secret until the very end and we only find out from the news paper. He is dressed in smart/casual clothing with a brown trench coat this makes him look like a detective, to us the coat signifies Sherlock Holmes, but then it also looks suspicions because its a long concealing coat, you dont know what he could be hiding inside it. His voice is low and husky. Both his costume and voice are signifiers of mysterious characters. There are a few aspects in the film that make you wonder though, like how does a man kill 5 people and manage to keep his hands and clothes completely blood free. His craziness is signified to us via the fact that he is taking revenge on everyone he sees for something he did but doesnt realise he did. The film is set in 2 different places one being the back streets of London, at night time. The backstreets of London at night time are dark, dingy and gloomy places these are all signs that signify that something bad/illegal is about to take place. As soon as he enters the back streets you see a huge big bear like man covered in blood swinging a meat cleaver at the camera then all of a sudden he is struck by a crowbar. This sequence of events is very fast, and happens without a pause this helps to build the tension up in the film as the audience in unaware of what to expect, and when they see one thing, they are bombarded with so many gruesome attacks. The other place is the train station, there is no one around at the train station just him and a few other characters. This again builds the tension as there arent many people around, there are no witnesses for anything so we as the audience are constantly thinking what if he gets caught? Music used in the film is very eerie there is off pitch violins and other instruments the music is slow this makes he film seem as if it is dragging on longer than it actually is. We can hear both diagetic and non diagetic sounds. Some of the diagetic sounds include deep breaths and footsteps. All of the music that is heard is non diagetic. When we see the man killing his victims they all seem to be grunting or making odd noises but in actual fact they are begging for mercy but the man cannot see this and continues with his brutal murders. To give an example I have closely examined the first minute and a half of the film. At the start of the film during the title sequence the music is eerie, and off pitch, this makes the film already seem scary, working with the slow movement of the cameras establishing shots, which show deserted areas and so the music adds tension to this. Through out the film there is a faint low pitch cord being played, this can be linked to the fact that this cycle of murders is never-ending. After the title sequence we hear his footsteps and heavy breathing, this immediately forces us to think that something is going to happen or that something has already

taken place, we are then introduced to a huge vast bear like man, who seems to be growling at John Vincent, whilst swinging a meat cleaver around, every time he swings the cleaver we are able to hear the air being sliced through, indicating to us how violently he must be swinging the cleaver. Then in return John strikes him with the crowbar, as the man is struck we hear a sound effect which we would normally associate with a sword or a bladed weapon, signifying the lethal blow. There is no actual on screen dialogue in this film there is only the narration over the top of the film this helps to create more suspense as we are only aware of one side of the story and sympathise more with his character and have a biased view from the start without even knowing the other side of the story, this makes us even more shocked when we find out he is the manic serial killer as its as if he has lies to us and deceived us. This is a good technique as it keeps the audience guessing as to what is going to happen and who is the real villain. The truth is show via flash backs at the end of the film before each flash back there is a sound effect which tells us something is happening. In these flash backs we hear the victims begging for mercy and trying to runaway rather than growl at him and try and provoke his anger which is what we are shown in the beginning of the film. The props used in this film are mainly just weapons apart from the newspaper. The weapons are all indexical of the horror genre. We have: a knife, an axe, a chainsaw and a crow bar. These are all weapons that can cause serious harm to the person on whom the violence is being inflicted upon . Violence is seen throughout this film this is another signifier of the fact that the movie is a horror as the violence is not just mere fights it is heads axed off and people stabbed in the head its all very gory and typical of a horror film. There is also a lot of fake blood used in this film for example when he kills the lady, she is wearing a white dress which is covered in blood stains, she has bandages around her face which also have blood on them. When she is murdered John uses an axe to kill her but before he kills her, she says please no which makes the audience become a little bit confused as all this time the victims have been shouting and making noises to add to his anger and rage but in her case, she is asking for mercy. The camera work in this film is used to emphasise the genre, which is horror it does this by being shaky in parts and fast moving. There is some parts of the film where the character holds the camera himself this is to give his point of view, by doing this the director shows us that John sees a monster and to him this monster is the reason his family is dead and obviously he is out to seek revenge. The shakiness can also confirm that he is not 100% sure of what he is doing. This type of camerawork where it is shaky and moves around a lot is a signifier of a more recent horror film. The areas in which the film is shot, the costume and props used by the characters, the music and camera work used in this short film all tie in together to make the film a typical horror genre film. in my view non of these aspects are more important than another. Because if even one of the above was missing the film wouldnt have had the same effect as it does.