This feature post will compare four films, Manhunter, directed by michael mann, The Silence of The Lambs, directed by JOnathan Demme, The Birds, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and the mist, directed by Frank Darabont. When comparing these films, there were many things I wrote in my note taking for this post, and some ideas I had work for all four films, while most don't connect all four films. It was interesting to compare and contrast these films, as they are much different from our first feature post films. fearIt's very clear that a common theme of these films is fear, we all can see that. But what I noticed is that the type of fear that is invoked in these films is different. I'll start with Manhunter. Here we have a detective working hard to find a strange and creepy killer. I would say that this films relationship to fear is this: We don't necessarily see fear in the characters, it rests in the viewer. Will Graham isn't too scared of Francis Dollarhyde, he's trying to get in his head to better understand Dollarhyde's next move. It is what the audience sees, not Graham, that makes a viewer afraid. In the silence of the lambs, fear is seen in both the viewer and the characters, particularly Clarice and Catherine MArtin. As a girl held hostage and the potential next victim, Catherine is terrified of Buffalo Bill. She doesn't seem to have much of a connection, if any, to Hannibal Lecter, the other fear-invoking character. Lecter on the other hand, scares Clarice, and also intrigues her. At her first interview, Clarice seems a little nervous and afraid of Lecter, but the more she meets with him and learns about him, her fear subsides and her interest builds. The audience on the other hand, is scared of both Buffalo Bill and Lecter, as they both are Chilling and NIghtmarish killers. As someone viewing the birds 54 years after its release, I can say that I wasn't scared or nervous about the bird attacks in this film. Though I wasn't scared (and possibly my classmates too), I believe that it was scary in the times close to its release. I've heard from family and their friends who were young adults around this time, that it was a scary film that they can't forget. It's clear that the odd and random bird strikes terrify the characters, but it also raises fear in viewers, particularly ones who saw the film way back when. The birds also shows sexual tension between Melanie and mitch. This is different from the other films, because there aren't any significant relationships like the one between these two characters. The mist, in my opinion, was the scariest of them all. Not only fear, but this film also made me feel anger towards Mrs. Carmody, the religious, never-shuts-up woman, and Jim, the good turned bad store worker, who follows Mrs. Carmody's bullshit after he leaves the store with the group and sees the monsters firsthand. I'm sure I wasn't the only one, but I also felt sadness during the final scenes of the film. Fear is obviously seen in the characters, who wouldn't if they were in that situation? I think the moment fear begins is when Dan runs through the parking lot into the store, bloodied, and yells "There's something in the mist". In Brians commentary for the film he mentions the tension between characters, which is something I didn't think about till after the film when I watched the commentary. He explains that the use of the Air Raid siren to establish tension, which I never would have noticed. Hearing that in real life, I think there's a tornado, so hearing it in the film I thought the same thing. In retrospect, I see how that siren begins the downward spiral of tension between characters as the movie progresses and the number of people lowers. MONSTERSAnother theme that can be seen in all four films are monsters. They can appear as humans, animals, and out of this world creatures. Monsters terrorize the characters, and also creep out or scare the audience. Some pose a threat to the characters, while others remain not so obvious. The easiest monster to point out are the varying types of birds in Hitchcock's The Birds. They're everywhere, they enjoy eating and pecking at people, and they attack like it's their only job. They're relentless, and plausibly the least scariest monster in all the films. Manhunter and The Silence of the lambs feature monsters that are human, and pose a threat to characters who aren't the main focus, such as Reba in Manhunter and Catherine in The silence of the lambs. Similar to Manhunter and The silence of the lambs, the mist has some human monsters as well. This is evident in Mrs. Carmody, because near the middle of the film, her bible stories turn from something that is brushed off by the people in the store, to cult-like preaching when the characters begin to turn on each other and cause problems. An example of this is when Mrs. Carmody is preaching to the group of people in the back of the store, and when Private Jessup is blamed for Project Arrowhead and is turned into a human sacrifice and is stabbed and thrown out of the store, only to be taken away by a partially unseen, large Praying mantis-like monster. I used this quote in my screening response and I think it is even more relevant in my discussion about monsters in these films. the quote is from NICK SCHAGER'S INTERVIEW WITH DARABONT FOR YAHOO MOVIES, when DARABONT SAYS, "EVEN IN THE MIST, THE MONSTERS OUTSIDE ARE ONLY THE CONTEXT FOR THE MONSTERS WHO ARE YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS, WHO YOU REALLY HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT." This works well with the connection between the human monsters and the unworldly ones lurking outside the glass wall at the front of the store. These monsters, both inside the store and outside, pose a threat to all the characters, and they both are the reason for the numerous deaths throughout the film. CAMERa workAnother topic I compared was camera work in these films, starting with the birds. There are many wide shots and mid body shots. The movie starts with the camera at a birds eye view of the store Melanie is in, and slowly works it's way down to the scene of Mitch and Melanie talking near the lovebirds, a mid body shot. Another wide shot we have is when the gas station explodes and theres a line of fire down the street. In Jeff Saparito's article for screenprism.com, he writes, Hitchcock uses the camera in a climbing frame scene to let us know the birds are inescapable. On a brightly-lit, calm day, Melanie sits on a bench outside a school with a playground jungle gym behind her. A few crows land, unbeknownst to her, on the jungle gym. Saparito also notes, Hitchcock cuts away from the birds, to Melanie rooting through her purse, smoking cigarettes, and close-ups of her face, showing her growing impatience, each time cutting back to a wider shot that reveals more birds have joined the perch. Brian also talked about this scene in his commentary for the film. I thought this method of shooting in this particular scene was unique, as the suspense it builds up was like nothing I've seen before. In The Mist and The silence of the lambs, the use of close up shots are almost an every scene occurrence. In the Silence of the Lambs, we see many tight close up shots of Hannibal Lecter and Clarice. Though we see these two the most, there is a tight close up shot of nearly every other character in the film. Though these close ups capture the characters faces, I think they also portray the distance and closeness between characters, especially clarice and Lecter. Clarice is always behind some kind of barrier when she sees Lecter, which shows there needs to be distance between them. Yes, the two are separated, but they are also very close, as Clarice Feeds off of Lecter's information and knowledge, and Lecter is intrigued by Clarice's personal life and helping her solve her case with Buffalo Bill. THE MIST ALSO USES THIS METHOD OF DISTANCE VS. CLOSENESS IN SOME OF ITS SHOTS. FOR EXAMPLE, MRS. DRAYTON IS AT HOME AND NOT WITH HER HUSBAND AND SON, WHO ARE STUCK IN THE STORE WHEN THE MIST ROLLS IN AND THE PROBLEMS BEGIN. THIS FAMILY IS SEPARATED, AND CLEARLY DISTRESSES BILLY AND DAVID. AT THE SAME TIME, WE SEE CLOSENESS IN THE PROXIMITY OF CHARACTERS, WHICH AIDeS THE IDEA OF CLAUSTROPHOBIA. THIS FILM USES CLOSE UP SHOTS AS WELL, AND FEATURES STRONG DEPTH OF FIELD, BOTH SHALLOW AND DEEP. WHEN WE SEE CLOSE UPS OF CHARACTERS, IT IS TO FOLLOW THE ACTION AS BRIAN SAID IN HIS COMMENTARY, AS WELL AS VISUALIZING THEIR EMOTIONS, BECAUSE THERE IS VERY LITTLE MUSIC IN THIS FILM, SO WE SOLELY DEPEND ON FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AND BODY MOVEMENTS/ACTIONS. IN SOME SCENES, THE CAMERA SWITCHES FROM SHALLOW DEPTH OF FIELD (FACE IS IN FOCUS, BACKGROUND IS BLURRY) TO DEEP DEPTH OF FIELD (BACKGROUND IS IN FOCUS, FOREGROUND IS NOT) TO SEE THE CHARACTER(S) WHO ARE IN THE BACKGROUND TALKING OR ARGUING. IN SOME SCENES, THE MIST USES THE BLURRY WHITE FOG/MIST AS AN ELEMENT THAT ENHANCES THE LOOK OF SHALLOW DEPTH OF FIELD SCENES. The film I thought that was the most different as far as camera shots was Manhunter. There are some similarities in wide and close up shots to the other films, but what stood out the most to me were scenes with characters backs facing the camera. I thought this method was interesting and visually striking, because i think that not seeing the characters faces adds an element of sincerity, which helps to remedy some of the fear and tension that viewers (and characters) feel. One particular shot I liked introduced this back to camera view was the introductory scene to the film, when Graham and Crawford are sitting on a piece of driftwood on the beach. Although Graham is facing forward in this scene, I think it's a way of showing the audience he is the main character, and who we will see the most in the film. ConclusionOut of this group of films, The mist was my favorite, aside from the fact that the silence of the lambs is one of my all time favorites, I'll never not like it, it's just too good. Although before writing my screening response and this feature post, I had only watched the mist once, I can't wait to watch it again. I've even recommended it to a friend of mine, and I described it, "really f*cked up but also good". It's a very unique film, I haven't seen one that I could compare to it, and I think this is why I'm eager to watch it for the second time. The silence of the lambs is great, and even though I've seen it a hundred times, I never thought about reading Stephen King's novel that was adapted for this film. Because our class is all about adaptations, it made me want to read King's book, which I'm currently about a quarter of the way through, and dying for free time to read till the end.
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