The Evil Dead

The Rationale

I have chosen this movie as the other two movies I have analysed have a mix of gore, psychopaths and monsters in them. I found that a lot of people liked the gore in horror movies they have watched, especially the younger generation that watch horror movies (teenagers). So I think that the ‘Evil Dead’ has a good amount of blood and gore (which can be seen in the opening titles) and a mix of monsters and psychopaths (demons). It also has elements of a supernatural nature which is also supposed to provide a great deal of terror within the horror genre.

The analysis

Well the main theme of this opening title sequence is definitely blood. The red colour is obviously associated with blood and danger, which are the major themes of this movie. The colours red and black are seen as negative colours and the blackness of what seems to be flesh in the sequence could signify death and the flesh being impure and contaminated or dirty. Also, the overwhelming amount of blood could suggest an overwhelming amount of death and destruction in the film which in certain cases attracts the audience as we are aroused by this gore. We want to see this in a horror movie.

The props in the sequence are mainly blood, flesh and weapons which are all violent things. The way that the scene shows the cutting of the flesh and dismemberment of limbs just shows that this movie is going to be a gore-fest. The over-emphasis of blood is really used to fuel the audience’s love of gore. The shots of the sequence are mainly close-ups which look closely into the detail of the blood dripping, trickling and hovering down stairs and through collapsing floorboards, into the basement. The basement is the key setting of the film and the fact that in the opening sequence, the basement is where the blood accumulates, shows an insight to the amount of terror that will fill the basement in the movie to come.

The lighting of the sequence is low-key and is used to show the emphasis of the bright rose-red blood. The blackness of the background makes the blood look fresh among the darkness of the flesh and floorboards.