Intertextual References

Our film makes use of a large amount of references to previous, same genre films. This is something we have found this genre, as well as the horror genre does repeatedly.

Character Names
Paul Bateson - The name Paul derives from victim, Paul Allen in the film American Psycho. "Bateson" comes as a combination of the American Psycho central character Patrick Bateman as well as the iconic villain from Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho";  Norman Bates. Bateson is just a variation on both names. Strangely when we googled the name Paul Bateson we found that the first search result was for a homosexual serial killer of the same name.

 

Grace - As well as having it's religious connotations, Grace Kelly played the central woman role in three of Hitchcock's films ("To Catch A Thief", "Dial M For Murder" and "Rear Window").

As our character took influence from his films conventions, we felt this would be a perfect name for our character.








Mise en Scene
White clothes - This influence came from Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange".

Books - In the kitchen and bedroom scenes, books of same genre feature films "The Shining" and "Silence of the Lambs" can be seen.

Script
"Hey Paul..." is a direct reference to the moment just before Paul Allen's death in American Psycho.

Narrative
The writer that flips - Is a narrative seen in both "The Shining" and "The Secret Window".

 Two identical girls - Less of a direct reference but we have a scene with two identical girls in the shot, something also seen in The Shining, although they are used slightly differently.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack for the second section features two notes first when there are two identical women, and secondly when she walks across the room. These two soundclips are taken from iMovie, but we also found they are used in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.

Editing
The very quick intercutting from a shot of someone alive, to seeing them dead on the floor is a technique again seen in The Shining. We felt this idea really suited our style of film, and helps add to the confusion of the piece. So this iconic piece of editing was incorporated throughout our work, most prominently at the very start.