Image Analysis

The actress who are about to be killed tend to be quiet ‘sexy’. As you can see her makeup is trying to make her as attractive as possible to the audience, I think this is successful as Courteney Bass Cox is 47 years old but no person could ever say that from this picture. You can see by her facial expressions she knows that the protagonist is behind her. Courteney Bass Cox’s image is focused by the camera than the protagonist in the background. Her clothes are casual, not very revealing but expressing her body parts for spectacle for the audience. The protagonist is not clearly focused on as if it’s making the audience feel that the victim cannot see him/her properly, this then leads to masochism as this creates suspense and suffering for the audience as she is about to be attacked without knowing it. The costume covers up this character not showing any parts of him to give away any hints towards who it really is behind that mask. The prop held by the protagonist is a knife, which is a phallic symbol and creates the thought of penetrating through and into the women’s body. This creates sadism for the audience. As you can see above, the setting is a lonely place with one around filled with hay meaning there is no one around to help her and her body can be hidden easily. The lighting used in the still image is the three-point lighting, where the key light is on Courteney Bass Cox, the filler light is directed at Courteney Bass Cox reducing the chiaroscuro effect.  There is also the use of backlight which is also produced by the lights in the picture creating a silhouette on the protagonist.

This is an image from Urban Legends (1998). The setting is inside a vehicle, the prop used in this is a weapon, an axe, which the audience can assume will be used to kill the woman driving the vehicle. The lighting is low key; there is use of key and back lights, no filler lights which creates the chiaroscuro effect. There is almost a flash in back, the back lights are really bright creating a silhouette effect around the protagonist and his weapon which creates an enigma code. The key light that has been used in this particular still image is under lighting on the victim (lady) to show her facial expressions and for the audience to recognise her. The costume of the protagonist as far as we can see has a hood as he/she is trying to its identity. The facial expression of the victim is clearly visible as it is a medium close up which makes her connect with the audience and we can deduce from her facial expressions that she is unaware of the danger that she is in.