Research

 Use of colour in films  

- looking at the use of colour (mainly pink) in horror films with strong female leads. Looking at Paradise hills 2019, Jennifer’s body 2009 and Midsommar 2019. 

Sketchbook page:

-Jennifer’s body:

Jennifer’s body is horror film that flips the traditional narrative of the female always being the victim to the female lead having this villain/hero complex. Traditionally pink is a colour of innocence, femininity and love but having the villain take on this wonderfully chaotic hyper feminine character the whole meaning of pink is flipped on its head, it becomes a symbolism of her power and evil helping to aid her weaponised sexuality. This can be seen as Jennifer the villain is always dressed in some variation of pink hyper feminine outfits. Below are photos showing the use of pink in scenes 

 

-Paradise hills: 

Paradise hills uses pink in a soft romantic way to hide the darkness and horror of its plot from the characters and viewers. The whole set of this film being adorned in shades of pink and white, a range of fabric, like tulle and velvets give the whole thing having a huge fairytale feel too it yet eerie, bringing the creep factor towards this pink brutalism. The swan bathroom holds  huge symbolism, with the story of the ugly duckling turning to a swan, this is foreshadowing the dark plot and it’s interesting because the scene is shot in a dark shadowy light. Red is only ever really seen on the Duchess (villain ), she wears red in her clothing, lipstick or accessories this is interesting as red is a colour that is associated with power and evil in horror. 

-Midsommar: 

Midsommar as a horror uses light in an untraditional way, using a bright colour scheme to create fear opposed to the regular dark scary shots in horror. Midsommar creates haptic visuals through bright over exposed shots of the vast landscapes with lush green grass and bright skies. The technicolour themes in the film repeat creating a sense of foreshadowing, this can be seen in the blue clothes the elders wear in the horror scenes and the blue clothes we see her family wearing as they die in a flash back. This repetition can be seen again in the yellow clothes her sick sister wears in a flash back and the yellow flowers, this deliberate repetition of bright colours can be seen throughout the whole film leading up to the horror scenes. Another interesting use of colour and of light is seen in the horror scenes, each death scenes is shown in full graphic light and depicting a lot of colour and of course the array of hundreds of colourful flowers in the last scene, this creates the fear and disgust of a traditional horror film in a completely re-imagined way.