Horror Analysis

Sinister

In the first shot of the film, we see the protagonist carry a baseball bat, looking suspicious. We see this through the use of a medium-long shot. There is also the use of side lighting which almost gives the character split lighting on his face. However, the shot isn’t completely dark, which gives us the feeling of security. In the second shot, we then see another medium-long shot with low key, hard lighting. We see the man move through the room, holding the baseball bat up in the air. This could suggest that something is going to happen and he will have to try and protect himself.

 The next shot is a close up of the man’s face. We can see that he is sweating, which is shown via the lighting. This suggests that he is very nervous about what might happen next. The lighting is a split lighting, which could show that he has split emotions, which could be that he is nervous about what might happen, but also angry that someone/something is messing with him. As he turns his head to the right, his face then becomes all lit up, a scary girl pops up. Just before he turns his head there is an eerie non-diegetic sound that makes us feel uneasy. The music then builds up and goes into a higher pitch when we see the girl. The girls face is quite scary and is very close to the man’s face, however, he doesn’t seem to notice her.

As the man proceeds to walk away, there is the use of the side tracking shot. This helps us to see the little girl run away, almost in slow motion, and disappear. The man turns back around and the girl is gone. This shot could suggest that the man is unable to see her because she is invisible to him. In the next shot, we have a long shot, which shows the man walking towards the camera. The lighting is also low key, which could suggest that the man is walking into the unknown. As the camera pans to the left, a young boy runs in slow motion into the shot. We again hear the non-diegetic sound motif, which we hear whenever a young child appears in the shot. The man is oblivious to the boy being there, which again could tell us that he cannot see dead people.

We then have a mid-shot of the man in a hallway. He then moves to the right, revealing another little girl. The camera has a very quick cut to a mid-shot of the little girl in a yellow poncho. The colour connotations of yellow are happiness and joy, which juxtaposes the dark black room. Each time the man looks in the direction of where the children are, they run very quick so that he doesn’t see them. This adds an enigma code, questioning who they are and what they are doing.

Finally, we see another long shot of the man walking towards where the little girl was standing. As he walks away, another young boy is revealed to be standing behind him. This young boy is then seen running quickly behind the man. The boy stops and hides as soon as he knows the man will turn around. This can show that they are playing tricks with the man.