Film Language: Mise-en-scene

The film I am analyzing is the sequel to the classic horror movie Predator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. This movie Predator 2 was produced by 20th century fox and directed by Stephan Hopkins.

This movie stars Danny Glover as Michael Harrigan the hero of the story, Kevin Peter Hall plays the Predator the antagonise, Gary Busey as Peter Keyes the One who tries to outshine the hero, Maria Conchita Alonso plays Leonna Cantrell who sides with the hero and helps stop the main antagonist along with Bill Paxton who also plays the role of Jerry Lambert who also helps the hero.

Predator 2 is set in the city of Los Angeles rather than a jungle which straight away suggests there will be more killing scenes due to the population. This is one of the scariest death scenes of the movie due to the build up to the death, the malice and sadistic mindset of the killer and finally the actual death itself.

The location of this scene is in a dark abandoned alley way between 2 colossal buildings in the night. The victim known as "King Willie" is already aware of the killer's presents in the city as his people have been massacred by the predator repeatedly.

Settings

This scene is set in a dark dirty alleyway isolated away from the crowd making it a classic murder location for a murder scene. The alleyway is narrowed down between two colossal buildings with scrap metal, junk and rubbish. Steam from pipes that connect into one of the buildings floods a side of the alleyway. A vivid blue light emanates from within the moon and shines on the floor lighting up the dark alleyway.

Props/ Hair and make up

The character King Willie tries to perform a voodoo ritual and the props that he uses are small pale bones and an empty oil drum. King Willie has scars across his face that adds depth to his character and gives him more of a background. He has long thick black dreads that fall over his shoulders that tells us he does not do much with his hair.

Facial expressions/ Body language/ Movement

All of a sudden something drops from the sky and makes a splash into a puddle. King Willie swiftly turns around and met with horror as he sees the murder “Predator”. He doesn’t move fro a couple of moments because he is stricken with fear. Which give the killer time to make a dramatic entrance and size down his victim. This techniques is used in literally every horror movie.

The killer makes his way over to King Willie at a slow steady pace which creates tension. If a killer ran after a stunned helpless victim it wouldn't be as scary and as effective. The predator has a clocking device but he gives away his position as he stomps into the puddle repeatedly as it takes each step for an even more dramatic entrance.

Out of fear King Willie grabs his sword to defend himself. However his facial expression and body language still shows fear. His eyes are still wide open which makes him look petrified. His body language is stiff even when he went for his sword he barely moved at all. This shows us that King Willie has no chance against the killer and is only taking a stand due to his emotions getting the better of him. He has accepted the fact that he cannot out run this killer. He cannot even scream for help due to the location. This is a classic and very used technique in a horror movie.

The killer’s slow steady paced walk comes to an end as it fully reveals itself and discards its camouflage because it realizes King Willie is truly alone so therefore it has no reason to hide as it makes its kill.

Lighting and colour