Clayton George Wickham - final thesis

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face can explain the sound he hears. We might perhaps not have noticed the
significance of some sound or noise if we had not seen its effect in the mirror of a
human face.” (1985; 119) The sequences depicting the deaths of Steve and the boy
counsellor are exemplary of this statement. The boy counsellor’s death is shown
through three shots. The eye/camera moves toward him, as he retains eye/contact
trying to explain what he was doing. As the boy appears in close up, the eye/camera
lunges forward accompanied by a sound effect indicating a knife penetrating flesh
and an orchestral sting. The boy doubles over as there is a cut to a long shot of him
falling over, holding his stomach and bleeding. The image then cuts back to the
eye/camera shot as it begins to pursue the girl counsellor. Steve’s death is seen
through a single eye/camera shot. The killer shines a flashlight in his face, and Steve
walks toward the camera saying “Oh it’s you! What are you doing out here?” His
voice and the rain are the only sounds heard, but as he moves into close up, like with
the boy counsellor, there is an orchestral sting and a knife penetrating flesh sound as
he is apparently stabbed just below the frame, and he doubles over as the image cuts
to the next sequence.
Marcie’s death is more structurally complex. In the bathroom, she hears a
sound over by a row of showers. She opens one curtain that she has seen moving,
with nothing inside. From inside the shower, Marcie is shown in medium shot as the
shadow of a hatchet is seen on the wall behind her, rising into the air. We hear her
talking to herself as the score grows in intensity. As she turns around, there is a cut
to a slightly high angle medium shot as she looks at the hatchet above her. As the
score continues to increase in volume, there is a cut to a low angle shot of the hatchet
being raised. There is another cut to the same high angle shot of Marcie, her face
contorted into a cry, which we hear, and another cut back to the hatchet as it swings