Assessment 2 - Texas Chainsaw massacre analysis

Texas Chainsaw massacre analysis

The opening scene starts with a wide shot of an open space which could be a field of some sort. The footage is in black and white with a flickering grainy overlay. They have done this to try and make the film look old. They have used a voice over in this scene to tell the story of what is going on. The camera work is also quite shaky to try and get the effect of a hand held camera. The next shot shows some police tape. This immediately tells the audience something is going on that shouldn’t be. There seems to be like a flash overlay on the film to create the effect of someone taking pictures such as the press, this could tell the audience that it was a big story at the time. It then cuts to a medium shot of a man taking a photo, however it has not shown the audience what people are taking photos of or making a fuss about. They have used low key lighting in this scene which is a typical convention of a horror film as it makes everything seems scarier than if it was in broad daylight. It then shows the audience a body laid on the floor surrounded by people. It is also very typical to have a dead body in a horror film. It then has a medium shot of a police officer looking at the body and then a cut away to the body, to show what the officer is looking at. They have used incidental sound in the background, which is quite high pitched; this could be to add tension to the scene and is not a very nice soft noise to have in the background, which would not match with the horror story line. It then shows another shot of police tape with a wide-open space in the background, which then relates to other shots and scenes in the rest of the movie. It then cuts to a wide shot of an old house which is a typical convention of a horror movie, the shot is still in black and white and is taken from what looks like a low angle, as if someone is looking up at the house form a distance, I think this creates the impressions that they do not want to be near the house like they are hiding while doing the shot. It then cuts to a birds eye shot of what looks like a puddle of water with ripples in it, I think this links to the earlier shots of the dead body as it was found in water, also the ripples in the puddle suggest rain which is quite miserable, bad weather. It then shows a type writer which could suggest an important document and also the time period, it tells us that it isn’t set in modern times as it shows a type writer instead of maybe a laptop screen, as it shows the type writer and the documents it goes to a shot of a corridor with a lot of what looks like locker type filing cabinets, and then it cuts away to a shot of a man taking out a document from the draw. This suggests to the audience it may be a quite a secretive story. This shot has quite low-key lighting, as it is very dark. The voice over then stats to talk about evidence of what had happened it goes to shots of evidence in bags from humans such as hair and finger nails, this tells the audience the story has something to do with murder or death. It then shows a mysterious character place a chainsaw onto the table, as the film is called ‘chainsaw massacre’ this links with the story line and gives the views an incite to it. The scene then changes to police footage of a man walking down some stairs; it is still in black and white with the grainy overlay on the top. They have used a low angle as if someone is looking up the stairs at the man, they may have used this because he is a policeman, which could be quite an important figure.  The voice over they have been using has now stopped and now the policeman is telling the audience what has happened. It then cuts away to a close up of scratch marks across the walls of the stairwell. This is to try and scare the audience and show them that what happened was horrifying. It then cuts to a close up of a chunk of hair stuck to a wooden spike, this again tells the audience something bad has happened. It then shows the police officer walk further into the dark building and the voice over comes back telling the viewers something strange happening that day. This makes the audience want to keep watching the film to find out what happened on that day. The film then cuts to the next scene of a van driving down a road in quite sunny weather and everything looks quite normal than scary. This will be to leave the audience hanging and wanting to know what happens next.