Pauline
This short film balances the focus on the innocent lady and
building suspense to create a mix of humour and terror at the same time. The
director has combined several insert shots along with tension evoking ambiences
and high pitch sound effects to further draw the viewer into the film, the
intention is not to generate fear from the audience but instead to heighten
curiosity as they seek answers for the questions the short film imposes at the
beginning, What are the random acts? Why do locals cross the road? Is there
really a ghost in the oven?
The film fluctuates between close-ups and medium shots, long
shots are only utilised during key scenes like establishing the location at the
start, demonstrating the ability of the ‘ghost’ during the scene with the stack
of items and the final scene, where all the dogs are barking at her. The final
scene is arguably one of the most important as we are hinted that she could
either be the ghost or is at one with it as the dogs have been disturbed and
are barking at her.
The actual shots mostly consist of objects you would not
normally associate with a ‘horror’ film, the film incorporates the colour pink
in almost all scenes, it focuses on antique or ‘Elderly people’ objects to
further establish the location and the character and how her persona appears
innocent. The short film also uses many well
framed anamorphic shots with carefully thought about lighting makes this film
greatly contrast to other horror films as they might not focus as much on a
balance between superb cinematography,
and tension building.
It could be said that this short film is mocking other
horror films as it uses the same formula of building suspense and suddenly releasing
it but in an original and almost humorous format. A good example of this being
a light hearted horror is the titles, the font used looks like it has blood on
it but is the colour pink, creating a nice juxtaposition between this and other
horror films as this film doesn’t take itself too seriously.