Pretty scrunched in, huh? She's not merely in a cave, she's being crushed by its mass. But it gets better. check these out...
See how the darkness just literally crushes them with black? Most filmmakers don't have the nerve to show this much black on the screen for this amount of time. In most cave movies, there's lots of blue light, and lots of close ups and medium shots. Heck, I bet most filmmakers wouldn't even have enough imagination to consider showing long shots in a cave. Also, notice how the characters in these shots are far off center. I'm not sure, but I almost think the negative space becomes the subject of these shots, not the characters themselves.
Here's my favorite shot of the movie. A woman climbing a hill of bones towards the light.
I've watched the movie in the theater and at home. I have to say, this is definately one film in which the lardgess and darkness of a theater adds to effect of the film - that sense of despair and hopelessness. I'd be curious, have any of you seen The Descent? And if so, did you find the cinematography effective in terms of creating a sense of dread and fear? The rest of you, do these shots make you want to see the film, or are you put off by how much you don't get to see?
P.S. Yes, this is a monster movie. And yes, there are monsters. And they're everywhere...in the dark...where you can't see them. That's another reason why there's so much dark - because there are so many monsters.
Brandon Stark
ReplyDeleteNo i haven't seen the descent, i want to see it though, These shots want me to see the film and i completely understand what you mean when you explain the darkness effect. I've seen a few movies that has dark moments like these in the theater and it makes you feel like your part of the movie/your right with the characters in the situations. It adds more suspense and what you mentioned about some directors putting blue lights in cave movies that just ruins the realistic part of the movie for me.
Yes I have seen the descent (I actually made the comment about it when we were talking about claustrophobic movies). When I watched this film, it was odd not to see anything but darkness and the small fraction of space where you can actually see the human. This is a scary movie- the darkness adds to that- if you hate the darkness and the genre its not the best movie to see. But i actually found that when you watch it, the darkness makes you anticipate something dreadful to happen soon, at anytime, and the longer you have to wait to see it coming, the creepier it gets. The claustrophobia adds to it because there is no escape. I think darkness and claustrophobia go very well together. Its extreme but like brandon said, when you have lights and you can see the whole cave, you see what is there and it isn't as frightening. Now that you've mentioned it, most movies don't combine the two (if someone is in a cave, it is either large with enough space that the people can stand up or it is light either by natural light coming from some place or people have light, sometimes its both light and spacious, but this is the only movie i've seen where it is dark and claustrophobic). As humans, we aren't use to this and for a scary movie this works perfectly, it accomplishes its goal. Best (or worst) part is that at one point the cave expedition goes terribly wrong and a rock collapses blocking the way and there are predators in the cave- it becomes a game of survival. Im am not a claustrophobic person (i don't like tight spaces but i don't really care or freak out) but I have been stuck in a dark elevator before for a really long time, and the dark and small space is creepy. There is no way to turn back or run. This movie forces you to have these emotions with the character. Im not the biggest scary movie fan either, but if i haven't seen this and was reading about it now and this claustrophobic feel, I would want to see it. I would want to know if a whole screen of darkness could really have such a great effect. I think this technique really works for this movie, im not so sure if it would work for many others though.
ReplyDeletei have never seen the decent before mainly because it seemed like a really scary movie where things pop out at you and I hate those type of movies where things pop out at you. But anyways now that I have seen some shots from the movie I am actually considering seeing the movie. It doesn't seem like it has a lot of things popping out at you that much, it seems like the scariness of the film revolves around there being this barrier of darkness that conceals the monster from the main characters and when you never able to see something or identify where it is in contrast to yourself it makes it extremely frightening and affective as a scary movie. I also think the shots were a big step for scary movie makers and really shows their intentions on the film in how it isn't any ordinary scary movie where you can clearly see the monster chasing after the characters and I agree with what you said about the blackness actually being the subject of the frame and not the character. I think now I actually may go rent this movie and turn off all the lights when I watch it to add to the darkness and disorientation that is associated with the film.
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