Textual analysis - One missed call

Textual Analysis

One Missed Call

The film which I am going to analyse is called one missed call, it is a film similar to the one that I will be producing; it was released in 2008 and directed by Eric Valette. The genre of the film which is also the genre of the one I will be making is a Physiological Horror.

Todorov’s equilibrium model is used in ‘one missed call’ the state of normality (equilibrium) starts with a young teenage girl having a phone conversation, the normality becomes broken (disruption) when she gets pulled into the pond and a red ball rises to the surface of the water. The new equilibrium is the victim is saved from the killer and we hear the phone ring again. Similar to the theory of Levi-Strauss, binary oppositions are used in this film this can be seen through the victim and the killer which is good/bad and living/dead.

 The film has a restricted narrative as a lot of information is withheld so you do not know much until the very end. This is similar to ‘the unborn’. Although you don’t know much until the ending the film is in chronological order so you become aware and understand the storyline. By doing this, it gives the audience more time to think how they believe the story will end and more engaged as they would like to know if their ideas were correct or not.

In horror movies there is always a lead character which ends up as the survivor and ends u defeating the killer. The genre of the film is represented through the characters as the majority of the victims are young teenage females this shows the stereotypical representation of females being most vulnerable. Teenagers are seen to be vulnerable due to society of that era thinking adolescences are immature and cannot look after themselves. However, you could say ‘one miss call’ challenges this as not all the characters act irresponsible so they would not necessarily be targeted as vulnerable. The characters speak in an informal way which suggests that they are all from the same social backgrounds. For instance, if they spoke in a formal way, you would then see the contrast between different characters and would be able to see who is more vulnerable. Facial expressions are typical of the genre as they would be quiet frightened when the tension in the story builds up, an example of this from ‘one missed call’ is when the characters hear the diegetic sound of the phone call. This is also similar in paranormal activity when strange things happen in their house their facial expression change. The body language before the second death was normal stability, however, after the second death when the phone rings the body language would be quiet limp and the movements were slowed down to the show the status of the characters due to the fact that the characters are limp shows that they are weaker than the killer. Hair and makeup and costume relate to the representation of age as they are college students their dress sense was similar to one another as it shows they all from the same era and have the same fashion influences. I.e. Females; Jeans, top and shoes or trainers, with minimal make-up and their hair tied up or down. Males; Jean and top with trainers. Costumes are made simple to reduce the risk of the audience’s attention diverting. ‘One missed call’ also challenges the typical characters of the genre as the killer is also a young female teenager. This is seen as absurd as it is normally a male character which targets female character which could link to a sexually fantasy. The killer is typical of the genre as she gives them a date and time of their death; this creates moral panic for the character as they try to find way in which to cheat death. This is similar to final destination as they have premonitions before the death and try and change it or stay alive. The killer’s costume is similar to the other student’s .e.g. black hoodie. This could show that that is what she wants to be and something stopped her which explains her actions. The storyline is typical of the genre as there is always a main plot; they tend to all focus on death. Examples of this is ‘the unborn’, ‘paranormal activity’, ‘insidious’ and ‘psycho’. Similar storylines which is typical of the genre tend to incorporate evil or after life, a form of a demon or phenomenon and the killer always scares and attacks humans.

The mobile phone ringtone is a diegetic audio sequence that the audience recognise when something starts to go wrong; the mobile phone shows when the killer is trying in interfere in the characters lives. Non diegetic eerie music is used to build up tension when the victim approaching an area which is seen as isolate where she then becomes vulnerable. An example of this is when the female character receive the call an approaches the bridge which look as if a possible death could occur, the eerie music is play to build tension. Cinematography is used to highlight significant part in the film to show a variety of things, Facial expression which shows how the characters feeling, long shots to pick up on the killer or victims body language. An example of this is when the phone rings and there is an extreme close up on the phone and another one on the character to show their facial expressions this shows that they were afraid because they knew who was on the other end of the phone. Low key lighting is used to enhance the genre as it allows the character to see less which makes them more vulnerable.