A Night of Horror Films

Just like the night I spent playing video games with my classmate, Hollie Lowry, the other night I spent watching horror films to try find similar techniques to invoke a scare. The three films that I watched were The Ring, Jeepers Creepers and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.

The Ring

For a long time this film and I have had a very love-hate relationship. I love that it scares me but I hate that despite watching it time and time again I still panic over the "7 days" time period in which you supposedly have left to live. The story follows a young woman who is trying to lift a curse that a little girl has put on her after watching a video, the curse is that 7 days after watching the video the little girl crawls out of the TV and mangles you. This film pretty much touches on everything unpleasant: Suicide, animal cruelty, child murder, torture and death. The reason why I find this film so scary is the way in which the antagonist, Samara, presents herself to the audience. After the 7 day time period the TV will turn on regardless of if it is plugged in, water will begin to leak from the screen (symbolising how Samara was thrown down a well and drowned). The little girl then proceeds to walk towards the screen and crawl out of it, twisting the face of the person who watches it into an unrecognisable form. The fact that there is a time limit on how long you have to live is what scares me, 7 days is all a person has in order to try and lift the curse of Samara before she comes for you, knowing that you have gone from being perfectly healthy to being a week away from being murdered is beyond terrifying.

Jeepers Creepers

Another favourite of mine though mainly for the creature design of the demon antagonist more than anything. The scare tactics employed in Jeepers Creepers are quite similar to The Ring in the sense that the creature awakens once every few years and hunts for a short period of time, when it catches the scent of the two travellers they then have a limited amount of time to get away from it before they are caught and mutilated for whatever body parts "Jeepers" may find useful. The reason this film scared me was because the creature design is based on that of a scarecrow, something usually designed to help ward off pesky critters, throughout the film the creature can be seen standing stock still in the fields and observing the travellers as they try to escape. Because the two travellers are in the middle of nowhere it made me feel quite trapped and unable to hide from the creature.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

The most horrifying thing about this film is that its based on the real life events of the original Texas Chainsaw murderer. Just knowing that innocent people died at the hands of a chainsaw wielding maniac is more than enough to turn the stomach. Whats more is that it wasn't just the single man, Tommy, but his entire family that were in on the sickening things that were going on. The film portrays the families insanity well and truly speaks out about possibly one of the most famous chains of murders in American history. In my opinion, horror films based on real life events are the most terrifying by far as it makes you realise that things like this can happen, people like Tommy do exist and the reason why they exist is so they can kill you. A definite reminder to stay vigilant.


All of the films followed quite similar paths and processes in order to invoke a scare, the use of darkness seems to play a key role in making the audience feel trapped and isolated while the sound design and ambience adds to the anxiety of the situation. I dare say I won't be sleeping well for the next few days, it was worth it however as I now have more things to write about and compare in the personal assessment part of my dissertation, the more research I can get under my belt the better.

Why are things Creepy?

Whilst doing research into why we feel fear I came across this wonderful video by Vsauce on Youtube named "Why are things Creepy?"
This video has proved extremely valuable in providing me with some good solid quotes to use in my essay as well as new theorists to do research into as well.

In this video not only does Vsauce discuss what fear actually is but also what forms of fear their are and how this effects us. He also goes into the topic of Freuds Uncanny Valley, something that I have been doing research on for my essay and the creation of my own monsters.

Evolution of a Monster - Pt 3

After a lot of hard work sketching and scribbling I've finally designed my final two creatures for the outcomes of my dissertation. 

The first one that I made was one that could look however it wanted to, one that didn't have to be plausible in the modern day world and one that didn't have to make sense. As a result I created this:

This creature is a mix of a few things, both real and fiction. The device that holds onto the creatures waist is actually based on one of the first models of wheelchairs / walking aids that was designed in the early victorian era. The creature has no legs, a bloodied stomach and stumps from being rubbed against the leather of the chair and the seat. The creatures arms are long to enable it to drag its weight and its face is covered by a thick black lock of hair. 

The second monster I created is in fact fully capable of being a reality. It isn't a monster as such, it is just a human suffering from extreme elephantiasis of the legs, skin calcification of the spine and a malnourished frame. Once again the face is covered, this time by a veil which would suggest that the creature doesn't want its face to be seen but this also hides its intentions. Originally when designing this creature its legs were covered in blood on the inside from where the elephantiasis had caused the skin of the inner thighs to rub raw but I felt this not as realistic. 

I've had quite a lot of fun designing the two creatures though if I had to choose I would say that designing the less realistic creature was more enjoyable than designing the one that could exist in real life. I almost felt sorry for the second creature I had designed as i know that people do suffer from diseases such as the ones I've drawn and they are ridiculed and labelled as monsters when they are just human beings. 

The next monsters I design Im going to try to evolve further into something just as terrifying as these designs only in different forms, maybe something that symbolises insects etc. 

Taught Fear

What it is: Taught fear is something that is neither passed on to us through instinct nor earned through an experience. It is taught to us by our friends and family and is one of the leading factors towards our development in our values and beliefs.

Examples: Homophobia, racism, religious beliefs.

Case Study: Having grandparents who grew up in a time when racism was acceptable, passing it on to their children (your parents) who then pass it on to you.

A Night of Horror Games

Recently myself and a fellow class mate, Hollie Lowry, had a night of playing horror survival video games in order to figure out exactly why people get scared of playing video games.
Before we started we set up various cameras around the bedroom where the experiment would be taking place and made sure that there were no technical problems. Then it was onto the filming itself.

We began by playing Silent Hill: Homecoming, a game in which the main character must fight through a world riddled with hellbent creatures in order to try and find his lost younger brother. The game starts off in an abandoned hospital after the main character is supposedly injured in the war he was fighting in.

All the time we were playing this there was an overpowering sense of dread as we turned each corner, always expecting monsters to jump out on us. The who game is very dingy and dark, using extremely restricted vision, only allowing the character to use a flash light to make his way through the hospital.

The next game we played was F.E.A.R. 2. Although this game was arguably more 'brighter' than Silent Hill, it still featured very similar tactics to scare such as sudden noises, rapid changes in lighting and the creeping up of enemies on an unsuspecting player.

Even though the night of playing games was fun we also learned quite a lot about the reoccurring elements that build up a horror game and what exactly it is about these elements that we found to be scary. The commentary of the two of us playing the games explains why we found certain things scary and in what way these things could be changed for the better or worse.

I'll definitely be writing about this experience in the personal assessment side of my dissertation as the whole night proved to be extremely valuable to both me and Hollie.

The next thing that I have to do is have my own film night and report on the same similar elements used to induce a scare.

Rational & Irrational Fear

As part of my essay I've started looking into the various types of fear and how they effect us in different ways. The first two that  I looked at were rational and irrational fear, rather than writing up a paragraph about the bog standard definition I'm going to turn it into somewhat of a fact file, this will make it a lot easier for me to understand when I come back to referencing it in my essay.

Rational Fear

What it is: Rational fear can be related somewhat to instinctive fear. It is the fear we experience when coming into contact with things that we know could do us harm.
A rational fear has a strong, verifiable basis in reality. Is there a reason behind the fear.

Examples: Venomous animals, heights, water, fire.
              (fear of being bitten)(falling)(drowning)

Case Study: - Being in a relationship with a man or woman who has a history of being unfaithful and being told by a friend that they have seen your other half holding hands and kissing with someone else.

- Being in the company of a venomous animal such as a snake or spider, that can and will bite without being provoked.


Irrational Fear

What it is: A persistent, abnormal, and irrational fear of a specific thing or situation that compels one to avoid it, despite the awareness and reassurance that it is not dangerous. Irrational fear is also a form of paranoia or phobia.

Examples: Butterflies, germs, flying, loud noises.
                 (flying near person)(plane crash)(storm or fireworks)

Case Study: - Being in a relationship with a man or woman who has no history of being unfaithful. Knowing where they are and what they are doing yet being unavoidably scared of them cheating on you.

- Being in the company of an animal such as a snake or spider that has no venom and is of absolutely no harm to a human being what so ever and still being scared of it biting and injecting you with venom.

Instinctive Fear

Instinctive Fear

What it is: "It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus which is perceived as a risk of significant loss of health, wealth, status, power, security or of anything held valuable. In short, fear is a motivating force arising from the ability to recognize danger leading to an urge to confront it or flee from it, (fight or flight). Fear can be a manipulating and controlling factor in an individual's life." - Wikipedia
Instinctive fear is arguably the most primal fear that we have, it is the mechanism that we have evolved with in order to survive, at its most basic definition, it is the fear of becoming a meal for a bigger, stronger predator.


Examples: Big cats (Lions, Tigers, Puma, Leopard), other large carnivores (Bears, Wolves)
                   (the fear of becoming a meal and eaten by a bigger and stronger predator)

Case Study: Living in an area where it is common for big cats to prey upon humans for meals.

Evolution of a Monster - Pt 2

Over the past week or so I've been gradually building up my monster designs to try and achieve my final product.

Its been quite difficult so far, I'm getting close to designing my first symbolic monster but its hard to really get the feel that I'm looking for.  I think that even though Im doing a lot of research into various real life deformities that can be applied to monsters maybe I need to start getting a bit more fictional?

To try and fix this mental block I'm having at the moment I'm going to try and watch a few scary films, play some scary games and just get more of a feel for what the creative industries feel of a monster really is.

I've already been looking at a few monster profiles for the silent hill games and although a lot of them are based on human and animal disease and deformity many of them are seemingly stitched together from the artists own imagination, some not even looking particularly scary such as Silent Hill Homecomings: Robbie Rabbit toy which although is just a regular stuffed rabbit toy its still extremely scary and unnerving. 

Perhaps I should think a little more outside the box and use more of my imagination rather than focusing no so much first hand research?

Evolution of a Monster - Pt 1.

So the first step I've taken to designing my monsters was to create various mood boards of the things that I've been looking at. These mood boards featured various things including death, disease and human/animal deformity. These mood boards have been very valuable in helping me to make my initial sketches and notes on the kinds of monster that Im wanting to make.

The first mood board that I put together was based on the theory of masks and monsters that hide the face. These masks are made up of various cultural designs, from traditional theatrical masks and oriental masks to latex or clay masks used as "death masks" it was these death masks that interested me the most as they were once commonly used to capture the face after a person had died in order to be kept as a memento of the person who has gone. There is something about the death masks that reflect how lifeless and drawn in the face becomes that makes what was once human into something that is more befitting of the uncanny valley.


PLEASE NOTE: THE FOLLOWING MOOD BOARD FEATURES DISTURBING IMAGES. 

The next mood board I created was based on the physical extremes of the human anatomy and how drastically it can be effected when faced with death or mutilation. This Mood board was very useful for me as I was able to use references for how the deformed human face and body can be related to monsters. The way the the skin hangs from some of the faces of the people, as if they've melted, is quite important to create the "masked monster" that uses anonymity and lets no emotion show.

The last two mood boards that I made focused on slightly less gruesome facial deformities, I researched babies and animals born with cyclops genes, leg deformities in frogs and body deformities in various murder cases and animals that had been caught in rubbish who's bodies had grown around the waste that had wrapped around them.

These mood boards are proving to be very useful to me, not only am I learning more about medicine and how the human body works but also how these different ailments, accidents and deformities aid in creating monsters that are both bizarre and terrifying.

Progress of my Essay

The following is a small snippet from the introduction of my essay:

Over the course of millions of years creatures have adapted to survive the environment in which they live, be this a change in diet, skeletal structure or process of thought. All of these things have once aided in the evolution and build up of the human race as we know it today and little by little as we have reached our evolutionary peek these various physical and mental changes have come to a standstill.

There is one trait however that human beings will forever have hard-wired into their beings and that is the primal instinct to feel fear towards anything and everything that could do us harm. But what exactly is fear? Why do we feel it?

So far so good. I feel like I'm asking the right questions and tackling my subject that I want to discuss. 

It's just going to be a matter of making sure that I don't stray too far away from what it is that I'm doing and hopefully it should all make sense. 

That said im not so sure on the rest of it, I have all of the questions written down that I want to ask and find the answers to. Its just hard getting the motivation and actually finding the information I need. 
For some things its proving quite hard to find the correct explanations of some things, that's one of the big bring - downs of using the internet for sources  I think. You never know if what you're reading is actually correct or if its just some speculated riff-raff.

I think theres only one way to avoid any sort of mistakes in that sense, and that's by hitting the books. 
I'll have to get right on it, I have a few ideas about what I'm looking for, what sort of book to read and discover. Who knows, I might find more than I bargained for?