The Amityville Horror (2005)

Background Info

Synopsis:
In 1973 in a small community of Amityville on Long Island, New York, the entire DeFeo family was murdered in their beds, after they had only lived in the house for 28 days. The oldest son, Ronald DeFeo Jr. confesses to police that he heard voices from the house, and he was ordered to kill all 6 family members. A year later, the house is sold to George (Ryan Reynolds) and Kathy Lutz (Melissa George) for a cheap price. They ask why so cheap, and they were told that the DeFeo family was murdered in the house. George tells his wife that houses don't kill, people do. So they move in with their three children and start a new life. Unfortunately, their dream house becomes a nightmare. George begins to hear voices and the process starts all over again. The longer they are in the house, the worse it gets, and everything comes to a climax on the 28th day.

Box Office/Business:

Budget:
$19,000,000

Opening Weekend:
$23,507,007 (USA)
£1,339,417 (UK)

Gross:
$65,233,369

Studio: Platinum Dunes (Production Company which have produced Horror films such The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, The Unborn, Friday the 13th, Horsemen, and A Nightmare on Elm Street)

Distributed By: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Dimensions Films

The Horor Poster

1) Title: The Amityville Horror
Based on a true story

‘Amityville’ is a real location in America and ‘horror’ pretty much explains the type of plot and genre. The name suggests that a horrific event will take place in Amityville, although you would have to watch the whole film to find out what will take place.

2) Graphic combined with the title:  the ‘Y’ in the title is dripping downwards in a thin, red, long streak resembling a blood drip. This symbolizes that there would be bloodshed and death.

3) Tagline: Katch’ em and kill’ em

The tagline puts outside audiences view to the perspective of the villain in the film. As the villain has likely to be watching the victims in the house for a long period of time and then getting prepared to kill them

4) Images:
1.large old fashioned house in the background
2.Two possible walls (Possible Walls of the large old fashioned house)
3.And A Man wearing T-shirt and jeans holding a shotgun

The image conjure together could mirror important factors to the film. As the large old house could symbolize the main location of the film and where the sadistic events will take place.  The wall on the side of the house and image almost resembles black curtains which can symbolize that the killings will be closed of to those out side of the house which also makes it the perfect place to kill. The man in the picture could be the killer or a victim trying to survivor therefore creating attention to the audience who want to find out who he is and what his fate maybe.

5) At the very top of the poster it says “FROM MICHEAL BAY, THE PRODUCER OF TEXAS CHAN SAW MASSCARE” and under the title it also says “BASED ON A TRUE STORY”. The first thing you read on the poster is who it is produced by, therefore those who already like the Texas chainsaw massacre. Also saying that it is based on a true story would make more people egger to watch the film, even those who may not be fan of the genre.  This also builds a very unique selling

Colours:

·         Grey House

·         Black Walls (surrounding the house and character)

·         Character in front of the door has a florescent light shining around him.

·         Red title

The four main colours help connote and denote to the audience the nature of the film. The grey house with an olive finish evokes strong emotions. The colour grey is a cold colour which in nature is often seen in stormy clouds and metal, both cold objects and elements. The colour grey is also a colour of mourning; so on a whole the grey in this poster is used for symbolizing death with the cold feeling and mourning of life. The colour used for the black walls surrounds the poster in darkeness. Using black for the walls shows the mysterious blackness consuming the poster. Black is helps provide a darkness theme to the poster alongside the cold death feel to it. The main character has a light shinning around him; the source of the light could be from the main character or the house. The light around the character can help show he is the key character in the film, although if the light is from the house it could show that the light is welcoming the main character, away from the blackness around the house which is actually the houses walls , therefore it is actually a trap for the main character. The title is in red which is a very powerful colour that symbolizes many different things. In this poster the red symbolizes blood, due to it being a horror genre this convention is often used it shows that there may be blood spill in the film. The colour red also is associated with war, danger, strength and power and also passion, desire and love, it is a emotionally intense colour, therefore very wise and powerful to use on the poster.

The Horror Trailer

Using Black and white with a colour film gives the impression that there is history behind the plot and that it has been achieved

Quick edits are used with close ups of cut outs from newspaper articles help allow the audience to know that a lot has taken place and it was considerable wide spread news as the amount of headline cut outs are shown , also shows the victims pictures and a picture of the suspect and other factors from the news report that may be important to the story line such as a picture of a teddy bear

Vast about of information can be communicated to the audience via newspaper cut outs



Also the quick edits helps show that there is violence and death in the films with the quick black and white flashes from the news report of a shot gun and a body bag being wheeled out from the house. While the uses of edits combining the achieved black and white footage, “Based on a true story” and the date of “November 13, 1974, Long Island, New York, 412 Ocean Avenue” appears on the screen with a typewriter font and a black background with slow transactions to the next shot allowing the audience to be fully aware that the films is based on a true story which may of happened in November the 13^th 1974 in long island new York, 412 Ocean Avenue

The shots and mood moves on to a year later from what happened by showing “One Year Later, The Lutz Family move into 412 Ocean Avenue” with the same font as before as a typewriter font with a black background, which allows the audience to know that the new family may have the same destine fate as the family which lived and died there the year before. Just before this is shown there rather fast flashes of occult symbols and a reporter saying that the killer was told by voices to kill his family. Once the inter title establish that there’s a new family we are presented with a home video of the Lutz Family moving into their new home with a father with his son, and mother, in the background you can hear a child laughing and the sound of the role of reel spinning helps establish that it is a old recording but also the child laughing allows the audience to sympathizes with the innocence family as we know there is a bad history with this house and that s child was murder there and also the laughter sets an eerie tone.  With the home video shots there is a certain end shot which shows the top of the house then a quick flash turn the shot almost negative with a black and gray finish with lighting in the background and then moving onto a black background with the inter title of “They only lasted 28 days”. This is pretty much the last part of the trailer both non-diegetic sounds are used such as the violin stings in the background and the lighting and thunder that is establish with the shot of the home from the outside before moving into the inside, the bad weather helps set the mood of the story lines atmosphere, this is also the exact opposites of the weather in the home video. The use of alarming and frightening images help establish the disruption in the family due to the home such as extra pair of arms appearing out of the bath tub, pale blue/grey eyes and the face f a ghost/sprit. The trailer then ends with the silhouette shoot of the house with two window panes light with a reddish light resembling red eyes.

The Amityville horror trailer starts of at the begging with a blank screen with a diegetic gunshot sounds, therefore building a tense atmosphere for the audience as gunshot rarely symbolizes anything positive and only negative features, such as fear, carnage and death. Although this first part of the trailer is rather lifeless symbolizes that death is an important factor to the story line.  The trailer is brought to life by the sound of a old television switching on and the first visual of the film of a fast distortion of a black show on the screen.  This gives the impression that the scene is factual as it’s presented as a news broadcast with a police officer’s being asked a question by the on scene news reporter, and the Police officer replying “I’ve never seen anything like this” showing that something terrible, horrific  has taken place. The use of black and white colour helps establish the time period of when the news report took place.