To enhance the research into thriller films, i have analysed in detail a 5 minute clip, of Simon West's When a Stranger Calls (2006). Please note that the clip included is only a short clip, as the full scene was not available.
How is Sound and Mise en Scene used to create meaning in When a Stranger Calls?
Scene 19 -20
Mise en scène is a French term, which means everything that is visible and put into the scene and is used by directors to encourage the audience to read a scene in a particular way; by featuring certain aspects, mise en scene can also help establish the mood. The elements of mise en scène are; settings, décor, props, lighting, costume, make-up, colour and body language and movement. These can offer information and meanings linked to the character, genre, atmosphere, place, space, mood and time. Elements of mise en scène elements can occur constantly or there can be many changes. This often leads or manipulates the audience into believing particular denotations linking with some connotations. For example, if the location used in a film is of New York City, people expect to see high-rise buildings, bustling streets and yellow taxis. This helps set a scene and builds a connection in the viewers mind.
Sound in a film is either always diegetic (sound that can be heard by the characters, e.g. dialogue) or non-diegetic (sound that can not be heard, e.g. soundtrack, voiceover). Some occasions both diegetic and non-diegetic sound are used. Sound can also connect to the film’s genre, for example the pleonastic sounds of punching and kicks in martial films such as Hero. Also comedy films such as Mean Girls and Knocked Up use more contemporary soundtracks to appeal to younger audiences that will understand why the music is funny in relation to the scene.
The film When a Stranger Calls (2006) directed by Simon West is a remake of the 1979 original with the same title. It is based on the urban legend of a young teenage baby-sitter who starts to get mysterious and disturbing phone calls, which leads to her and the children she’s looking after to be in danger. This film is moderately similar to that of Wes Craven’s Scream (1996), which begins with a young teenager waiting for her boyfriend, receives a threatening call and then is unwittingly stabbed to death. In these types of thriller-horror movies, we as audience expect to feel scared and fear the unknown and also put our selves in the victim’s position and understand how worried as a person you would be.
The film is set in the location of Fernhill in Colorado; this particular sequence is set in the residence of the Mandracases, a very large isolated house set in wood and built over a lake. The house is used as a symbol of how Jill cannot escape throughout the film, and big windows and stairs to the entrance show how intruders can be ready to be watching and waiting. These are common themes within horror movies, such as William Castle’s House on Haunted Hill (1959) which is about five people invited to stay the night in a haunted house, with the stipulation that all doors will be locked at midnight, allowing no accessible escape. Anyone who stays in the house for the entire night given that they are still alive will receive $10,000, although there are ghosts, murderers, and other terrors waiting to get them.
The section I have chosen starts with Jill Johnson (Camilla Belle) the protagonist of the film, paces anxiously around the corridor speaking with the stranger on the phone. As the camera pans 360° around where Jill is standing, the audience see part of the normal décor of the house, e.g. picture frames, lamps, a large arm chair. All these props help to enhance the realism to the audience, and relates to the audiences perception of that not only may it happen in this house but your own home too, showing an uncertainty to societies concern on who can be lurking.
Also the use of low-key lighting is used to create a more tense atmosphere, and to show that someone may be hiding in the shadows, the way the camera pans around Jill shows how she is isolated within the house, her confusion to what is happening and the remoteness to her surroundings.
A quiet foreboding non-diegetic soundtrack is played simultaneously to Jill’s constant questions to the stranger, who in turn responds with heavy breathing, which synchronises with the rhythm of the music. A point of view of pictures on the walls is then shown to keep rectifying normality and as Jill turns the corner of the corridor, a sound bridge carries the music and tension onto the next shot. As Jill walks up the stairs, visibly in the background is a window with shadows of swaying trees, this heightens the creepy atmosphere of the film and makes the audience question what is lurking outside the house.
Also the soundtrack gets louder and has a higher tone which creates more suspense when Jill is walking, in addition the completely blank walls reinforce Jill’s isolation as it makes the stairway and Jill herself feel claustrophobic.
The soundscape of wind blowing and rustling noises is always conveyed in this sequence, this is used as an added effect to reflect the apprehension for the character of Jill and sets the mood and tone of anxiety and trepidation. The director uses soundscape to familiarise the audience with types of sounds that are associated with a particular time or location etc.
Jill’s costume consists of jeans and an orange top, which in some scenes show her more clearly, in the dim light. These clothes are that of a normal teenage girl, which links to the stereotype protagonist of most classic horror or thriller films. This is also relevant to the film The Little Girl Who Lives down the Lane (1979), which also sees a teenage Jodie Foster secluded and on her own fighting of the evil that lurks around her.
The camera angle is already mid shot, in the bedroom, when Jill opens the door and enters. A high angle shot looking down at her emphasises Jill’s vulnerability and gives the feeling that she is being watched. The camera then quickly shows a point of view shot of the setting of the bedroom, which contained that of normal décor and props such as a bed, lamp and chair. As a close up of Jill is continuously shown, she asks the stranger “What do you want?” and the stranger replies “your blood…all over me” This dialogue scares the audience and gives an understanding on how violent and chilling the stranger is. The volume of the soundtrack gets higher and we hear a “beep” sound to indicate that Jill has hung up.
The camera then zooms into a door creating apprehension on what is behind it. There is also a cross cut back to Jill’s emotion as she prepares herself to enter. The trickling noise that has been quiet in the background proceeds to get louder and what most of the audience presume to be rain is actually that of a shower running. As Jill enters, the pleonastic sound of the creaking door is heard, this is to emphasise the suspense on what Jill and the audience is about to uncover.
The colour of the room is that of light terracotta with dim lighting, which makes the bathroom feel claustrophobic and underlines Jill’s intensity. As she peers onto the closed shower curtain, the director shows Jill’s non-verbal communication of hunching over and stiff to be ready to defend her to help specify how very frightened she is. There is then another sharp pleonastic sound when the shower curtain is pulled back to reveal just simply a normal bathtub and running water. As Jill turns of the water, the non-digetic soundtrack also stops. West uses this manipulation as it makes the audience convinced that something is meant to be there.
This gripping scene resembles that of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) and that of the famous shower scene that contains expectancy and tension until all is revealed and the woman is stabbed, unlike with this scene, it has a contrast of showing nothing after the reveal which also shows that more is about happen.
West’s approach to this is effective with this as the audience expect there to be something there, when there is not, it allowed West to add the most important part of the film to be revealed straight after therefore adding more of a shock factor to the audience.
After a slight pause, that shows Jill’s confusion and disillusioned state of mind, the phone starts to ring again. With Jill and the audience manipulated by the director into thinking it is the stranger calling, as the close up of the phone shows that the caller ID is unknown. As Jill answers and shouts down the phone, her voice is overpowered by the police officer’s voice that exclaims, “We traced the call it’s coming from inside the house” A non-digetic musical sting is then played similar to that of John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) which was used when a terrifying moment was about to conclude.
Jill then drops the phone to show her shock and disbelief and then the director uses the lighting in the house to show how Jill is in danger. First the room lights in the background of the bathroom turn off, a close up of the dropped phone is then shown and the screen light dims out.
An establishing shot of the remote house appears with all its lights through the windows are shown to be turned off and the house goes to dark. It then cross cuts to a long shot of the stairs and then the opposing room both shown in the dark to show how Jill is alone and isolated form help. The camera then cuts back to Jill with the musical sting still playing, the diegetic sound of another phone ringing is heard and a high angle shot is used to show Jill turning curiously to find out what the noise is. As the high angle pans the bathroom, Jill’s teenage friend Tiffany’s body is shown lying on the floor.
With the room being so dark, we see the girl’s cell phone light repeatedly flashing on her still pale face reinforcing that she’d dead. This adds to the horrifying effect and is meant to shock the audience that the stranger must be a killer. Jill then with high pitch screams falls to the floor representing her scared feelings and desperation to stay alive.
From this sequence, the audience are left wondering what Jill’s next plan of action will be, and if the stranger will actually appear. The use of sound and mise en scene has helped create and establish meaning by always keeping in tone with the film’s horror/ thriller genre. The dialogue used in this sequence is key as we find out the strangers motives and the twist of the plot of the film but also the minimalistic use of dialogue in the scene helps to build the suspense of the sequence as Jill does not know how to respond to the stranger and with this believes she is in more danger. The soundtrack was also important to keep suspense and high tension flowing throughout, and mise en scene was used effectively to depict a normal looking house in a remote location that sparks fear and scared emotions, when it seems to be under threat. The main purpose of the sequence and the in reality the whole film is to convey to the audience that this invasion in the home can happen to anyone, which is a scary truth for anyone to imagine.
Scene 19 -20
Mise en scène is a French term, which means everything that is visible and put into the scene and is used by directors to encourage the audience to read a scene in a particular way; by featuring certain aspects, mise en scene can also help establish the mood. The elements of mise en scène are; settings, décor, props, lighting, costume, make-up, colour and body language and movement. These can offer information and meanings linked to the character, genre, atmosphere, place, space, mood and time. Elements of mise en scène elements can occur constantly or there can be many changes. This often leads or manipulates the audience into believing particular denotations linking with some connotations. For example, if the location used in a film is of New York City, people expect to see high-rise buildings, bustling streets and yellow taxis. This helps set a scene and builds a connection in the viewers mind.
Sound in a film is either always diegetic (sound that can be heard by the characters, e.g. dialogue) or non-diegetic (sound that can not be heard, e.g. soundtrack, voiceover). Some occasions both diegetic and non-diegetic sound are used. Sound can also connect to the film’s genre, for example the pleonastic sounds of punching and kicks in martial films such as Hero. Also comedy films such as Mean Girls and Knocked Up use more contemporary soundtracks to appeal to younger audiences that will understand why the music is funny in relation to the scene.
The film When a Stranger Calls (2006) directed by Simon West is a remake of the 1979 original with the same title. It is based on the urban legend of a young teenage baby-sitter who starts to get mysterious and disturbing phone calls, which leads to her and the children she’s looking after to be in danger. This film is moderately similar to that of Wes Craven’s Scream (1996), which begins with a young teenager waiting for her boyfriend, receives a threatening call and then is unwittingly stabbed to death. In these types of thriller-horror movies, we as audience expect to feel scared and fear the unknown and also put our selves in the victim’s position and understand how worried as a person you would be.
The film is set in the location of Fernhill in Colorado; this particular sequence is set in the residence of the Mandracases, a very large isolated house set in wood and built over a lake. The house is used as a symbol of how Jill cannot escape throughout the film, and big windows and stairs to the entrance show how intruders can be ready to be watching and waiting. These are common themes within horror movies, such as William Castle’s House on Haunted Hill (1959) which is about five people invited to stay the night in a haunted house, with the stipulation that all doors will be locked at midnight, allowing no accessible escape. Anyone who stays in the house for the entire night given that they are still alive will receive $10,000, although there are ghosts, murderers, and other terrors waiting to get them.
The section I have chosen starts with Jill Johnson (Camilla Belle) the protagonist of the film, paces anxiously around the corridor speaking with the stranger on the phone. As the camera pans 360° around where Jill is standing, the audience see part of the normal décor of the house, e.g. picture frames, lamps, a large arm chair. All these props help to enhance the realism to the audience, and relates to the audiences perception of that not only may it happen in this house but your own home too, showing an uncertainty to societies concern on who can be lurking.
Also the use of low-key lighting is used to create a more tense atmosphere, and to show that someone may be hiding in the shadows, the way the camera pans around Jill shows how she is isolated within the house, her confusion to what is happening and the remoteness to her surroundings.
A quiet foreboding non-diegetic soundtrack is played simultaneously to Jill’s constant questions to the stranger, who in turn responds with heavy breathing, which synchronises with the rhythm of the music. A point of view of pictures on the walls is then shown to keep rectifying normality and as Jill turns the corner of the corridor, a sound bridge carries the music and tension onto the next shot. As Jill walks up the stairs, visibly in the background is a window with shadows of swaying trees, this heightens the creepy atmosphere of the film and makes the audience question what is lurking outside the house.
Also the soundtrack gets louder and has a higher tone which creates more suspense when Jill is walking, in addition the completely blank walls reinforce Jill’s isolation as it makes the stairway and Jill herself feel claustrophobic.
The soundscape of wind blowing and rustling noises is always conveyed in this sequence, this is used as an added effect to reflect the apprehension for the character of Jill and sets the mood and tone of anxiety and trepidation. The director uses soundscape to familiarise the audience with types of sounds that are associated with a particular time or location etc.
Jill’s costume consists of jeans and an orange top, which in some scenes show her more clearly, in the dim light. These clothes are that of a normal teenage girl, which links to the stereotype protagonist of most classic horror or thriller films. This is also relevant to the film The Little Girl Who Lives down the Lane (1979), which also sees a teenage Jodie Foster secluded and on her own fighting of the evil that lurks around her.
The camera angle is already mid shot, in the bedroom, when Jill opens the door and enters. A high angle shot looking down at her emphasises Jill’s vulnerability and gives the feeling that she is being watched. The camera then quickly shows a point of view shot of the setting of the bedroom, which contained that of normal décor and props such as a bed, lamp and chair. As a close up of Jill is continuously shown, she asks the stranger “What do you want?” and the stranger replies “your blood…all over me” This dialogue scares the audience and gives an understanding on how violent and chilling the stranger is. The volume of the soundtrack gets higher and we hear a “beep” sound to indicate that Jill has hung up.
The camera then zooms into a door creating apprehension on what is behind it. There is also a cross cut back to Jill’s emotion as she prepares herself to enter. The trickling noise that has been quiet in the background proceeds to get louder and what most of the audience presume to be rain is actually that of a shower running. As Jill enters, the pleonastic sound of the creaking door is heard, this is to emphasise the suspense on what Jill and the audience is about to uncover.
The colour of the room is that of light terracotta with dim lighting, which makes the bathroom feel claustrophobic and underlines Jill’s intensity. As she peers onto the closed shower curtain, the director shows Jill’s non-verbal communication of hunching over and stiff to be ready to defend her to help specify how very frightened she is. There is then another sharp pleonastic sound when the shower curtain is pulled back to reveal just simply a normal bathtub and running water. As Jill turns of the water, the non-digetic soundtrack also stops. West uses this manipulation as it makes the audience convinced that something is meant to be there.
This gripping scene resembles that of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) and that of the famous shower scene that contains expectancy and tension until all is revealed and the woman is stabbed, unlike with this scene, it has a contrast of showing nothing after the reveal which also shows that more is about happen.
West’s approach to this is effective with this as the audience expect there to be something there, when there is not, it allowed West to add the most important part of the film to be revealed straight after therefore adding more of a shock factor to the audience.
After a slight pause, that shows Jill’s confusion and disillusioned state of mind, the phone starts to ring again. With Jill and the audience manipulated by the director into thinking it is the stranger calling, as the close up of the phone shows that the caller ID is unknown. As Jill answers and shouts down the phone, her voice is overpowered by the police officer’s voice that exclaims, “We traced the call it’s coming from inside the house” A non-digetic musical sting is then played similar to that of John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) which was used when a terrifying moment was about to conclude.
Jill then drops the phone to show her shock and disbelief and then the director uses the lighting in the house to show how Jill is in danger. First the room lights in the background of the bathroom turn off, a close up of the dropped phone is then shown and the screen light dims out.
An establishing shot of the remote house appears with all its lights through the windows are shown to be turned off and the house goes to dark. It then cross cuts to a long shot of the stairs and then the opposing room both shown in the dark to show how Jill is alone and isolated form help. The camera then cuts back to Jill with the musical sting still playing, the diegetic sound of another phone ringing is heard and a high angle shot is used to show Jill turning curiously to find out what the noise is. As the high angle pans the bathroom, Jill’s teenage friend Tiffany’s body is shown lying on the floor.
With the room being so dark, we see the girl’s cell phone light repeatedly flashing on her still pale face reinforcing that she’d dead. This adds to the horrifying effect and is meant to shock the audience that the stranger must be a killer. Jill then with high pitch screams falls to the floor representing her scared feelings and desperation to stay alive.
From this sequence, the audience are left wondering what Jill’s next plan of action will be, and if the stranger will actually appear. The use of sound and mise en scene has helped create and establish meaning by always keeping in tone with the film’s horror/ thriller genre. The dialogue used in this sequence is key as we find out the strangers motives and the twist of the plot of the film but also the minimalistic use of dialogue in the scene helps to build the suspense of the sequence as Jill does not know how to respond to the stranger and with this believes she is in more danger. The soundtrack was also important to keep suspense and high tension flowing throughout, and mise en scene was used effectively to depict a normal looking house in a remote location that sparks fear and scared emotions, when it seems to be under threat. The main purpose of the sequence and the in reality the whole film is to convey to the audience that this invasion in the home can happen to anyone, which is a scary truth for anyone to imagine.
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