Deconstruction - Freddy vs Jason - Louise Hyam

Deconstruction of Freddy vs Jason.

Here is the opening scene of Freddy vs Jason:

Freddy vs Jason is a slasher horror. The film was created in 2003 and it has a main character shown in the opening scene who comes across as a child abductor which the audience see through various pieces of mise - en - scene, certain parts in the opening scene involving children and the weapons shown.

The opening scene starts with a hand placing a doll into the oven which has fire in. This shows the audience that the film is going to have something to do with children because dolls are commonly associated with children. The fact that the doll is being placed in an oven suggests that the children in this film will be mistreated and hurt.

 

After we see a hand placing a doll into an oven, there is a long shot of a man and a view of the room he is in. The room that he is in is the room where he does everything, this could be his lair. The reason that this could be his lair is because there is many weapons and items shown in the long shot that would suggest this is going to later be used in the film as his lair where he brings children and hurts people. The audience also see a man standing over the bed with someone laying in it, the audience are unaware of who the person is laying in the bed and why they are laying in the bed so this could make the audience want to watch the film to be able to find out more.

 

 Next, the audience see the man in the room that was shown in the above picture of what could be his lair is shown sharpening up a weapon. Weapons are commonly used in slasher films to suggest death and the fact that the person with the weapon is going to murder someone. This could make the audience want to watch the film as it foreshadows the idea of death and this could be later on in the film but the weapon is shown in the opening sequence.

The doll is shown again to show the imagery of a child again this could be foreshadowing to the audience what is going to happen next in the opening scene.

After the doll is shown there is a child that appears in the room at the back of the room on the wall. The child appears after the man finishes talking to himself. The use of lighting in this scene is effective because it shows the shadow of the man standing over the girl and makes the girl look inferior because the shadow of the man is shown so much larger than the girl which makes the audience think that the girl is in danger. The idea of the girl about to get hurt is also shown in the second screenshot below of the film when the hand of the man slowly appears and shows the weapon that the man was just sharpening. The use of a weapon in a slasher film usually suggests death or injury.

 

After the girl is shown the doll is presented to the audience again, this time the doll is presented in a different state. The use of the doll being presented in the film again in a different state is to show what could have happened to the girl that was previously shown being abducted by the man.

 The facial expression of the man when he is holding the picture of the girl that was just shown to the audience that was in the man's lair could suggest he has got what he wants and he has finished with her so he is going to put her picture along with the other children or it could portray that he has finished with the girl and he is just going to continue teasing her. The audience will want to watch the film after the opening scene as they will want to find out the importance of this girl.

This newspaper article helps the audience work put a little bit more about who the man is. This use of mise - en - scene is useful for the audience to work out the importance and role of the man shown in the  opening scene.

The two images below are common representations of slasher horror films. The use of mask to cover identity makes the audience want to watch on to work out what is going on.  in the second picture the use of blood is a common representation of a slasher horror to engage the audience.