Welcome to October and the lead up to Halloween. I know Australia doesn’t technically do Halloween but I find it a lot more fun than a lot of other holidays (less tinsel for one) plus Halloween lends itself to movie marathons. So, tis the season to drag out all the B Grade horror you can find and binge to your heart’s content. In the meanwhile, my features this month are going to focus on various aspects of horror (some more directly than others).
Today, I want to look at the visual aspects that make up horror. One thingĀ you know going in to a horror (of any sort) is that it is probably going to be dark. Tremors is probably an exception given it is set in a blindingly bright desert and most of the action happens in full daylight, but it is more a comedy than a horror anyway so we’ll move right along. One thing that is a problem when you have a lot of dark going on is that it starts getting hard for the audience to distinguish what is happening in a scene.
This is something that was a real issue in the early seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as the grainy quality of the show, plus poor distinction between light and dark, meant some scenes just ended up being a grainy mess. It wasn’t until the DVD’s came out that some of that got cleaned up and even now the first and second season aren’t exactly amazing. Don’t get me wrong, there are some brilliantly lit scenes that set the tone and give us the needed contrast and then there are all the other shots.
However, let’s link this back to anime.
During the Summer 2017 season I watched Vatican Miracle Examiner and while this isn’t a horror by any standard, it was trying very hard for a creepy and unnerving atmosphere. I say trying because it was let down by its writing and characterisation and ultimately what we end up with are a lot of dark scenes with poor contrast and very little to draw us in.
I don’t know about you, but that is a lot of brown, grey and black. I’m not even sure in most of those images what I’m supposed to be focussed on. Basically, this is someone thinking all they need to make something creepy is to paint it black and they’ve just kind of missed the point about how atmosphere actually works.
On the other hand, Another really gets atmosphere. The slow pace and ending to the story may irk some people, but looking at how the anime visually creates atmosphere is fascinating. It is every bit as dark in scenes as Vatican Miracle Examiner but in those moments brings the characters to the front, and the character usually contrasts sharply with the rest of the scene. You can always clearly see these characters, particularly their facial expressions (or in the case above, the blood splatter). You still get the sense of a dark place but now you have something to connect you to that scene and to distinguish it from all the other grainy black and brown backgrounds.
Even without characters in the scene, Another manages to make its point clear. Yes, the scene is dark and cluttered, but we have the red light in one corner that gives way to the green lighting on the other side of the room. It is darker in the foreground and lighter further back in the room, meaning we can actually see the room in all its creepiness (because dolls are creepy). The room, and actually most scenes in Another, lacks symmetry, which just adds another element of strangeness to the whole thing.
The final sequences in Another are all fairly dark, taking place on a rainy night, but a handy fire manages to illuminate sequences with an eerie golden glow. It creates strange shadows and a sense of movement, while at the same time allowing what needs to be seen to be seen. This show was dark and a lot of the sequences were dark, but it was never hard to see what was going on and you always knew what was important on the screen. These visuals when combined with the music and the fairly creepy story of a cursed class worked really well to construct the atmosphere that became the highlight of the show.
Back to Vatican Miracle Examiner and if we look at the scene above, well… At least there is a light source in the foreground because otherwise we would have lost the limited bit we can see. And I guess it kind of shows us the facial expressions of those in the foreground. However, the best descriptor for the image above is murky. By the time the audience has even figured out what they are looking at and what might be the focus, the anime will have moved on.
Given the kinds of stories I love, particularly around this time of year, I end up watching a lot of shows that are quite dark visually. I always appreciate it when they do more than just make things hard to see and actually consider what the audience is looking at and what affect that will have.
So over to you. Which anime do you think have managed to create an excellent atmosphere with their visuals and which do you think missed the mark?
Thanks for reading.
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Thanks,
Karandi James.
For creepy atmosphere, you can’t go wrong with Shiki. The color palate focuses on reds and earth tones and then they throw in this creepy shade of pink. The lighting is eerie without obscuring the visuals. All in all it is a great horror anime
Shiki is definitely fantastic as a horror anime in terms of atmosphere. Totally agree.
Well, I don’t think I have to get started on Another, since you already know that I absolutely loved that series, exactly because of the terrific atmosphere. Another (erm, no pun intended) series that managed to create a truly dark setting was Chaos;) Child, loved that series a lot as well. And last, despite the crappy ending, I really enjoyed Corpse Princess as well. Looking forward to the posts that you will write this month…and this one was terrific! š
Thanks.
I couldn’t get into Chaos;Child (probably because Chaos;Head was so weird).
I have actually yet to complete Chaos;Head, but I can see where you are coming from with that one. It certainly is weird. I liked Chaos;Child much better š
Chaos;Child may have had a chance if they hadn’t started by recapping Chaos;Head. All that did was remind me why I hated myself for watching it.
I think Mononoke also can be mentioned as its horror elements come from the visuals. As you pointed out, dark setting usually is the case for horror anime but Mononoke achieves practically the same by using lots and lots of bright colors that certainly look unnatural and and add to the unsettling atmosphere.
True, it sometimes doesn’t need to be dark to be unnatural and to get people unsettled.
I thought Another was creepy as heck, and that it was a great horror anime. Others less sincere found it comical, which saddens me. Glad we can agree on its great, terrifying atmosphereāan element of true horror.
I loved Another, but I can see where other people would find certain elements not particularly great. Still, the atmosphere is awesome and if that is what you are looking for in your horror, Another is such a great example.
I need to start looking at my shows more closely to write posts like this.
Honesty, I hate it when horror movies make everything so dark you can’t see anything. What is it that am I supposed to be scared of if I can’t see it? I actually think Assassination Classroom is very good with atmosphere. It’s a comedy for the most part, but a topic about assassins in itself is a dark concept. So we have really bright characters, characters who are supposed to have bright futures combined with black and gray background. For all those nice moments, I could never forget what the premise of thw show really is.
I agree with you on Assassination Classroom. tHey really had a great balance in their tone with the comedey and the more serious moments and the colour and lighting of the show most definitely reflected that.
The only true way to make a horror movie scary to actually make what we’re supposed to be afraid of scary.
I guess that depends if you actually want to be scared by horror. A lot of people I know into horror like horror for the questions it raises, for the atmosphere, for being creeped out, and for having a good laugh when the final reveal turns out not to be that scary. I love horror but am not a big fan of actually being terrified by it so the one or two movies I’ve seen that actually scared me don’t get watched again.
I haven’t seen Vatican Miracle, but I do believe part of what makes Another work in atmosphere in the fact that quite a bit of it takes pace in bright clean school settings, cunny afternoons and even on the beach. Those scenes make us feel comfortable and safe so the tension becomes very obvious once that safety is taken away.
I’m going to pimp out one of my favorite Horror flicks again and say that all the Horror of Tale of Two Sisters takes place in sunny well lit scenes and that was super unsettling for me.
A Tale of Two Sisters is great, one of the few films I’ve seen in recent years that has legitimately scared me. Kim Jee-woon is in general really good at directing suspense, out of the stuff I’ve seen from him.
Definitely having some contrast and not just being gloomy from start to finish certainly helps make other scenes more remarkable and unsettling.