Deconstruction: Editing in Hostel III

For this blog post, I deconstructed the editing for a scene in the 3rd instalment of the Hostel films, a 2011 Slasher horror. According to the official IMDb site, the synopsis for Hostel 3 is as follows: 'while attending a bachelor party in Las Vegas, four friends are enticed by two sexy escorts to join them at a private party way off Strip. Once there, they are horrified to find themselves the subjects of a perverse game of torture, where members of the Elite Hunting Club are hosting the most sadistic show in town'. 

 

The Scene (YouTube):

Editing Deconstruction:

This screenshot attached below shows a Point-of-View shot from the victim's perspective behind a mask template. During this clip, hand held camera work is used to create the illusion that the victim is moving his head aggressively in fear and trying to escape. We can also see a partial of the torturer's face in one of the eye holes in the mask; this is to emphasise the sadistic look on his face which the victim would be seeing, unsettling the audience and creating tension.

The scene then cuts to an over-the-shoulder shot of the villain drawing a template on the victim's face, as pictured below. The cut between the hand-held camera work to the steady over-the-shoulder view emphasises the contrast between the scared and confused victim to the villain's perspective, whereby he is calm, almost creating a sinister atmosphere. 

The shot below also shows an over-the-shoulder shot, this time defining the victim's fearful face, causing the audience to sit on edge, apprehensive for the victim as to what is about to unfold. 

In the image below, we can see the victim being tormented by a large power drill. In terms of editing for this clip, the diegetic sound of the drill is enhanced greatly, along with cries of protest from the victim, in attempt to unsettle the audience. In addition to this, no non-diegetic music is used in order to emphasise the sounds of the victim screaming which can be more unsettling for the audience and build more tension than screams played along with a soundtrack, despite being eerie.

Another effective use of camera work used is the tracking and pan shots used when focusing on the weapons; in this example, surgical tools. This first screenshot shows the camera panning across the screen to show the vast array of different surgical tools the villain has; this builds the tension and creates a sense of dramatic irony as the audience is able to guess the gory procedure about to occur. 

The screenshot below then shows an example of tracking, whereby the camera tracks the surgical scalpel as the villain picks it up. This is to emphasise the focus on the weapon in order to build the suspense for the audience just as it is clear that the torture is about to begin, creating a sense of foreboding. 

This clip below then immediately follows the clip explored previously in the form of match-on-action of the villain about to torture his victim. Match-on-action is an effective method of editing in order to further build the tension and set the atmosphere right before the big torture scene as it allows us to follow the villains slow, torturous build up to hurting the victim. The scene cuts from an extreme close-up of the weapon to a point-of-view shot from the victim to suggest the point of realisation of the victim, building the tension. Additionally, this creates a sense of realism for the audiences as they are seeing the event unfold from the same position as the victim, making them almost feel targeted. 

There are also cuts between the torture scene and to a room behind a glass screen showing the Elite club's members watching. Using mid-shots and close-ups for these cuts, the audience is able to see the reaction shots of the onlookers, which are, as shown, suggesting enjoyment; this indicates how isolated and trapped the victim is, building the tension further as the audience knows no one will help him and so the outcome is likely to be gruesome. 

Finally, after the match-on-action sequence explored earlier, a series of extreme close-ups are used to shows the villain cutting the face of the victim, along with blood and the ripping of the skin as he removes his face. Parallel to this, the enhanced diegetic sounds of the villain screaming greatly unsettles the audience, creating a tense atmosphere due to the vast volumes of gore involved. The fact that we can still see the victim's facial movement and eyes makes the scene seem so realistic, which is again unsettling. 

Evaluation:

 

The effective editing examples used allowed for a greatly unsettling scene of torture for the audience, which creates a lot of suspense and tension when the audience watches it. The variety of different camera shots is also very successful as the audience is able to see the torture from every angle, further setting the atmosphere and scene. Since this example explored is of the same genre, I could gain inspiration in terms of camera shots and sounds to be potentially used in our own trailer.