Conventions of a Horror film

Props - Character, Organs, Weapons Lighting - Dark Lighting to create the mood, Backlight to create shadow/siluetteMake-up - Bloody face, heavy make-up on killerCamera Shots/Editing - Quick Shots, Close ups, Over the Shoulder, Point Of View (POV)Sound - Face paced, disortant, Non-Diegetic

The Descent

The Narritive and Story of The DescentThe narrative is a group of people in an isolated location and, as they struggle to overcome this situation, they are attacked by a violent and unknown force. Taking this deceptively simple narrative, the horror of isolation by positioning the characters within a claustrophobic confined space of an unexplored cave system.The film begins with three friends - Juno, Beth and Sarah. Sarah, coming to the end of a white-water rafting trip. At the edge of the river stands Sarah’s husband Paul and their daughter Jessie. As the three women climb out of their raft it becomes apparent that there may be an adulterous relationship between Juno and Paul. As the family drive home, Sarah distracts Paul, asking him if everything is alright. As he turns to answer her the car drifts into the opposite lane and collides with an oncoming vehicle, resulting in Paul and Jessie’s death. Sarah later wakes up in hospital, injured but alive.One year later. Juno has arranged for a caving expedition at Boreham Caverns in the Appalachian Mountains. Accompanying her on this trip will be Beth and Sarah, as well as their other friend Rebecca, her sister Sam, and Holly, Juno’s protégé. The expedition begins well but a sudden cave collapse not only traps the women underground but also reveals that they are in an unexplored cave system. Working together the women try to find a way out but it soon becomes apparent that they are not alone and they are eventually attacked by a group of primitive people, the Crawlers. As the group struggles to survive, the Crawlers continue their assaults and steadily the group members are killed, leaving only Juno and Sarah. Having momentarily fought off the Crawlers, Sarah turns on Juno and confronts her with her knowledge of the affair. Instead of killing her, Sarah incapacitates Juno and leaves her for the Crawlers while she makes her own escape.It is here, with Sarah’s escape, that the North American release of the film ends: Sarah manages to find her way back to civilisation only to be haunted by a vision of a battered and bloody Juno. The UK release briefly continues Sarah’s story with her waking up in the cave, her assumed escape merely a hallucination. Getting up on her knees, Sarah looks into the darkness and has a vision of her dead daughter. The film concludes with Sarah lost in both the cave and a delusional fantasy

Vladimir Propp

Vladimir Tropp, born in Moscow, began his studies at an early age at the Gnessin Music School of Moscow. He was soon awarded various scholarships, including the prestigious Rimsky-Korsakov Fellowship, and completed his studies with honors in record time. Since that time he has acquired a reputation as both an outstanding soloist and a teacher. He had participated in competitions, winning many prizes including the Enesco Competition at Bucharest. Many of his students won prestigious prizes at international competitions. Currently, as soloist and master class teacher, he travels all over the world; Europe, America and Asia. He endeavours to perpetuate the Russian school of pianism, with considerable success. His specialty is Russian music, especially that of Scriabin, Medtner and Rachmaninoff.At the invitations of the Conservatory of Amsterdam and Epta Holland, Vladimir Tropp has been to Amsterdam, The Hague and Groningen. In Amsterdam, he gave a very successful recital with compositions of Tschaikovsky. In the Concertgebouw, he performed together with Ilya Grubert and made recordings of Shostakovich compositions for Channel Classics. Vladimir Tropp also made recordings for the Japanese label Denon, including Rachmaninoff, Chopin and Tschaikovsky’s "The seasons". His recording of Scriabin's Preludes opus 11 and Medtner's Second Improvisation are quite famous. His CD "Russian Melancholy" with pieces from Glinka, Borodin, Moussorgsky, Rubinstein, Rebikov and Kalinnikov is very interesting. Vladimir Tropp is often requested to be a member of the jury in International Piano Competitions.He is one of the most well-known professors at the famous Gnessin Academy of Music and the Conservatory in Moscow.
PROPP’S THEORY –Vladimir Propp’s theory was formed in the early twentieth Century. He studies Russian fairytales and discovered that in stories there were always 8 types of characters evident. These are: the hero, the villain, the donor, the dispatcher, the false hero, the helper, the princess and her father. He did not state these characters were all separate people e.g. the provider could also be the helper. There are only 8 different character types and only 31 things they ever do. Once you have identified the character type (e.g., the hero) it’s easy to guess what they will do (save the maiden, defeat the villain, marry the maiden or whatever) because each character has a SPHERE OF ACTION. This is easily relatable to films and programmes today.