Analysis of 'The Lost Boys'

The Lost Boys 1987
This is a 1980’s American horror film, directed by Joel Schumacher. Like many other horror films the typical target audience would be young people of both genders. The title of the film ‘Lost Boys’ instantly plays with the audience’s emotions leading to insecurity and unawareness of who the boys are and what the word ‘lost’ implies, the title also creates a sense of fear for the audience, letting them use their imagination to connect the title and the story line together for the film.

For the first 23 seconds we are shown the presentation of the beginning using a background of black deep water with the film’s title ‘The Lost Boys’ in a bright white font with a red line running through the middle. Being on water gives the viewer a feeling of eerie isolation and the symbolic sense that something dangerous could have happened beneath the water or in connection to it. The use of the red line running between the middle could also connote danger or even death, the colour red being alarming to the audience in contrast to the black water and white writing connoting innocence.

The scene then uses an establishing shot of a fairground to accentuate the darkness with the bright lights creating a contrast between night and day, denoting night time. The camera is panning across at a high angle shot almost like a bird’s eye view. The music in the background becomes clearer, a soft low key sound using children’s voices singing, this goes with the typical generic conventions of horror films, children singing is not usually related to horror, but with youthfulness and happiness, however in this context, it has the effect of creating an uncomfortable, tense uncertain atmosphere.

This scene is the opening scene which sets up the narrative for the rest of the film. The mise en scene is a fairground, a carousel, with shots of children enjoying themselves, their parents looking on. This happy family scenario is interrupted by a shot, close-up of the pole on the ride up to a man dressed in dark black clothes with a big black coat and gloves, with bright white hair. The set-up suggests that this character will be the antagonist. His unusual physical appearance (an albino) is often representative of a ‘bad guy’ indicating that he is dangerous and we should be skeptical of his presence, This sequence is accompanied with diegetic music of fairground noise, however the shot of the antagonist is accompanied with high pitched non-diegetic music which adds to the audience’s feeling of peril or jeopardy. There is also another guy who is introduced to the audience just moments after the first character, also dressed in black, only seen vaguely as this shot has been faded out, showing us that the first character is more important within the scene than the second.

Using a high angle shot across light blue glaring water,the camera pans to reflect the danger of water once again, denoting it is during the day time, subtitles are shown using a white font which is also underlined to show the opening. The camera then uses a bird’s eye view zooming into a long winding road with driving cars denoting that there are characters within the film that are on a road trip or heading somewhere, the us of a trailer on the back of it indicates this.

The camera then cuts to another shot revealing to the audience that there are three characters in the car a man, boy and a women who is driving, the woman is dressed in a pale cream cardigan over a light blue top with jewelry and short cropped hair, the light pale clothes present the female character as innocent and pure, the female character is also reflecting happiness through her smiley facial expressions as she is driving the vehicle singing to the diegetic sound coming out from the radio in the car. The boy sitting in the passenger seat is young and fresh faced around twelve or thirteen. He is dressed in a pale colored shirt, pastel pink, with short neatly cut hair. He is smartly dressed this emphasizes his youthfulness and innocence; he still looks like he is looked after by his mother and cared for very well. The man sitting in the behind passenger seat is dressed in a pale grey t-shirt, with long hair, because the woman is driving, this could show that the woman has more authority and he is lower down than her, however the male character could also be seen as more important because he has people doing thing for him. The three characters give a sense of the stereotypical happy family going on a summer vacation, the woman singing along with the two other characters joining in emphasizes the happiness of all the characters, this also bring a sense of enjoyment for the audience, feeling their happiness.

There is also a dog in the back with the male character, connoting that they are going away and are comfortable enough to bring their pet with them. The music is faded in and out from the scene as the characters speak, for example when the boy asks the mother a question and then replies ‘it smells like someone’s died’ denoting the place they are heading Is unsafe . A close up of the male character’s face reflecting curiosity is used to arise suspicion towards the audience, changing location to outside the car onto a large wall post painted ‘welcome to Santa Carla’ in bright vibrant orange, reflecting an old fashioned holiday welcome in sign, panning to the back of the wall post which has ‘murder capital of the world’ written in capitals across it, the bright red paint connotes danger and death with a black outline.

Whilst the family go through the town in the vehicle, the first people we come across are two men, one leaning against a car and the other a wall smoking, they look like typical casual neighborhood people in the town, the camera then flicks to a man standing crossed armed looking bemused, he has a dark checked shirt on with a black Mohican hair style, he looks like he is waiting around for something and does not give off a good vibe in contrast to the other town people.

A group of mixed people are shown immediatly grabbing the audeince's emotives of curiosity. They are walking around the town dressed in bright colours such as white, orange, pinks and blues with caps and sun glasses connoting that these people are on holiday having fun and are innocent.Changing the location of the camera reflect the importance of characters throughout.Two women are shown at a low angular mid shot addressing them in black sun glasses ,black leather jackets and short cropped hair, they look almost like a team in connection to the other man the camera showed before, this leaves the audience to use their imagination connecting these character together in contrast to the others. The camera then locates to a bearded man in glasses with a hood up looking conscious as a close up, representing that he could be an important character to remember, as we are shown this man for a split second we are moved on to another character, also as a close up. She is wearing a black scarf and a large black cross in her left ear, she also has thick black eye liner on matching her short cropped dark hair, using these darks accessories connoted death and fear. We then see another two male character sitting on the floor leaning against a wall smoking at mid shot with a car going through the road, the angles that are used to show the audience the type of town the place is and the type of people live their or go for a vacation, using establishing shots it lets the audience know what is going on and where we are in the scene, connoting importance within the shot towards the audience, it also helps the audience feel more involved and familiar within the scene. The scene then cuts to a completely location, to the fair but in day light this time, the camera uses an establishing shot to show us where we are, the same extra diegetic high pitched music is faded in as the customers are screaming on the fair wheel they are on. We then see a range of different people walking along the paths enjoying the scenery.

The camera then uses a close up on a long haired bearded man looking cross as well as angry, he looks mysteriously away from the camera as if he is looking at other people or something which holds importance, then camera then glances to a couple standing and talking, the male is dressed in a black cap and t- shirt, the female character is dressed in black also with black eye make-up, t-shirt with a dark green shirt over the top. More subtitles appear on the screen in a bright white, capitals connoting innocence, as well at the subtitles then camera moves across a notice board that is in the village which is covered in newspaper cutouts and posters for missing people. The first one is of a young girl in her early teens in black and white, there are around ten or more poster signs for other people of mainly girls and a few men, the poster that is in the middle appears to be very old of two young girls connoting that this place that the family are traveling into is a bad decision, and is regretful. The camera then uses a high angular mid shot of just a baby in a pram for around 3 seconds indicating the innocence of the villagers and the danger, using a baby shows the innocence of the victims and babies are seen as innocent, un harmful and a gift, connoting the next target could be anybody.
The signs in contrast to the baby in the scene shot the differences between the targets on the board from the ages.

In conclusion to this all of the aspects of the Mise-en-scene are used to create a build up of tension,the opening scene uses typical conventions to show a 1980's horror film,using sound,lightin,costumes and extra-diegetic sounds.The opening mis lead's the audience enticing them in to watch more to get to the climax of the film.