Mise-en-scene refers to everything that appears before the camera settings, costumes, actors, lighting, body language, and the positioning of the characters and iconography. This all adds together to make the audience feel tension and not knowing what is going to happen next, in the thriller genre. These points let the audience know what genre it is without purposely saying.
The first part of the human centipede when 2 American girls are in their car after breaking down. The use of low key lighting while there in the forest makes you feel scared for them as although its pitch black outside there is some sort of light coming from somewhere, this is a sense of happiness and when they find the light coming from the house they are relieved, the use of connotation suggests some sort of hope, however the segregated location of the desolate forest reinforces the sense of tension that the audience are feeling. this is a key thriller convention.
While carrying little props with them through the forest the only things they have when they get out are their shoes, this shows a sense of urgency as they have taken their high heels of to run faster to find safety in the rain. While wearing little clothing in a massive rain storm, as girls take pride in their appearance they don’t like the thought of them getting soaking wet when they was hoping to go out clubbing. This could also show how unaware they are that their life is never going to be the same again.
As the first appearance of the man comes, as hes wearing a long white coat, this initially identifies the reader that he could be someone from the medical profession, ie. a doctor or surgeon. the use of the colour white so contradicts the audiences expectation of what a villain should wear. he appears very strange and scary. This is off putting for the girls since they want to get help but came to the wrong house.
The close up door of him locking the door is a very important moment as where we first find him scary it shows that he’s got something going on for him to lock the front door. This makes us weary of what’s going to happen during the film. Also when he looks out the window after, he’s making sure that no one is around to know what he is doing.
The house connotes to the audience the fear intention that they are expecting, this is due to the isolating setting of the enviroment where these brutal and sick events are taking place. the house is also a white which shows purity. this is the opposite of the reaity which confuses the audience, but which is a convention in the thriler genre.
The first time we see his house, he seems very clean and a well put together man, as there isn’t any mess around and the decorating is white, this shows purity which isn’t a convention in thriller films which could try and trip us up into thinking he’s a nice man when really he isn’t.
The painting which he has on the wall which is of 2 babies merged together by their stomach, could show that this is his inspiration for what he is planning on doing to the two girls. Although this remark is suttle and not something the girls would notice and pick up on, the way the camera is set as they first enter the living room the picture above the sofa is on full view. Whether they planned for this to happen I’m not sure but people who have already seen the film can relate to it and can understand that something a bit like that is going to happen to them.
The lighting in the household becomes more high key when they get inside, this also is not a convention of a thriller film but could be done to give us a different idea of what may happen and make us think that they are in ‘safe hands’.
When they first look at the picture together this makes us know that they think something weird is happening. They both give each other a look and the camera zooms in to the girls face to show her talking to her friend, this then makes us feel uncomfortable as we think that something is going to happen.
As the antagonist is foreign, the messages which they receive and give to him are visual messages and what they see, so when he’s pretending talking on the phone, they don’t realize he’s really not because he’s lying about it and not on the phone at all. This again shows how he really has something going on but we don’t know what yet. The zoom into the two cups of water he has just filled for the girls and the tablet which is fizzing in there, makes you feel sorry for the girls as you know that was for them and he’s probably trying to knock them out.
As the girls make up has smudged from the rain outside this could also show how they look quiet evil as there untidy. This is again not a convention of a thriller film as we see the man as tidy and neat, the victim and the girls who there are more than one of, looking messy, spooky and like their the villains.
The flickering flame from the fire also connotes fear as fire isn’t something you want to come across especially in a house with someone who’s scaring you and you don’t know who he is. When she’s spills her drink the camera on him shows how high up he is, this makes him in charge and makes us feel scared for her as he looks really big and his deep voice makes us feel that he could do damage and we don’t want that to happen.
The shadow of him going down the stairs scares us as we he looks bigger than what he does in real life. When he goes through the corridor theirs a blue light which we notice and that shows that it could be quiet cold and scary.
All of our thoughts of them being killed get us even more scared when we see a close up of feet and when there not moving we presume they are dead. In the background you can see the villain washing his hands, he is paying no attention and is obliviously not bothered that he has a dead person infront of him. This shows the damage he could do to the girls especially when no one knows where they are.
