Film: House on Haunted Hill
Genre: Horror
Date Released: October 29th 1999 (USA)
Director: William Malone
Writer: Robb White
Opening two minutes
The film I am going to be deconstructing is House on Haunted Hill, which was released in 1999. This film genre is a horror. The MPAA gave this film a rating R.
The establishing shot of this film is an extreme long shot tilted up, this is a worms eye shot, the shot is of a cliff face, with sharp, jagged edges. The building that is compositioned in the middle of the shot looks as if it has shot up from underneath as it fits perfectly with the cliff face. The next shot jump cuts to man walking through a door across a room, he is walking calmly, the room he walks through seems to be very dusty, dark and mysterious. A woman, that seems to be in a nurses outfit walks past behind the man. The man is wearing a white shirt and white bottoms, this is what looks to be a nurses costume. As the camera tracks up the body this is revealed. He is carrying 3 pencils and trwisting them between his fingers. With this information we can assume where the film is set and what it is bound to be about. There is a diagetic sound of very quiet music playing, then loud screams can be haerd. This would make the viewer think that it is not just any hospital, but maybe a mental institution. When he walks through door and across the room it is one continous shot. He shuts the door behind him, as he does so a loud creaking noise is heard, this sound is diagetic as it fit in with the scene. The shot then jump cuts to inside the room. The camera pointed at a birds eye view shot, down to a machine where man put piece of paper, then clicks it down, it makes a loud pinging sound. The camera then starts to pan downwards and zooms out slightly so the viewer can see the machine. Then again it jump cuts to a birds eye view shot of the room, this is a match on action shot as it seems like one continuous shot. The man then walks across room, to put on the record player, maybe to drown the noise of screaming out. The music plays loudly, the shot again jump cuts to pencil sharpener, the man places one in sharpens it, a loud noise from the machine as he turn to shapen the pencil. Extreme close up of mouth blowing shavings of pencil off. The last jump cut of this scene cuts to close up of his hand writng on what looks to be a chart.
The establishing shot of the next scene ia a jump cut to a close up of a man turning from the right to look directly at the camera, here he brakes the 4th wall, not technically to communicate with the viewers but as the scene continues we can see that he was looking at the camera that was filming him, this was a good point of view shot. The music from the mans office carrys on to play in the room where the man with the sergical mask was. The shot then jumps to the nurse who is recording the man, this proves the theory of the man looking at the camera. Then jumps to a high angled shot tilting down to show the man about to start surgery on a patient that is restrained on the bed. The screaming from the patient drowns out the sound of the music. As the doctor starts to cut into the man, he hears laughing and banging, from above. he then relaises that the other patients have escaped. there are various angled shot to catch the mans reaction along with worms eye view of the patients banging on the glass roof avove.
The establishing shot of the next scene ia a jump cut to a close up of a man turning from the right to look directly at the camera, here he brakes the 4th wall, not technically to communicate with the viewers but as the scene continues we can see that he was looking at the camera that was filming him, this was a good point of view shot. The music from the mans office carrys on to play in the room where the man with the sergical mask was. The shot then jumps to the nurse who is recording the man, this proves the theory of the man looking at the camera. Then jumps to a high angled shot tilting down to show the man about to start surgery on a patient that is restrained on the bed. The screaming from the patient drowns out the sound of the music. As the doctor starts to cut into the man, he hears laughing and banging, from above. he then relaises that the other patients have escaped. there are various angled shot to catch the mans reaction along with worms eye view of the patients banging on the glass roof avove.
The shot then jump cuts back to the man in the office, its new establishing shot is a worms eye view of the man still writing on charts. The shot pans from left to right. The music still plays, but there is no noise from the screaming of the patients in the operating theatre. The next shot is a point of view shot of a boy, looking at the man. The condition of the boy clearly shows that the patients are not treated as well as they should be. As the man looks at the boy through the metal caging he thinks nothing of it and carrys on writing. Then it goes back to the worms eye shot of the man. Then pans back right to left, as the shot pans back in the background in the window of the door the man walked through, a patients face is pressed up against it. The next shot is an eye line shot of the man turning to the door. The glass smashes and the music abrubutly stops, all that can be heard is diagetic sound of glass being smashed and yells from all the patients. They all grab the man, as he squeals for his life. The shots are quick and change from all different angles and jerk around to create the tension of the scene.
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