Evaluation Question - 5

We used narrative enigma to draw in and hook our audience by preserving the identity of the killer, Katie. However, one of our main goals was to keep the audience wondering and to decode who was out of Katie (the killer) and George (the male client). We tried to also preserve the identity of George but could not do so as we saw his face when he enters the salon. Seeing as this didn't work, instead we portrayed him as an eerie and delusional character by having non-diagetic high string notes playing when a long shot is used of him walking down to the salon. Throughout, there are various suggestions and 'give away's' to the audience on who is the killer. One of these is where Katie stabs the scissors in to a circular pot, and when George chooses to ignore and be bitter against the female client. 


Also, we used a false scare in order to play with the audience's emotions and heart rates when Katie puts a wax strip on the leg of Collette and we then go back downstairs to George who hears a scream. The audience then becomes aware that it was just the wax strip being peeled off. 
For the audience to realise how we challenged the general conventions of a media horror by using a female as the killer, we wanted to provide anchorage that she was a powerful and strong character through the derogatory term of "b*tch" being used. 


We specifically chose our actors/actresses to appeal to our female and male viewers. We did this by having the Killer in a low cut top, heels and a beauticians outfit. This was used for the male gaze. Also, having the female killer brings a feminist spin which attracts the female audience as she is portrayed as strong and powerful whereas women are portrayed as "objects" and there bodies are merely put on screen for the male hetrosexual viewer.  


In order to attract the audience to our film, the soundtrack plays a big part. In most horror's the soundtrack starts off slow and then starts to gradually become faster and more intense leading up to the killing. This therefore plays with the heart rates of the audience and contributes to the tension which is given in the scene, also playing with the heart rates of the audience. In order to achieve manipulating the audiences emotions and heart rates, we start off t\with a series of high non-diagetic string notes but then as the tension starts to build they are then mixed with low string notes providing an inter textual link with Psycho.