P.S AWARD WINNING Psychological Horror Short Film from Richard Rodriguez on Vimeo.
The short film opens with the a non-diegetic voice recording of a man asking "ok, so how is your sleeping pattern?". This connotes that the character in the movie is unable to sleep or has nightmares, which also happens to a lot of the victims in horror movies. The actual scene does not open until this question has begun to be asked, therefore the images showing on the screen is not synchronous with the non diegetic sound. The scene shows a handheld point of view shot in the dark. It looks as if the scene has been edited into a black and white filter in order to create the effect of the dark. Filming in the dark is a convention of making horror movies, and it also allows us to connote that the film will be scary, and that something bad is going to happen very soon. The audience would be able to recognise that it is a horror movie even if they didn't read anything which gives away what the movie is about.The scene starts off with a blurred screen which gradually comes to focus. This connotes that we as the audience also do not know what has happened or what is happening. As it becomes focused it could connote that we will find out and know what the narrative is about.
The next shot is of a tracking shot from someone's legs up until their head. Through the shot we see torn up / ripped jeans and a lot of blood coming from the middle of the clear white shirt and his mouth. The connotations of white is pure and goodness, which shows that the person was attacked and before this attack with blood red stains on it, the person could have been living in peace.
The shot is now in colour instead of black and white, which shows that the setting is in the dark in the night. At first we do not know what age, gender, ethnicity or whoever the person is until they finish the shot at the top of the head. This is when we realise that the person is a male with long hair. His voice again is still playing as a non diegetic sound. He is looking around mysteriously and we do not know why, perhaps he is still in danger.
The next scene shows a 90 degree shot of the man around a desk with make-up around it, whilst the non-diegetic conversation continues. This will lead the audience to figure out why there is makeup on the desk and what is the character doing. There's a close up shot of the character writing something, and just as the voiceover says the word "doctor", there is a mid-close up of the pills that a prescribed next to him. Since the pills are so close to him, it may mean that he is addicted to them, or that he needs them regularly, which creates a vulnerable character. If he is addicted then this represents him as the typical black ethnic that is 'bad' and are into drugs. However his costume countertypes this thought as he is wearing a check blue shirt instead of a hoodie and track suites that the media normally represents black people in.As his hand is covering what he is writing, the anticipation for the audience increases to know what he is doing.
There is a close up of his face while he stares at the door. A conversation shot is established, even though there is no conversation. The shot of the door keeps fading to black ad then out, and flickering whilst a shadow of a demon/person/whatever is it moves. It moves until we see its figure. This kind of creates verisimilitude as normally when people see a shadow they get scared until they are sure of what the shadow is. The shadow turned into a person. The next scene is of flowers swaying in the wind and then a tracking shot of the character walking in daylight. We start t wonder where he goes as there is eerie yet kind of sad music playing non diegetically.
The scene is now filtered to a dark green hue. The camera is of a handheld shot as it is shaky. This creates the feeling of fear in the audience as they think perhaps the person is about to be attacked while they check their mail. Also, in most horror movies, the character is about to be attacked whilst they are doing something.
There is a close up as he opens his mail, and it is obvious that something is going to happen to him tomorrow, as his stalker put something there to scare him about 'tomorrow' with a little key. This connotes that the stalker wants to either meet him somewhere or take him somewhere to kill him. There is a two shot of someone walking behind him, it could be the person who put the envelope with the key there since the victim is not looking back. This could connote that the stalker was following him everywhere and to see if the victim got his message or not. This creates a sense of fear, as it is in broad daylight and nobody else can see this stalker. This scene could also connote that this is what happened before the first scene that we saw, where he was all bloody and was looking for a way out. Whilst he is walking he gets a voice message from a woman who says "I hope you got my letter", This could be the woman that he wrote to at the beginning of the film. He checks his mail box again and this time the letter says "behind you" in capitals, which connotes danger and a threat. Stereotypically, he turns around and there is no one there, but when he walks away, again there is a two shot of someone behind him, the someone who put the envelope there. This creates tension and fear among the audience, as we think that he is about to get attacked.
The scene then fades into black to connote that something is about to happen to him. The scene re-opens at night time with a car coming towards the camera with it's flashlights on. He goes home and again there is another note, but this time in his letter box.
He goes back to check his mail and there is another note there.
The film ends with the man getting in his car and then suddenly someone or something attacks him. This creates a enigma code, leaving the audience to wonder what happens next to have anticipation as they want to find out more. This is a convention of most horror movies as they end with enigma codes. The continuous non diegetic sound of the letterbox opening only stopped when he got in his car. This connotes that something bad is going to happen to him. Here, Todorov's equilibrium theory is also challenged as the film ends and finishes both with a disequilibrium and there is never an equilibrium.
The audience may think that the ending of this film is probably what had happened before the beginning of the film.
This short film was just a repeat of the character getting threats in his mailbox, with eerie music and his stalker following him around.
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