How do the films “Se7en” and “Red Dragon” meet conventions of horror and thriller films?

 

The films ‘Se7en’ and ‘Red Dragon’ meet the conventions of horror and thriller genres by the use sounds, camera angles, MES, edits, plots and characters as they provide an air of suspension and terror as the audience don’t know what’s going to happen next. All these factors create the fear factor for the audience as they aren’t in the known which makes them feel on edge.

  ‘Se7en’ and ‘Red Dragon’ show many close up shots of the props and the characters faces; this is to provide the audience with evidence as to what the characters look like. They are very intense shots of the characters it shows the expressions that are on their faces which indicates the emotion of whether they are happy sad or angry. It also provides the audience with clues as to whether they can trust this certain character as we don’t know who the ‘baddie’ is. The extreme close ups provide the audience with eye contact which is key as the audience will then judge what type of character they are and make their own conclusion on who good and who is evil. However the thing with horrors is that they don’t like to give anything away which is why it is hard for us to understand what roles the characters are playing as we are directed to ‘trust know one’. These camera shots link in with the type of music the two films play; both have sinister terrifying music which creates suspension for the audience, and sometimes when characters are on screen the type of music played indicates to us that whether the character is sinister. However it also maybe indicates the victim is about to be killed as the music played is tense and jumpy, the sound gives us a clue that something is about to happen but the fact that it’s always tense and creepy we don’t know when it’s going to happen we just know its soon so they still keep the element of surprise. This happens during the scene in ‘Red Dragon’ when he killer goes back to a blind ladies house. The music played is very tense and jumpy which suggests something is about to happen however it doesn’t.  However, Later on in the film the woman is killed so the music almost acts as a warning sign that she was his next victim. In comparison both ‘Se7en’ and ‘Red Dragon’ have a similar uses of camera angles which meet the conventions of horror as both use many close ups during the open scenes to introduce the characters these main focuses clearly suggest to the audience that they are a big part of the film. The fact they both have similar openings with the credits at the start as well is an indication that most horrors and thrillers have similar openings to each other. However, they are different in the opening scenes as ‘Red Dragon’ opens with a wide shot of a musical house, this establishment shot sets the scene as its shows an orchestra on stage and then shows a close up shot of a man in the audience this is significant as we later learn he is the killer he is doctor ‘Hannibal Lector’. Whereas the opening of ‘Se7en’ is much darker it shows an apartment with belongings in it such as a clock that ticks this could be an indication this film is to do with time maybe it has a time limit. The first shot shows a man that has his back to the camera which is an unusual way to start a movie but it’s a chance to the audience to adjust to the settings and understand what era it is due the props and costumes.

The credits of ‘Se7en’ are very iconic it was produced by David Fincher (http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=SEZK7mJoPLY). The credits appear it’s very shaky. There are two sets of the same writing as well that unmerge when they're about to disappear. In addition it has a close up of someone scraping away their skin with a razor, and a non-diegetic sound of a girl screaming, which gives the impression that it was a memory. They have made the opening credits very tense which creates suspense, one part in the credits that shows its psychological is when they have merged two shots together of someone writing on a bit of paper it shows him writing one part. Then suddenly it shows the person writing something else at the same time. The music in the opening credits is very slow, you can hear a heartbeat, and it sounds very echoed then it suddenly picks up its pace and the suspense and tension rises. ‘Red Dragon’s’ credits are very similar it starts with a book the same as ‘Se7en’ and then shows pictures of body parts just like ‘Se7en’. This is an indication that they have similar genres, sev7en shows a disturbing image of someone removing another person’s eye and the word cannibal is shown in the eye. Images similar to this were shown in ‘Se7en’ as well this indicates to the audience what the film entails and are both shown as scrapbooks. However the differences of the credits for ‘Red Dragon’ and ‘Se7en’ are that in ‘Se7en’ the actor’s names are corked and the ends credits roll backwards which is disorientating. Whereas, ‘Red dragons’ actors names are written in red which indicates death and a horror theme.

 

  The mise-en-scene of ‘Red Dragon’ and ‘Se7en’ are quite similar, both show characters dressed smartly in the opening scenes they are dressed in suits which is formal tyre this is in an indication to what sort of era it is and also what sort of profession the characters have. Both films have the similarity that they have detectives characters as part of the storyline this suggests to us that the film could be a horror and thriller. We know from their costumes they are detectives due to the stereotypical long coats and hat and tie. However detective graham in ‘Red ‘Dragon’ wears more casual clothing however we learn that he is a retired detective so maybe he is wearing some more casual clothing in some scenes to show he isn’t part of the job anymore and maybe even reluctant to be back as he won’t wear the typical detective uniform. In addition it suggests that maybe the era of this film is later than ‘Se7en’. The setting of the film ‘Se7en’ is a very urban city of New York, the lighting of the scene is very dark which symbolises the film is very drake and intense. The city is shown filled with people going about their everyday lives, it shows the hustle and bustle of the city this may be to show the volume of people living in the city to suggest that anyone there can be murdered and anyone of them could be the killer. Throughout the film in mainly all the outside scenes its always raining this adds to the dramatic affect that the film is dark and suspicious and indicates maybe a bleak outlook is ahead. The end scene is outside and the sky is a contrast of blue and yellow. However, even though these colours are considered as bright they seem very dull indicating that the film has a sad ending but is coming to the end of the darkness of the story. In addition, maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel even though the detective’s wife was killed.

  The music in both films was critical to the films to help achieve an atmosphere of tense and suspicion. ‘Red Dragon’s’ title music starts very loud suggesting anger and aggression it then goes into classical music however odd notes are wrong which creates a sense of danger and uncertainty. When the scrapbook is shown during the pre-sequence title the music is very on edge it changes constantly to shown the dramatic changes to the scrapbook as it shows good newspaper articles of lector and all the work he’s done as a psychologist but then shows picture of gruesome body parts and the newspaper articles of how ‘Dr lector’ is a cannibal. This is when all the factors in the movie like lighting and editing are used to make the dramatic effect of the films storyline.  The lighting darkens and the music turns into a low pitch one with aggression, these two types of music coupled with the drastic editing of the images shows how quickly characters can turn from good to bad. In addition, the editing of the actors names in red and white could represent the two sides to ‘Lector’ the white shows his calm cool side and the red represents danger as it indicates that they could be written in blood, Whereas in ‘Se7en’ even though the title sequence is similar the music styling is different. ‘Se7en’ music starts of low and then dramatically builds up as the picture get worse as they show gruesome pictures this builds a sense of intensity and puts the audience on edge. The editing accompanies the music well as there is a lot of cuts which helps build up suspense especially when they don’t follow a specific pattern they are all over the place which creates the films is odd and different. This clip is the opening sequence for ‘Se7en’. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4thzyFFdvVc )