belief in horror is belief in the plot

1. Sonia Filipa Soares-Eusébio
Conjuring 2
‘The Conjuring 2’ is a movie about the paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine
Warren who travel to north London in order to help Peggy Hodgson a single mother
who’s raising her four children and being plagued by a malevolent spirit that has
latched itself on to the youngest of her daughters Janet Hodgson. The movie is a
part of the horror genre with the sub- genre of supernatural /paranormal occurrences
however it is unconventional in the way which no one dies in the end.
‘The conjuring 2’ uses mostly single camera techniques because the Hodgson home
is too small for all the camera equipment (such as the camera and the microphone
etc.) however when they move to scenes that are outside the house you find there is
more than one camera used for filming as there is more room.
This is a supernatural horror as it gives a sense of mystery using non-diegetic sound
(such as orchestral music and eerie sounds such as banging and added footsteps)
as a means to build the tension until the jump scares which are used frighten the
audience from the sudden appearance of a dehumanised creature/ spirit or demon.
There is low key lighting in the movie which adds to the horror
effect as you see some corners are darkened this is also used as
somewhat of a port way for the appearance of the spirit and demon.
The movie has a main antagonist that attacks the family, in this
case the demon Valak who uses his two pawns; Bill Wilkins & the
crooked man (it is uncommon to have a hierarchy in a horror) but the
one in the movie that suffers most is the young Jane Hodgson who is
the target of the Demons attacks this is a regular convention in horror
movies as a young child represents innocence (especially in young
girls) and is being used and turned into something demonic and that
frightens the audience.
The whole way throughout the movie we find that things are not
as they seem especially since the demon Valak wears a cross
around his neck when he appears as a nun, (so the cross has
no power over him), but he uses it to present himself to Lorraine
as something that is holy and a message from God this
confuses the audience at first and then we understand that this
is just a cover up for Valak to distance the Warrens warning
them to keep away.
However we soon find this is not true as the haunting in the
Hodgson home is not as it seems at first there seems to be no
proof of the haunting being real, though we find that this is planned to appear this
way by the demon to confuse the Warrens and drive them away, we find evidence of
this when Ed sees the tapes overlapped on the floor and has the brilliant idea of
playing Bill’s “gibberish” overlapping both the tapes to make sense of what he was
saying.

2. Sonia Filipa Soares-Eusébio
When we see the real Bill Wilkins in the chair while he talks
to Lorraine the camera is at eye level at first to show that
this is the real Bill and then the shot angle changes to a high
angle to show that he is vulnerable and has been weakened
considerably because of the demon and we pity him as we
can clearly see he is being used.
The narrative of conjuring 2 is linear as all the events
happen in order and the time flow of each event is not in any way distorted, the
movie has a closed ending as they have successfully gotten rid of the main
antagonist and in turn saved and freed the family from the distress they are forced to
undergo this movie would be considered a multi- strand that soon merges because
there are two main and distinct locations one in England ( the haunting site with the
Hodgson family) and the second is in America ( the warren home) they merge
together and become single strand when the warrens meet the Hodgson and the
story line is joined into one straight story line.
Most of the jump scares are mid-close up or close-ups
because they want it to seem like it’s jumping out of the
screen at the audience to make it seem real. There is an
extreme long shot in Ed and Lorraine’s house as we see the
Demon Valak at the end of the corridor and the space around
him makes him appear stronger and bigger that he is. We see
the dog transform into the crooked man and they use an
extreme long shot in this scene and then the transformation
begins and we understand why there was this excess space
around the dog.
Lorraine looks much more well-kept and together than Peggy however we
must consider the fact that Peggy is a single parent taking care of four children and
working multiple jobs to sustain them we can also say that the young girl Jane keeps
becoming sicklier as they go and we soon find this is because of the Demon trying to
possess her body.
The props used are holy objects as well as objects from the 1977 or older (as the
houses would only be changed every 10 in 10 years). The sounds used are mostly
non-diegetic sounds as the editors of this documented event added them to spice up
the scenes. They use common religious objects such as the bible and crucifix, this
assures the audience there is hope.
Before these events are to begin properly we have a side story that links into the
main storyline later on and it gives us an understanding of what has happened
before to show the audience why the demon is so significant.
The first shot shown is an establishing shot
to set the scene for the movie it seems to
be set in mid-autumn to give it that chilling
feeling of something about to go wrong.
The pathetic fallacy in this shot looks dreary
but it’s more of a warning to the audience
that rough times are ahead of us you see
this from the way the clouds have gathered
you don’t know what’s coming but you know it’s not going to be pleasant, when

3. Sonia Filipa Soares-Eusébio
clouds gather they become heavy with rain so, as the movie goes on we see the
clouds darken and this adds to the pathetic fallacy. We here Lorraine’s voice as we
see the image come into focus it sounds like she’s re-telling the story to the audience
The camera then zooms out of the establishing
shot and makes it look as if someone were looking
out the window we continue to hear Lorraine’s
voice as she re-tells the story. It then continues to
zoom out into an attic looking room that has a
chimney up against the walls with two quarter-
circle windows
Lorraine’s voice is reminiscent like she is telling a story and
this is backed up by the superimposed writing on the screen to
show these are documented events and have been recorded.
This is a re-telling of events for the sake of the public to warn
them and make them aware.
This scene is a mid-shot in the background we
still hear Lorraine’s voice explaining what is
taking place and how it has changed them and
haunted them since. The scene shows Lorraine
and Ed warren as well as the people from the
Amityville haunting about to enter a séance
ceremony.
We hear Lorraine’s voice again like an echo
reminiscing about the scene and then the current
Lorraine explains the séance and as she does the
mood in the room becomes tenser so the camera
goes from a mid-shot to a gradual close up of
Lorraine’s eyes as it closes in the colours become
darker to show the change in a state of being (or
the change in dimension)
When her eyes are opened it’s like she has
changed and in terms of spiritual being I guess
you could say she has entered a different plane of
being than us.
We hear the voice of Lorraine again explaining the events that had transpired
beyond this point to the audience she’s broken the fourth wall by addressing the
audience but this is normal in this form as it is a documentary of the events.

4. Sonia Filipa Soares-Eusébio
We hear a bang as if a door has been closed (this could be a re-
telling she is hearing of the Amityville events or it could be a
representative of the door between the different states of life
being closed behind her) and then Lorraine’s eye’s snap open
looking more alert and attentive to what’s happening around her.
The close up starts to gradually fade into a mid-shot to show that
she is no longer the subject of focus in the scene.
The halls in the house have become dark as if
this is a different version of them like it’s going
back to the night it all happened, we then see the
screen tilt as Lorraine’s back faces us to show
that her mind-set has changed and that it Is no
longer her.
The Corridor upstairs is darker than downstairs
this could mean that whatever happened here was
darker than what we thought.
There is light in the rooms as if it’s presenting the
occurrences to Lorraine as a scene and Lorraine
takes the place of the antagonist so that she can
understand his point of view for why he would do
this to his own family.
Lorraine’s shadow in this scene has
grown and it looks manlier than it
should and so we know this is from the
point of view of the family’s killer.
The scene becomes horrifying as we
see Lorraine’s reflection isn’t her own
her mind-set changed and she is now
standing in the shoes of the killer
watching as he kills the family but even
the audience can see something is
wrong with the way the killer is acting
as he seems in a trance.

5. Sonia Filipa Soares-Eusébio
Suddenly Lorraine or the killer is
snapped out of their own individual
trance and they see what they have
done and begin to panic. Though we
know it’s actually Lorraine when she
follows the young giggling boy down the
stairs and into the basement.
When she reaches the bottom of the stairs
she sees all these holy objects and I think this
is just the demon valaks way of making
himself seem like a messenger of god. Then
when she walks further into the clear space
and turns around we see the dead’s spirits
standing behind her which then point to a
mirror in the small space as if being
commanded to.
When she rips the cover off the mirror
we see the Demon valak appear from
behind her in the mirror however when
she turns to look behind her he is not
there and when he turns back to the
mirror he is closer.
This continues until valak is right in her face and
strangling her however this is just her thoughts being
twisted by the demon she was strangling herself and as
soon as she realizes this she sees that she can free
herself
We then see Lorraine have a vision induced by
the demon warning her to stay away otherwise
something bad will happen we don’t know who it
is that will be harmed but Lorraine takes the
threat seriously.

6. Sonia Filipa Soares-Eusébio
Super imposed writing appears as
soon as the scene is done with in the
style of a documentary.
Quarantine
A television reporter and her cameraman are assigned to spend the night shift with a
Los Angeles Fire Station when there is suddenly a routine call that takes them to a
scene that will cost them their lives, trapped inside a building quarantined by the
CDC, after the outbreak of a mysterious virus which turns humans into bloodthirsty
killers, they find there is now way out and when the quarantine is finally lifted, the
only evidence of what took place is the news crew's videotape.
Quarantine’s main genre is horror however it’s a zombie styled horror however it is
unconventional as a zombie horror because instead of the zombified people trying to
eat the others because they are hungry it’s more about the aggression and killing, it’s
conventional in the way that they get bitten and get infected but it’s also
unconventional in the way that there are no survivors who are able to escape and try
find a cure to save others because everyone in the apartment is slaughtered. The
infection causing them to turn violent is based off an evolved version of rabies that
was manufactured by someone in the building who was experimenting on everyone
else.
Quarantine is linear as the events that transpired are played as they occur there are
not altered in any way and the only edits used are when the camera is turned off and
then ellipsis’s to the next scene however this is because the context in which the
video is recorded makes it found footage so it’s just raw footage from the incident.
This is a single strand narrative as it follows the actions of the people around the
building this also makes it a single camera production as the movie is shot from one
camera the whole way through which belongs to the camera man in the movie who
is recording all of this so that whoever finds this knows what happened to everyone
in the apartment
The movie does not use Non-diegetic sound as it takes away from the realism and
ruins the verisimilitude for the audience, the movie uses diegetic sound and a lot of
asynchronistic sound such as the radio chatter, police sirens, and helicopters that
are all occurring outside. The synchronous sound used in this movie consists of
the bone crushing, screaming and banging / breaking of the doors etc. that's caused
by the infected and the panicking characters.

7. Sonia Filipa Soares-Eusébio
The reporter looks into the camera when she speaks this is
breaking the fourth wall but as this is raw footage and is being
shown to the audience It’s not unusual because the whole point of
the footage she was filming was to get it out to the audience.
The movie is based around two main locations, the first
location is the fire station and this is a well-lit and relaxed
location that seems to make the audience feel like they are
safe there, they even play a game that lightens and loosens the
audience’s fear, however they soon find that is not the case as they
get a routine call and the audience know that this will lead to a
dangerous situation and this makes the audience tense.
The ride over to the situation is still light and calm they make
jokes but that’s soon lost as they arrive at the second location
and the audience sees that the lighting isn't as bright as the fire
station and this gives the audience an eerie feeling that something
is very wrong in the apartment place as they walk up the stairs they
find that an old woman that lives alone was heard screaming and it
alerted the neighbours. However this is nothing more than a start to the horror
they would experience when they got to the room.
The first location uses the colours blue as a sign of loyalty and bravery
and the colour yellow as warmth and comfort the colour white in this
location demonstrates purity however in the other location demonstrates
both purity and insanity. Second location uses darker colours like blues
and greys to demonstrate cold and death the colours are like this though
the old man in the second location wears the colour grey as a symbol of
wisdom and responsibility as he tries to save them by giving them hope.
The police officer in the movie not knowing what was causing the
strange behaviour or the infection tries to keep order by ordering
everyone else around however everyone is in a state of panic and will
not co-operate properly as he is using more force than necessary this
makes him an unstable character with authority though as this
behaviour continues we find that he no longer has the authority he is
just trying to place himself on a higher level as he has the gun and he
shoes he will use it if threatened this adds to the panic and the audience finds that
he loses authority and has just become someone with power because of his gun.
On the other hand firefighter Jake is the casual & assuring character and because of
this calm demeanour of his he becomes the most authoritative character in the
audiences eyes as he reassures everyone and keeps them calm though he
seems to slightly lose his temper with the police officer as he is making
everyone feel unsafe but this is just him taking everyone in to consideration
when the officer pulls a gun on him trying to reassert himself as the higher
authority Jake is the first to try calm him and reassure him no one is trying to
hurt or threaten him. When Jake dies all hell breaks loose as in the
audience’s eyes he was the balance between the good and the bad then her
died and the balance was broken so the infected become more violent.

8. Sonia Filipa Soares-Eusébio
The apartment building seems to get darker and darker as the movie
goes on and the audience notices this and it adds to the pure terror
that something is going to go wrong, when Angie and her cameraman
come across a board full of plans to infect and observe animals and then
humans the audience sees that what has happened was planned it wasn't
an accident and that everyone was just a lab rat for this persons
experiments, the plot is so much more we find all these crazy
things and experiments and the audience feels a new sense of
terror as this has happened because someone wanted to run
experiments.
The props used to add to the movie consist of a syringe which
symbolises something is wrong and that they are trying to find a cure the
word syringe links to cleansing and injecting fluids into the body, the drill is
used to show a violent way to find and save everyone else a sacrifice. The
Gun is used as a symbol of power and authority the police officer uses it to
scare and threaten because he is scared and threatened, the hammer and axe
used by the firefighter is used to defend and protect the no-infected
from the infected. The newspaper clippings and tape recorder are
done on purpose they are used to show the cause of the infection
the word Armageddon is amongst the words in the news clippings
and this shows that whoever started this was trying to start an
apocalyptic event. The keys in the movie demonstrate hope and a
way out however when they get there they find they've trapped
themselves in the lair of the person who has plotted all of this hope
is extinguished then.