Key generic codes and conventions used throughout the film are:

·        Isolated setting which is a mansion house near a big woods with no neighbors

·        Trouble only starts to happen when is gets near dark time

·        High key lighting to show the equilibrium

·        At the very beginning you hear an non-diegetic sound of a phone call ringing which reflects the films narrative “when a stranger calls”. The sound of a heavy breathing not speaking builds up the tension towards the film

·  Villain runs very fast and wears black to hide in the shadows and to hide his identity which makes him more frightening to his victim because they don’t know who he is.

·  Eerie creepy non-diegetic sound to show when the Villain is present

·  Props such as a knife, blood and a mobile are iconic images you see in a horror

·  Hearing screams, police sirens and loud footsteps are all sounds you expect in a thriller/horror

 

The narrative structure

The narrative structure consists of number of separate structures to help tell the story to help the audience follow the pattern better in a Linear structure with an Equilibrium, disruption, realization of the disruption, attempt to repair the disruption and the Equilibrium restored

The Equilibrium-Jill Johnson agrees to baby-sit for a family that owns a massive house, disruption- She receives prank phone calls and call the police who trace that the phone calls are coming from inside, attempt to repair the disruption-She checks on the children but finds them missing and the stranger has took them, Equilibrium restored- Jill calls the police and manages to escape from the stranger and save the children

 

The disruptions within the narrative are

• She receives prank phone calls and call the police who tell her the phone calls are coming from inside the house
• The stranger takes the children and tries to kill Jill

The disruptions through out the film are when the villain is present and when he has killed someone. This is quite common in a typical horror film

 

Key Scenes that help to forge the narrative

• Jill goes around to baby-sit for a family that own a massive house that is far out of reach
• Jill stays there for a couple of hours until she starts getting prank phone calls
• Her mate tiffany comes round to comfort her whilst she baby-sits
• Tiffany leaves a couple hours later and gets killed by the stranger
• Jill is unaware of this and watches a film and gets prank again but gets asked have you checked on the children
• Jill calls the police who tell her the phone call was traced and said it was coming from within inside the house
• She needs the trace the caller identity by making him stay on the phone for 2mins
• She goes up stairs n finds the children sleeping
• The stranger jumps up on her from behind but Jill manages to escape
• Jill takes the children and hides
• The stranger looks for them both but Jill calls the police
• Police come in just in time to find Jill and the children and find the dead body of Tiffany

 

Character types

Here are the characters I found that I could relate to props theorem of character types

The stranger=Villain

Jill Johnson= Princess/Hero

Police=Donor (help the hero to escape from the stranger)

Tiffany= Victim