Today to talk about a particularly positive topic, feng shui said "the house is less than the house of murder." "This is why the emperor's bedroom is not large, and the yongzheng emperor's bedroom is only 9 flat after the Yangxin Zhai."
Therefore, most horror movies like to make the haunted house into a big villa, and the main scene of the "Beijing 81" series is the famous Beijing first murder house "Chaonei No. 81 Courtyard", which is a big murderer.
《Jingcheng 81 No.2》
Placing evil spirits in ancient Victorian mansions ("Evil Houses", "The Haunted Spirits") or large villas is what Western horror films have always been keen on, and the space has a labyrinthine abyss that plagues the protagonist, and to some extent also uses the mansion as the externalization of the protagonist's inner world, and even blurs the boundaries of space ("Latent" series) or time ("The Shining").
"The Wraith of the Wretched"
Although "Beijing 81 No. 2" also pays attention to this, it is a pity that reality and the past two lines are too bad, there is no contrast, and it also forces cause and effect and reincarnation, especially, it does not really make good use of the space of this murderous house. The most important place in the whole film to take advantage of the characteristics of the house is that I am afraid that it is only the use of biogas to forcibly explain the ending.
How do Western horror films make big houses? They have always paid attention to the external structure and style of the house, such as the visual element of the old house and the hotel in Chion's "Horror Story" is a straight line and a horizontal line, which is in line with the relationship between the "mother" and the son in the film.
Robert Wise's The Evil House (1963) is the best horror film I've ever seen that uses the characteristics of the house itself to scare people, and the black-and-white photography is always gloomy. The Gothic "haunted house" exterior features fish-eye and elevation angles, creating a distorted sense of oppression. The interior is solemn, with edges and angles, various human elevation angles and God-like perspectives, as if the house has a soul.
Just from the above stills, you can also see the film's deliberate sense of visual oppression through photography.
Don't talk about old films, come to see the more recent, Wen Ziren's "Latent" series of murderous houses are also very exquisite, but where the external structure is photographed, it is a variety of tilting large elevation angles, the house is high, crumbling, but also has a sense of oppression on the picture.
People don't play those mysterious things, they are all real.
"Latent"
Looking inside, the staircase has always been a favorite scene in movies, and the Expressionist film period is very common, especially in horror films. The staircase scenes in "Latent" all have a feeling of an abyss, and sometimes it feels like the character can be sucked in.
"Beijing 81 No. 1" also has an abyss-like staircase,
This is worth affirming.
Wen Ziren likes to use color to adjust the atmosphere in movies, and red is his favorite color, which can express an uneasy mood. Most of them are embellished on a black background, and they are not noisy:
Only when close-up shots are taken, red dominates:
Red and black in Wen Ziren's other films:
Dead Silence
Chainsaw Horror 1
The Conjuring 2
Our domestic horror films also like to use red with green, the specific reason I don't know, now these two colors have become the standard of domestic terrible films.
Why use these two colors? Because red will associate death and blood, green will associate yin and soul. Although domestic horror films love red and green, it is always a cheap studio wind, mainly due to the proportion of color matching and collocation.
This point is at least 40 years behind the West, and the earliest precedent for studio style horror films is the Italian lead-yellow horror film "Yin Wind Gust" (1977), in addition to red and green, lead yellow is also the main color.
"Stormy Wind"
"Beijing 81 No. 1" is considered good in terms of art considerations in China, but is there a reference to "Big Red Lantern Hanging High" for the room type? The latter also emphasizes color contrast, and all that Needs to be done in "Jingcheng 81 No. 1" is to change the joy (red) to mourning (white), and even continue the axisymmetric composition of the latter.
"Beijing 81 No. 1" The big white lantern hangs high
"Big Red Lantern Hanging High" Big Red Lantern hanging high
"Jingcheng 81 No. 1" is deep white
"Big Red Lantern Hanging High" is deep red
Axisymmetric composition of "Jingcheng 81 No. 2"
"The Big Red Lantern Hangs High" axisymmetric composition
It is not surprising that the art of domestic horror films is copied from the outer film, and those cos posters alone can produce a book. In terms of set and composition, it is best not to let the audience see it, such as "Midnight Heartbeat" 'tribute" to Aaron Renai, which seems very "compelling".
Midnight Heartbeat
"Last Year in Barumba"
Most of the investment in domestic horror films is terrible, and they like to choose confined spaces, not because of good themes, but because of saving money. Now many films are reluctant to happen in castles or villas, apartment buildings are the best choice, low cost, closed, and a familiar environment for Chinese audiences, which is easy to make people feel substitution.
At the end of the day, the apartment is one of the most iconic scenes of modern life, and it has many uses in the cinematic world, showing the relationship between people and the urban environment, the interaction between people and the microscopic features. In the movie, the apartment is used as a set, and there is a feeling of returning to a fixed stage performance. The apartment, as a set, is more common in theaters than in movies because it has an intimate relationship with the actors.
The apartment with bad property is especially liked by domestic terrible films, and it is common for the voltage to be unstable and forget to pay the electricity bill. Although the owner is naturally timid, there is always a reason why he likes to run in the dark. Bedrooms, washrooms, and elevators are the three scenes that horror movies like to show the most, giving examples of three domestic horror films: "Someone Under the Bed", "Don't Look in the Mirror in the Middle of the Night", and "Xenomorph", which are good interpretations of these three things. Of course, if these films are not enough to pk "Transformers" sound effects are also in vain.
"Telephone Murder", "Rear Window", "Bat", "Blind Girl Horror", "Red Bat Apartment", etc. are relatively early to introduce the apartment into the suspense film, and Polanski's "apartment trilogy" should be the first to let the apartment participate in horror films.
Cold Blooded Horror
Cold-Blooded Horror is the first installment of the "Apartment Trilogy," and its surrealist tendencies and ambiguity set the tone for countless psychological horror films. The film takes place in an apartment in London, the sister is on the verge of a mental breakdown due to the departure of her sister, and the demons in the depths of the heart begin to terrorize themselves. Reality and the spiritual world are deranged, and nightmares follow.
Many domestic horror films are also well versed in this way - the real fear comes from the protagonist's heart and is used to externalize in surreal scenes. Polanski's expression of psychological horror, sandwiched with the characteristics of traditional horror films, is expressed one by one through the walls and corridors in the protagonist's apartment, using deep corridors and walls to enhance the horror effect.
Those hands that stick out from the wall have influenced various horror films that followed, such as:
Zombie Out of the Cage
Another example is --
The Nineteenth Floor Space
"Jingcheng 81 No. 1"
The corridor is a good place, it connects several places after all, if the depth and narrowness also have a mysterious unknown, I always remember this year when I re-watched "The Night Panic", I did not dare to look directly at the dark corridor on the big screen.
"Night Panic"
Because there may be more powerful evil forces waiting for you at the end of the corridor, even if the surrounding light source is sufficient, the unknown force at the end is still powerful:
The Shining
Polanski's most classic horror film is 1968's Rosemary's Baby, which has a lot of doubts in this story, and Polanski is highly skilled in psychological drama.
After the film was released, apartments that represented modern life injected fresh life into traditional horror films as an alternative to the elements of traditional horror films (old haunted houses). Rosemary's Baby has the advantage of placing the element of evil in the heart of New York at the time, setting the story of evil in miniature of modern urban life. Terror is all around us, and fear is not out.
Rosemary's Baby
The last book of the "Apartment Trilogy," The Strange Tenant, is one of the most obscure. It tells the story of an introverted young Man of Polish descent who came to Paris alone in the hope of renting an apartment. The previous tenant jumped off the building for some reason and committed suicide, the joy of housewarming did not bring him much joy, and the oppressive atmosphere around him invaded his nerves all the time. This old apartment is inhabited by many freaks... Although they were careful to deal with it, they were gradually forced into a desperate situation.
The cat's-eye perspective in "The Strange Lodger" is now commonplace
Think about it carefully, the story of this film is actually particularly suitable for the remake of a domestic horror film, as for what the remake will look like, I dare not think. Polanski's brilliance lies in his ability to completely unify the apartment and the themes that the story evokes.
Therefore, there are still more places to learn about domestic terrible films, let's start with the basic skills of the house itself!