As part of my last project I did some research on Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema, the horror episode, I watched it to help me with planning for my essay on the horror genre and the desensitisation of the audience. I made sure to write down a lot of notes and kept them to use as research for this project too. The episode discusses the basics of the horror genre as well as the codes and conventions that build it up and make the genre to be the way we know it, the episode also uses examples of films or scenes from films to back up much of their points and discussions. Because I was using this as planning and inspiration for my essay, I highlighted the points I felt most interested on coving in my essay, but in this blog I will discuss my notes more in depth and how it shows my understanding of the genre. I want to discuss the notes I made as well as get a few quotes from the essay to show how I put this to use.

The Ominous Atmosphere: One of my first bullet-points was dealing with the ‘ominous atmosphere’, I wrote mainly about the build up of dread in horror films and the warnings we, as the audience, are given. For example, a common and somewhat cliche character in horror films is the role of the person who gives the characters a warning. They tend to be wise, old, and very often crazy, which is the main reason the characters tend to ignore these warnings. In my short film, I won’t actually have one of these characters, however instead the ‘rules’ of the ouija or tarot card will act as my warning that gets ignored. Many classic and cliche techniques or scares are used to create the ominous atmosphere, for example, doors screeching, door knobs turning, screams, whispers etc. Another part of the atmosphere is the importance of building up dread and the idea of threat, this is done through many ways, much of which is included under my other bullet-points.

Location: The locations for horror tend to come from classic gothic literature and art, these type of locations include wide open space, like woods or forests, or old looking and large houses, as well as the more Dracula-era locations like castles or dungeons. Another very important aspect of the location is that it often must look dangerous or sinister to the audience, this makes it seem as though the characters are venturing to somewhere that is obviously unsafe from the audiences point of view. It seems clear that these locations are made to seem like places “where evil itself seems to seep from the walls.”

Sound & Music: Music and sound are debatably the most important part of horror. They help aid the story and the experience without dialog or painfully obvious hints, I wrote a lot about this in my essay and in this section definitely put my knowledge and Mark Kermode’s knowledge to use. After writing, in my essay, about the importance of location, I moved onto discussing the importance of music and sound; “Secondly, but just as important is the music in horror, a great example of the use of music to enhance the horror of a film is the 1975 iconic Jaws. The music for this film was arguably the most important part of creating tension, anticipation and suspense in the film. By using music to signify an upcoming attack or a shot of the shark this creates a sense of dramatic irony as the audience have been, in a way, told that the shark is near while the characters are completely oblivious to the sharks presence.”

The Monster: A huge part of horror is the antagonist, or ‘monster’, wether this be a serial killer, ghost, creature or animal, they all play the same role, as the character that symbolises all the fear, in the classic structure of a horror film. The monster of the film frequently end up being more iconic and memorable to the audience that the ‘heroes’ or ‘victims’, for example: Freddy Kruger, from the iconic Nightmare on Elm Street, Jigsaw, or John Kramer, from Saw, and Dracula, from … Dracula. Many of these monsters sit on the cusp of human and inhuman and many of these are humans, “he’s not Freddy, he’s not Jason, he’s real.” This quote was in my notes and I think because it shows the shift horror has taken. We no longer need unrealistic monsters to scare us when many of the humans we live among are just as monstrous.

Masks or heavy make-up are very common in the costume of many horror villains, many times in an attempt to dehumanise them and in some ways strip them down their primal animal. Because their faces and facial expression are covered, it takes away much of the ability to connect or relate to their emotions or actions.

I scribbled down many more incoherent notes but think I have covered the most important through this blog, below there is a picture of the original notes.

Throughout research and trying to develop the more detailed parts of my story, I have decided I want to include a scene of my main character using something to summon or communicate with spirits, for example, a Ouija Board or a deck of Tarot Cards; I think this may be a great way of leading up to the nightmare sequence and giving the story some background on how and why the nightmare/night terror happens. To research this idea, I wanted to look into both the use of these objects in films and horror as well as looking into them in real life, why they are used and what they are said to do.  I am hoping that, due to this research, that once I get to writing my story and putting all my ideas together and creating my final plot – which will hopefully be happening the end of this coming week – that I can effectively produce and coherent and interesting story, with just enough detail to make sense to the audience but that isn’t too complicated for a 4-7 minute time scale.

In film and media. Many films, typically in the paranormal sub-genre of horror, tend to use the concept of Ouija boards or Tarot cards as a means to contact the dead and set up the climax of the film. The use of these objects normally tend to foreshadow the later events of the film as the spirits are given a doorway through a seemingly harmless ‘game’, I would like to use one of these in a similar way and present the use of them as ‘just a game’ for the main character. I would like to look at some films that include the use of ouija boards, tarot cards or other means of communication with the spirit world, and would like to get an idea of how the topics are generally treated and approached in films.

One film I would like to look at is called “Ouija: Origin of evil”, as the name suggests, this film is heavily based around the use of an ouija board, however the story for this film isn’t quite as simple. The film revolves around a mother and her two daughters grieving the death of their father/husband while struggling to earn enough money to stay in their home through a medium scamming, the mother then acquires a ouija board as part of their ‘act’, which is when the strange happenings begin. The ouija board was bought at a games shop which makes it seem harmless and tame, this is a common theme throughout many horrors; like many films, the ouija board is not taken seriously to begin with and is treated as just another prop for their work, this provides a great deal of dramatic irony and foreshadowing for the later events of this supernatural horror film. In this film the board ends up as a gateway for some rather sinister and malevolent spirits and the spirits end up using the youngest daughter as a pawn to communicate through which ends up with the young girl getting possessed. The rest of the film is very much a classic supernatural horror film with possession, exorcism, death etc, however my main point of interest was the way the ouija board played a part in the film. One interesting part of this film that I am planning on taking inspiration from is the dismissal of the boards rules  (which I will go into more detail of in the second part of this blog.) One of the rules states that you must never play alone, and another states that you should always say goodbye by moving the planchette down to the word “goodbye”. I intend on having my character ignore these rules and maybe a few more as well, and is why I wanted to focus on the way the ouija board is treated throughout this film.

There is a scene in one of my favourite horror films, “Jessabelle” that I think would be very useful to look at to gather some ideas of how tarot cards are viewed, portrayed and presented in film and they way the characters react or treat the cards and their reliability. The clip is of the main characters deceased mother leaving her a tape for her 18th birthday of a tarot card reading, the way the tarot cards are treated and the attitude the characters have towards them is much different than the attitude towards the ouija board. The ouija board is treated as though it is a harmless game whereas the cards are treated with a lot more respect and the characters seem to believe them and trust their answer a lot more than the ouija boards. This could of course be because a ouija board is used to contact spirits directly where tarot cards are not, however it is believed their link to the ‘spirit world’ is strong. Back to the film, the plot ends up being quite complex and detailed so I won’t go into too much detail of this as this is not why I am looking into this film; my main focus is the tarot cards and the reading that comes from them. The reading, of course, is extremely sinister and seems to estimate her death as well as a presence who is in the house with the main character, this sets up a lot for the rest of this film. As I said before, the difference between the use of ouija boards and tarot cards is very much in the attitude the characters have towards them, the instant dismissal of the ouija board in comparison of the trust for the tarot cards highlights this divide in the attitude.

In reality. The first aspect of spirit communication in reality I would like to look at is the rules to using ouija boards, there are many rules to doing this properly and safely which I would like to use in my short film, or more accurately not use. I have already mentioned two of these rules, ‘never play alone’ and ‘always say goodbye’ which I intend to have my character ignore if I decide to use a ouija board over tarot cards. The idea of ignoring these will help foreshadow the impending and predictable sinister or ghostly events that may take place because of these actions. Another common but not official ‘rule’ that people tend to follow while playing, I have come across while researching is that you have to be sober, or in other words “don’t mix your spirits”. This is due to the fact that all participants must concentrate in order for anything to happen and because it is seen as very important to be respectful of the dead and the spirits with whom you want to communicate, and being sober or on drugs may be viewed as disrespectful.

My grandmother and great grandmother both owned tarot cards and left them with us when they died, we still have them though I have never touched them nor do they ever get taken out of the drawer they were kept in; I have decided to get them out and use them for my research and possibly aa a prop in my short film. When I got them from the drawer I was confused as to why they were wrapped up in material and smelt of incense, apparently this is very common and necessary, in some peoples opinions, to keeping the cards and themselves safe. I decided to look into similar things as I did with the ouija board and look at any ‘rules’ there maybe surrounding the use of these cards. One of these rules is that the cards shouldn’t be used after 10pm at night, this is because of the superstitions around spirit activity being higher later at night. If I use tarot cards (which is likely as I already own some) I would plan to have my main character using the cards after 10pm – maybe in the early hours of the morning or around 3am which is supposedly the ‘witching hour’ or the ‘devil’s hour’, which leads to the idea of spirit activity being higher. This could all help explain why the nightmare sequence happens and can help the story line make sense and link the events and timeline together.

The number 666 is very recognisable because of its connection with the devil, and as it being famously called “the number of the beast.” Since I have decided to focus more on the depiction of Satanism and Cults through film and media rather than just their religion – which I mentioned in a previous blog is a lot different to how I had initially thought it would be – and so, I want to focus heavily on the stereotypical connections made with Satan and the devil to portray through my short film, one of these being the number and connotations with “666”.

There are many interpretations of the number 666 and what it means, for example the bible reference to it is much different to what it is represented as through media and much of our modern day views of evil and the devil. The bible shows the number, yes, as the “mark/number of the beast”, but its meaning to show the failure of our political systems and the act of going against god by putting our faith in politics rather than religion; “The Bible says that people receive “the mark of the wild beast” because they follow it “with admiration,” to the point of worshipping it. (Revelation 13:​3, 4; 16:2) They do this by giving worshipful honor to their country, its symbols, or its military might. As The Encyclopedia of Religion states: “Nationalism has become a dominant form of religion in the modern world.”” Although I doubt this will come of much use to me when I start planning as I do not have an idea of how I could utilise this concept through my work, it may still impact my view of 666 by knowing the various interpretations.

JW.ORG. (2019). What Does 666 Mean? What Is the Mark of the Beast? | Bible Questions. [online] Available at: https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/what-does-666-mean/ [Accessed 21 Mar. 2019].

I now want to look at the modern day and most widely accepted version of the meaning of this infamous number, as well as how it has been portrayed through film and other art forms within pop culture. The number 666 is placed cleverly throughout horror films and art and often isn’t obvious and is placed within these scenes as a subliminal message to tie in with the iconography of horror. Because the number is most commonly associated with the antichrist, using it cleverly throughout my short film may be a great way of tying those ideas together and to indicate the presents of something much more sinister than a general ghost etc. As I want to use the idea of the anti-christ/satan/the devil and the idea of cults in my film but within my dream/nightmare sequence, I would like to look at various ways I could link them into the dream, and how they got there, possibly looking into the idea of a Ouija board or Tarot Cards used to contact them. This, however will all be in a later blog.

As well as horror films and other art forms, I have found some interesting references to 666 in music and their lyrics, and wanted to look at a song called “The Number Of The Beast” by Iron Maiden, and its lyrics. The lyrics of this song are focused heavily on the devil and, in a few lines, the blurred lines of reality and fantasy, for example: “I left alone, my mind was blank, I needed time to think, To get the memories from my mind, What did I see? Can I believe that what I saw, That night was real and not just fantasy?” This verse links quite closely to my idea for my short film, as well as some of the other lyrics that also include the idea of dreams and imagination etc, and so the rest of the lyrics may help with giving me some other ideas to further the detail of my short films plot. I have an idea of having some of my cult members chanting while a ritual takes place, and I was finding it difficult coming up with something for them to say. Through looking at the lyrics of this song I found some lyrics that read, “The ritual has begun, Satan’s work is done. 6 6 6, the number of the beast, Sacrifice is going on tonight,” and I thought these would be a very fitting line to be use in my film.

I searched online to try and find some information on 666 in pop culture and the horror genre but there weren’t many useful articles on this, most articles that deal with the concept of 666 were talking about the biblical meaning. However, I feel like I can maybe use the ideas behind the biblical references to the meaning of 666 and even if I don’t use it to directly effect the story of my film, the idea of our political downfall may be an interesting thing to look at.

The main book I have been using for a lot of my research on Satanism is The Satanic Scriptures by Peter H. Gilmore, within this there is an extremely useful sections titled: Satanic Aesthetics. This passage of the book covers the subject of Satanism through art and their perspective of how the subject and many different  artistic “isms” can be used to create said art. Satanism seems to be very encouraging of the individuals approach to this topic and how they see art through their own perspective and their interpretation of each “ism”; “art is a creative endeavour reflecting the individual who makes it as well as the cultural milieu in which it is created.” Since Satanism excites the idea of creating art through individuality, I thought, as well as using my research in the contents of my short films story line, I could also use it to influence how I go about creating and styling my film. “Since Satanism cherishes individualism as one of its primary values, the aesthetically inclined Satanist would generally appreciate any artist’s work that strongly captured the individual personality of that artist.” Since I would like to use the topic of Satanism in the way I style my work, this last quite gives me the freedom I desire and in many ways I can create what I want to create while still putting this research to use.

There are many different “isms” to look at here, they are: “Realism”, “Naturalism”, “Romanticism”, “Expressionism”, “Idealism”, and “Surrealism”. Through reading these, the ones I think most important for me to cover in terms of my research and what would be most beneficial to my work in terms of the subject matter and the contents of my short film are “Romanticism”, and “Expressionism”, and the most beneficial in terms of style and treatment of my film are “Idealism” and “Surrealism.” Throughout this blog I will explain what I have taken from these and what inspires me about them enough to use them in my own work.

Romanticism & Expressionism 

These two subjects in art are going to influence some of the subject matter in my short film, this is because these two offer a much more visual idea rather than the other two that offer more of a concept. Romanticism is the way the subject is treated and portrayed as so to evoke an emotional response or connection; “in art and literature, this is a means for creating highly personalised systems of symbols and subjective worlds of heightened emotions. Supernatural elements are often employed because of their emotional impact.” I would like to bring in the element of the supernatural which means I will have to do some more research on the supernatural in film and media and how I would incorporate this into my story. In this section of the Satanic Scriptures, expressionism is described as “a method for depicting a dark and hostile world”, this is especially used in horror films and film noir, I wanted to use expressionism to make my nightmare sequence seem like a dystopian world. This quote from the explanation in the book for expressionism is what really connected with me in terms of how I want my short film to look and feel, “the earliest works were wildly unrealistic and meant to explore the psychology of madness through use of geometrically harsh sets and grotesque makeup.” Both the “grotesque makeup” and the “harsh sets” are thing I think are going to be key in creating the right atmosphere for my short film, I also think the idea of exploring madness through art is very similar to what I intend to do by exploring nightmares and the madness within them.

Idealism & Surrealism

Both Idealism and Surrealism, in my opinion, are more to do with the treatment of the art form rather than the contents of it, I think this would be a very interesting and clever way of putting my research to use in terms of the style of my film and how it is interpreted by the audience. Idealism to satanist contradicts the “starry-eyed” and somewhat naive view of the world that many people tend to adapt, especially Christians, instead Idealism, in this case, deals with the idea of adapting reality in your art and create art that “depict the implementation of principles which he himself would prefer to see enacted in the actions of his fellow humans.” Another quote from the section regarding Idealism that I found quite interesting and inspiring for my work was, “this can be dramatised in an idealistic projection in which Satanic justice is carried out in ways not currently probable.” To me this hints towards the idea of murder and punishment, and although this is only my interpretation, that is how I would like to utilise it in my work. In a way, this paragraph seems to encourage us to create a world we would wish to live in through art, and although I am definitely not creating a world I would want to live in in my short film, I am however creating something much more fictional and fantasy based (through the use of  the nightmare) from our reality.

The next and final section, or “ism”, I want to look at as a point of interest for the styling and treatment of my film is Surrealism, this section essentially just encourages the artist (or me in this case) to explore the darkest parts of the human consciousness as well as the dark areas of human nature and show this in the art. I really want to use this idea to look at the animalistic nature of murder, and as I am being encouraged to “explore dark regions of the human consciousness” and use my art as a way of “continuing to define the nature of the human beast” I think using this with the ideal of brutal killing will be a great way of embodying Surrealism into my work.

The whole point of the Satanic Aesthetics is to “give them (the audience/viewer) food for thought” and this is what I intend to and will hopefully do through my short film.