This is a textual analysis piece of a short horror film called Midnight Roadkill
The film starts with a long-shot of an isolated road in the middle of nowhere, at night time, as a pair of car lights enter the frame. This is a typical mis en scene of a horror film, as time of day foreshadows darkness to come. The whole film takes place in darkness. In addition, if things go wrong, there is no help for the victim. The quiet, windy, eerie non-diegetic sound, emphasises the isolation, and infers danger to come.
Next, the title of the film comes up, in big bold red letter, of which - along with the font - indicates gore. This is happening as the car lights, behind the fonts, are coming closer and closer.
Inside the car, a mid-shot shows us, two bickering young couple. The girl seems bored and fustrated at the long drive, as she is trying to find signal for radio sound, and looking inside her phone. The man driving, demands her to turn the radio off and tells her to "shut up for a while", when she asks "when are we gonna get there? It's midnight already!". The girl replies back "You never change", intimates that these troubles have been there in the relationship for a while. The man comes across as a aggressive character, while the woman comes across like a naive, helpless character, and is seen as the most likely victim, in a conventional horror film
The woman then ends up lighting up a ciggarette to smoke, another thing the man objects to. She replies back "What do you wants me to do Gerry? Play dead like a good little corpse?!". This emphasises to the audience that this is a horror film, and symbolises danger to come.
The mid-shot returns to Gerry as he whispers "Oh my god, You've gotta be kidding", staring ahead of him. The woman also dazes at what she is seeing ahead of her "What the hell is that thing". Tense, eerie, non-diegetic sound is being played at this moment, creating suspense.
A point-of-view, long-shot is then shown through the window, into the road, to show the audience what is in front of them. The car is still travelling forward, as a white creature, in front of them, gets closer and closer, before eventually stopping. The creature's body shape is of a human, who is leaning down (like and animal) onto the road, eating. The eerie windy non-diegetic sound implies danger and emphasises isolation from help.
Gerry tells the woman to put on her seatbelt, as he is going to "Kill the fucking thing". The woman prefers to just "get outta here", but he argues otherwise, until she confers. Gerry's insistance on aggravating the situation, rather than leaving it alone, infers that he's asking for trouble. A mid-shot of the back of the car is shown, as Gerry drives towards the creature and hits it. As he hits it, we can see the creature flying into the bushes at the side of the road, from the view behind the car.
A mid-shot back inside the car, shows the woman asking sarcastically "You happy now Gerry? Your car probably now has nice dent in it?". He replies, "Yeah, I'm happy, now give me that flash light?", as he wants to see what the creature is. Now becoming very fustrated, she says "You know what Gerry?! Get it yourself!". Gerry leans over to get the flashlights, and gestures aggresively towards her with the back of his hand/arm, insinuating violence, and shouts "You're asking for it!". This illustrates that Gerry is a volatile and controlling character. Morover, his persistance to further react to the situation, signifies that he is walking into a perilous situation. In contrast, the woman is more concern over her safety. She gestures her annoyance at the situation, after he leaves the car and slams the door.
A points-of-view, long-shot, shows Gerry walking towards the dead white creature with his flashlight, as a tense, frightening non-diegetic sound being played, which increases the audience's anticipation. A mid-shot shows the woman looking upon at Gerry anxiously, before abruptively, looking at the other end of the road, with shock. A quiet sharp piercing non-diegetic sound, changes to a rattling sound, as the shot moves in a long range shot of the whole road, through the window of the car, to show another white creature facing Gerry. The sound effectively signifies, the presence of another being
As Gerry turns around, the camera cuts back inside the car, to the woman. She looks down, and a close-up and point-of-view shot shows the car key still inside the car. The camera cuts back to the woman, as she takes her seat belt off, getting into Gerry's driving seat. The windy eerie non-diegetic sound returns. The camera cut to a long, high angle view from behind the car, as Gerry sees the creature, and scuttle back to his car, and fails to open his car door. The car lights flash on, as the woman drive off, with Gerry screaming her name. The screeching diegetic sound, when the car is driving off, is amplified. The windy eerie sound continues, to symbolise the isolation Gerry is in, when facing this dangerous creature.
The shot switched to a handheld camera in mid-shot, of the white creature, as white flashing lighting is used on the creature, to suggest danger. The creature leaps up. The handheld mid-shot changes to a close-up shot of Gerry's face, to show his frightened facial expressions. The camera reverse shots back to the creature, for an extreme close-up of it's teeth. Those 3 shots, got closer wih every editing cut, representing the idea that the creature is getting closer to the victim. The diegetic sound of growling from the creature - in that final extreme close-up shot - is also amplified. Ths screen turn blank for a few seconds.
The screen reappears to a mid-shot of the woman, inside the car driving. She is laughing and smoking, showing no remorse, for her killed partner. She ends up being villain, as she leaves her partner in a perilous situation, when it was possible for her to let him come with her inside the car, to leave. This is unconventional for a horror film, as the assumed sterotypical naive and helpless female character ends up being the cunning and wicked character. On the other hand, Gerry came across as the brave, controlling and powerful character, but ended up as the powerless and damned character, as his impulsive nature led him to his fate. The credits come up.
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