'The Grudge' Deconstruction

Mise En Scene

• The sequence first denotes a young woman, looking scared walking down the stairs. Her facial expressions and body language connotes she is a vulnerable target, a common convention in supernatural horrors. 

• The scene switches to low key lighting. The type of lighting is commonly seen in horror films, as it symbolizes death, darkness and usually a negative issue. In this case, the lighting effectively creates a gloomy, eerie atmosphere.

• A mysterious ghost like character is slightly revealed as the woman passes the mirror. Slight viewings of the supernatural character is also a common convention of the genre.  

• Audience pleasures are met once the audience see a hand suddenly being pounced on the woman's foot. The action is unexpected and as a result, makes the audience jump.  





• Death is represented in the sequence. This is seen through a girl's face, looking rather still with blood dripping down.



• A door appears to be closing by itself. This raises an enigma. The audience perhaps may think the door is being controlled through demonic movement.

• Finally, the supernatural figure is revealed. However, again the face is not seen, only body parts. This raises audience expectations, as the audience identify the unusual body movement, consequently expecting to see an unusual, creepy and rather daunting face of this character.

Effective Camera Angles And Shots

• The close up of the deathly image enhances the idea of death further. This is because the shot makes conventions, such as blood very clear. The low angle effectively shows the girl's face looking down towards the ground, being suggestive of her death leaving her with no hope.



• The close up following the door being shut, allows the audience to examine the woman's facial expressions. Furthermore, through the shot, we can note her sweat, her eyes looking rather shocked and her heavy breathing. The audience can therefore, identify her fear.
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
• The low angle shot is a clever way in mirroring the ghost's movement. In addition, the audience see she is crawling down the stairs, so the positioning of the shot reflects her movement.
  

• When the ghost is approaching the male's face, a high angle shot has been used. The shot makes the audience feel as though they are about to be attacked by the possessed girl. This is because, the shot makes us look down upon the girl, seeing her slowly come up.

 

• Low angle shots also play a key role making the illusion that we, the audience are being looked down upon by the possessed characters.
  

Sound

• Non-diegetic sound is used when the lights switch off. The sound is rather eerie, complementing and helping to build the spooky type atmosphere. The audience relate the use of sound to something bad about to happen.
• The high pitched screech is non-diegetic, and makes the mirror movement quite pivotal.
• On-screen diegetic sounds of the woman breathing heavily, add to the intense atmosphere. They also make the action seem more realistic, as in a real life situation, one would be terrified.
• Throughout, non-diegetic sound has been used in order to build and create suspense. A good example of this is when the woman hears something, and goes to find out what the sound was.
• The non-diegetic sound is useful in building on screen diegetic sounds such as the man's hand hitting the woman's foot. This is because the audience note something negative will occur, and therefore the sudden sounds fulfil audience expectations and pleasure.