Individual analysis of a similar short film

'Maniac'

 

If the video doesn't work, please follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVemNLOwCJ0

 

Short horror mockumentary about a camera crew that follows two serial killers.

Reviews

 

 "Appropriately entitled "Maniac," this 10-minute short is more or less a remake of "Man Bites Dog," the notorious French faux-documentary that followed the exploits of a serial killer. The rapper stars alongside Chris Palko (akaCage) as a murderous duo, in the film that tracks them across a snowy winter evening killing spree, maiming and causing general mayhem around the city as a camera crew follows them. It's actually quite impressively lensed by LaBeouf, but also sort of entirely pointless and scuzzy, the actor does have a strong command behind the camera, though. Kid Cudi handles the soundtrack duties as well." - Kevin Jagernauth blogs.indiewire.com

 "Cage kennylz and kid cudi were at first in my opinion a strange cast but I know Shia labeouf had been working with cage prior, directing "I never knew you" a music video of cages. Its fun to watch, just wish it had more to it, nevertheless it was well done and would like to see Shia do something more original and longer" - Caotsstoac review on IMDB.

 "It is not that interesting as a film, and LaBeouf seems more interested in style then substance, however that is the film's most enduring quality. Very slick cinematography, direction etc. The black and white, saturated colours, the colorgrading is very pretty. Technically Shia LaBeouf has proved to me at least that he can direct, it's only the content that's missing." - CurtHerzstark review on IMDB

Blood

 



In Maniac there is a lot of blood and gore used. It is quite disturbing to watch in parts as the deaths look very realistic. There is also a lot of violence in this film which gives an uncomfortable feel to the audience. Blood is a convention of horror and a symbol of death/pain therefore it is important we use blood in our film in order to make the film more realistic so that it has a better effect on the audience.

Weapons

In this shot the actor has just killed someone, he scrapes the knife across the wall as he is walking to find his next victim. This makes him more intimidating and builds up more tension in the audience as you get the feel he is going to kill another person. This is something we may use as a pastiche in our film as the murderer is finding the next person to kill.

The serial killers use a variety of weapons for the deaths. Because we have planned to have more than one death in our film this is something we need to consider as it would be more interesting for the characters to die in different ways rather than them all dying the same as it adds variance and will be more likely to keep the audience entertained.

Costume

 Costume is also something to consider for our film.  In this film most of the characters are wearing black or dark clothes.

 Black has connotations of danger and death and creates more of a creepy effect on the audience as it builds on the audience's fears and emotions. If the characters had brightly coloured clothes on this would probably not fit as well and it may have less of an effect on the audience.

Lighting

In this film low-key lighting is used. This is so that it creates ambiance; setting the mood and the tone of the film. It can create suspense and can also control how much of the surrounding scene is revealed. The shot below is from the first scene in the film. It is a very dark scene so right from the beginning it creates suspense and builds on the fear of the unknown as a lot of the shot is not visible due to the darkness.












Not all of the scenes areas dark as the first one, below is some example of scenes that are not as dark however a lot of the colour is drained from them, giving it a very cold and hostile feeling. The first two in particular have a very cold feeling about them which reminds me of death, which is fitting as the first one is a shot of the serial killer washing blood from his hands after killing one of his victims and the second one is of the other serial killer just after he has murdered one of his victims in a shop.