The opening of AWIL has a very style than 'Dracula' as it starts with a calm, slow and romantic music.
Compared to Dracula the music is absolutely differs in many ways like tempo. Dracula start starts of violently, scary and raw. And we know that this is completely different. AWIL is classic horror film but one whose defies the traditional codes and conventions of the genre. It achieves this by firstly, the victims making wrong decision at the signpost.This is a horror convention as we know from before victims always make wrong choices and dig their own grave by missing out these crucial signs.
A very old and traditional convention is the mist turning into rain and thunder. This clearly shows the change in mood. It creates the perfect setting for horror to cat. This happens when Jack and David struggle to escape from the noise of the wolf.
This also can be counted as a code because change in weather and especially to bad weather, shows and gives a clue that evil is on its way. When the wind howls it shows that the howling wolf is on it way.Another traditional convention is when the boys run, and suddenly David trips over, we could mention this as a traditional convention because mostly all horror film follows this convention over and over again. You can even expect this sort of scene to happen in 3 out of 4 horror movies. We can use narrative and character from horror category to recognise and prove this film is horror. The narrative follows the horror by firstly, the boys path into the woods.
They were not men to go in to the woods but they do. When the boys go in to the pub, the communities have a secret which the strangers i. e. (victims) stumble across.
As this is horror there is always someone who knows the truth about what the monster or the evil. And they hardly warn the victims about it. In this case the community is hiding a secret which they don't want the strangers to know. In the pub the direct uses silence to create tension and uses comedy to lower the tension, which straightway reflects to the audience as creates an atmosphere were the audience build up their anxiety little by little.
When the boys leave the pub the, the community advises them to stay in the course and not to go into the moors. But the boys do not stick to the rules and go of course and into the moors.This is narrative, as it shows that victims never follow advises. After the boys go off course into the moors, the wolf attacks them and then the rescuers come just too late or after to help them. In this film the rescuers came and shoot the wolf even though it did not die, but it left Jack dead and David injured.
The two main characters can be tagged as classic horror characters by the things they do. Firstly they don't take advises given by the farmer, and also advises given by the community. It is very noticeable when these characters just miss those signs and head into trouble.For instance when they see the wolf's head chopped off, they don't realize that there is something bad that is out there. And they move on without any fear.
When they are been told to stick with roads they purposely go into the moors, when they have been advised. As we know from previous, in a horror movie the victim trips and falls down for the murderer to kill. Here we can recognize this when David trips over and the wolf attacks Jack. Horror narrative and characters evince that AWIL is indeed a horror film; we can use other categories from horror to examine.For instance we can analyse the films signifiers and camera angles to prove strongly that this film is horror.
Camera angles and signifiers play a major part in making a horror movie because the correct sort of signifiers should be chosen. And the angle the camera is moved in a film can easily be suggested to what genre it is from. At the very start of the film the boys arrive in a van full of sheep's which are being taken to be slaughtered. This signifier signifies that the boys are going to be slaughtered like the sheep's.
as the boys move on they see a dead wolfs head lying
