Deconstruction Of A Short Film

This is an example of a home-made horror short film. It is very effective at chilling the audience, because of the way it has been filmed and the different effects used. For example, at the beginning where the door slams but nobody is there, and the loud sound it makes to break the silence. As soon as the lights go out, a certain eeriness is created, which makes the audience feel on-edge, therefore the slightest noise is able to give a scare quite easily.
What is very effective in this film is when the woman answers the phone but nobody is there, but then when the camera pans the room we see the murderer. He lifts a phone down from his ear so we know it was him, but the woman does not realise this. When we, the audience, know something that the main character doesn't, especially in this case as it's a horror, a sense of frustration is created as we cannot tell the character what we know, and so we get more attracted to the film as the audience wants to know what the outcome is going to be.
Also, I like the way they have used mirrors in the film, as mirrors can be incredibly effective if used correctly in horror, and therefore scare the audience. In this case, the woman is at her bathroom mirror and we can see her reflection, however shortly afterwards we see the murderer's reflection as well, which immediately gives us chills. It also makes the main character a lot more alert, which makes the audience keep an eye out more too. So I will consider the use of mirrors in my filming.
The sound effects play one of the biggest parts in this film. This is because if the film is watched without sound, we can still see what is going on but we do not get scared as easily. The sounds in horror always break the silence very loudly, which makes the audience jump. For instance, before we see the murderer's reflection in the mirror there is silence, but then a loud sound is produced when we see him, followed by a scream from the main character. This gives us chills and makes us much more alert. Therefore sound effects and appropriate use of dialogue will have to be used.