Unit 10 LA A - close analysis of a short film

1. 2am: The Smiling Man
Outline
2am is a short horror film based on a true story that was originally told in an online
forum discussion. A young man is walking at night when he meets a stranger in a
yellow suit who is always smiling. The stranger moves in a strange way and the
young man decides to avoid him, but is chased. He thinks he has got away only to
find the stranger right beside him. Smiling. The film ends with that cliffhanger.
Genre
It is a horror film – it particularly uses the mise en scene conventions of horror films,
set at night in a deserted street, and the sound conventions of horror films, with a
soundtrack that keeps coming in and making the horror elements stand out.
Narrative Theory
You can think about this film with Todorov’s theory of narrative being a kind of spiral.
 Equilibrium – The young man is walking home alone at night
 Disruption – The strange man in the yellow suit is there
 Recognition – The young man realises he’s there and crosses the road – and
then back – and the man follows and starts to chase him
 Reaction – The young man runs away
 New equilibrium – The young man has escaped. Or has he?
It’s very difficult to think about this film in terms of Propp’s theories of characters
because there are only two characters in the film – hero and apparent villain.
Purpose
As a short film it has some different purposes to mainstream full-length films. It does
want to scare its audience, like other horror films, but it doesn’t have time to develop
characters like a longer film would. It also doesn’t have ‘making money’ as a primary
aim, or not in an obvious way anyway, although it does have the aim of getting the
Director’s name known and perhaps gaining investment money for future projects.
Audience
The core audience for 2am is major horror fans. As a short film it won’t have a
cinema release but was shown at film festivals, especially specialist horror film
festivals, and will be watched a lot online and shown on social media. It has had
over 10million views on YouTube.

2. Micro Analysis
Mise en Scene
 The night – it is a classic use of mise en scene in horror to set a story at night.
 Isolation – there is nobody else around anywhere and no sound of anybody
else
 Making strange – both the yellow suit that the man is wearing and the unusual
way that he moves are important mise en scene points that make the man
strange
Cinematography
 The establishing shots opening the film are of the youg man in mid shot at
night. The camera is still showing the deserted street around him.
 The use of shot/reverse pov/shot editing shows us that the man has seen
something, and we see his view of the smiling man
 The sudden POV shot showing the smiling man across the road is the first
time things seem really sinister, instead of just strange.
 This happens again when the camera pulls focus from the young man to the
smiling man and we see him slowly rise and start to walk (in his strange way)
towards the young man/us. This sequence holds a long-lasting shot on the
smiling man as he slowly moves before we see the relief on the young man’s
face as he walks away
 The sudden shot of the smiling man running ‘through’ the frame sets the final
part of the scene into action.
 The camera takes us on the chase, running with the young man as he tries to
escape
 The slightly shaky shot of his POV as he looks around shows us the smiling
man has gone...
 And the sudden low angle shot of him ends the film on a bang.
Editing
 The sequence regularly uses shot/reverse POV/shot editing to show us the
young man’s point of view and to centre our empathy with him
 There is a powerful sudden cut to the young man’s point of view of the smiling
man on the other side of the road
 The final cut is interesting for a horror film because it shows that the smiling
man ‘beats’ the continuity editing – he is not there at all and then suddenly he
is.
Sound
 I think that sound is the most important micro element in this short film in
terms of horror conventions. Even more than the dark night and the isolation it
is the sound track that really makes it a horror film

3.  The main use of diagetic sound in the film are the footsteps that we hear. The
shuffling ‘dance’ footsteps of the smiling man are an important part of his
performance.
 The non-diagetic soundtrack is ominous and threatening from the very
beginning. It returns as the man tries to walk away from the smiling man
warning us that all is not well.
 There is a significant musical sting in the non-diagetic soundtrack to go with
the sudden cut to the smiling man standing and looking on the other side of
the road.
 The soundtrack becomes very ominous again as the shot pulls focus to see
the smiling man in the background and keeps going as he ‘walks’ up to the
man/us. It becomes more urgent as the smiling man gets closer to him/us.
 The cut to a single line of dialogue gives us a different score – it goes fom
being threatening back to just being strange as the smiling man turns and
walks away, and then...
 It suddenly becomes much more urgent as the chase starts – and that
actually starts with the diagetic sound of running footsteps
 The urgent score of the chase also has the fast heartbeat sound running
through it which lasts until the very final shot when...
 The sudden reappearance of the smiling man is coupled with a loud sting on
the soundtrack to end the film with a bang
 The music on the final titles is more mournful than scary or tense
Messages and Values
Most horror films ask people to imagine what they would feel like if the world was not
as safe a place as they thought it was. What if things were not as they seemed. It is
also very common to suggest that the night is dangerous that that it’s very
dangerous to go around on your own at night.
This film also tells audience that there are strange people out there and that strange
people are dangerous. Even though nothing actually happens it suggests that the
man is in real danger from the smiling man, especially at the end of the film, and
that’s just because he’s behaving in a strange and unusual way. You could say that
this film encourages you to think that people who are different are dangerous, and
that’s quite a bad message, I think.