LOW-KEY LIGHTING
“A Nightmare on Elm Street” is a film written and directed by Wes Craven which makes many uses of low-key lighting which allows for many colors to appear faded, dark, and gloomy which all play into the perception of the film as horrific in an entertaining way. This is no doubt an outstanding choice of lighting when a cinematographer might want to ensure the scenes being portrayed come across as horrifying and nightmarish.
As described in the text Film: From Watching to Seeing,, low-key lighting is that lighting which is “high-contrast…and dominated by deep shadows with a few bright highlights” (Goodykoonts, 2011, p. 108). An outstanding example of this can be seen in the following snapshot within the film that demonstrates precisely what low-key lighting accomplishes: https://ttcritic.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/nightmare-on-elm.jpg (Fory, 2014).
As demonstrated in the snapshot from the scene, the high-contrast lighting can be seen with the extreme brights in the background of the picture next to the stacked chairs and within the streaks along the wall. The extreme darks can be seen facing the camera directly and around the silhouette of the evil character with one exceptional highlight of bright white light hitting the evil character on the right side of his face.
Another outstanding example of this type of lighting can be seen in this still image from the movie which also makes use of low-key lighting: http://www.dvdactive.com/images/reviews/screenshot/2011/7/elmstreetbdcap4_original.jpg (Gould, 2014).
The high-contrast seen in this still can be seen with visual clarity in the knives of the glove cutting on a metal bar. The evil character is blurred in the background and the arm and right side of the character is darkened out to include a blur set over the face of the character. There is no doubt that the cinematographer was trying to create a focus upon the weapon of mayhem within the film; that being the glove with knives.
The benefits of utilizing this type of lighting is that it almost always allows for a more horrifying portrayal of a scene capturing the essence of its’ genre; “Horror”. This might also feed into many people’s fear of the dark which assists in the final product of each scene. Utilizing other lightings such as High-Key lighting wouldn’t allow for as many shadows and the same is true for the traditional three-point lighting. With the massive amount of shadows, dark hues, and high-contrast brights, the audience is allowed to see just what the creators of the film want them to see as demonstrated in both the pictures. The silhouette of Freddy Krueger in the first example and the blood-stained glove with knives for fingers in the other. Both of these scenes could not have been produced in as an effective manner if other lighting choices were used. Perhaps the mystique and wonder around the silhouette wouldn’t have conveyed as well, or even the blood-soaked knife fingerings of the glove. It was the low-key lighting as demonstrated in these two stills from the film that allows for a nail-biting and anxiety filled viewing that keep the horror genre as an exciting option in film choice.
References
Fory, B. (n.d.). Stereotypical horror lighting. Ben fory as media blog. Retrieved July 17, 2014, from https://ttcritic.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/nightmare-on-elm.jpg
Goodykoonts, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2011). Popular film genres. Film: from watching to seing (p. 108). San Diego: Bridgepoint Education, Inc..
Gould, C. (n.d.). Review: Nightmare on Elm Street, A (US – BD) – DVDActive.Review: Nightmare on Elm Street, A (US – BD) – DVDActive. Retrieved July 17, 2014, from http://www.dvdactive.com/reviews/dvd/nightmare-on-elm-street-a.html
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