Monsters and Color

Through Carroll’s description of art horror, he uses a variety of monsters to display many emotions produced by the audience. The thought of a monster in a horror film leads to many actions contributed by the other characters, and the responses of the audience. Although I do not watch a lot of horror films, the ones I have seen left me with many mental images. The handful of horror films I have seen depicted monsters as unclean and disgusting.
Monsters seem to express no normal characteristics. They also can take on super natural qualities. One example of abnormal qualities that monsters sometimes portray includes magnification as seen in the movie Godzilla. We saw Godzilla take on an abnormally large size and while in this state destroy many things. Another example of monsters includes fusion such as in the case of a half man half carrot monster. Furthermore, a werewolf would be an example of a fission monster. A werewolf has human qualities during the day and transforms to a werewolf at night. An example of massification would be the movie The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock. It involves a swarming of birds. One of the major aspects I believe that relates monsters to horror films would be metonomy. Metonomy is when the environment surrounds an object and plays a key role in the depiction of the monster in the audiences’ eyes.
I feel that the category of color has a great affect on the way the audience experiences and reacts to a horror film. Some horror films are done in black and white and some are done in color. In horror films the presence of the monster coincides with both dark objects and the dark environment. The use of dark colors resembles the uncertainty of things, and leads to fear of the unknown.
The use of color was very important in Dracula. In this movie, it is apparent that the monster can not experience light. Through Dracula’s character, the audience witnesses the black cape costume he wears. Furthermore, Dracula lies in his coffin in a dark dreary basement, and only enters the lives of his victims in the darkness of the night. These show how significant darkness is as a key role throughout the film.
In Cat People, the audience can experience darkness in many ways. One of the first things that appeared in the movie is the dark cat. This animal has great significance throughout the movie, and is a type of foreshadowing of what is to come later in the film. Ulaina comes across to the other characters as a pretty and nice lady, but seems hesitant in her relationship. From the beginning, there seems to be something not quite right about her. Her obsession with the dark cat and visiting the cat in the park at night are examples of the darkness effect. Also another example of darkness is when Ulaina follows Alice down the dark street and all we hear are the footsteps. Furthermore, the audience gets a sense of how Alice is frightened by the unknown. It gives one the opportunity to question what could possibly be following her.
Through these movies we can experience good examples of the darkness of horror films. I really did not experience any disgust or uncleanliness. The horror that I experienced was due to the dark colors and the uncertainty in both films. The darkness aspect led me to contemplate what could possible be arising next, and what is in store for the characters. The two films viewed in class led me to rethink how movies are created. I’ve gained insight into what all is involved in creating a movie, and all the possibilities that can arise through monster characters.