Clayton George Wickham - final thesis

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stylistically straightforward approach to presenting the narrative. There are notable
occasions of a stalking camera, without seeming to challenge the boundaries of
visual understanding. The Girl Who Knew Too Much contains a sequence in which
the threatened female character, alone in the house, fears that someone may try to
attack her during the night. The lights are low, and she is unable to sleep, and this
fear is exaggerated by compositions that frame her through barriers such as ornate
open partitions that provide limited visibility and the camera moves in a slow,
stalking manner, without literally reflecting an eye/camera perspective. The Bird
with the Crystal Plumage, while still taking a more direct approach to the
eye/camera, involves the device in the narrative, as the mystery driving the plot is
shown through the eye/camera. The main character witnesses an attempted murder,
while isolated from the sound of the event. The audience views the event from the
eye/camera of the witness. As the mystery unravels, the viewer becomes aware that
the eye/camera provided such a limited perspective on the event witnessed that it
was completely misunderstood, which ties in to Clover’s argument of the
unreliability of the point of view shot. Before discussing Argento’s and Bava’s most
important contribution to the eye/camera, it is important to explicate the previously
addressed concept of proximity fear.
One of the most important functions of the eye/camera seems to be
repeatedly ignored by critics and academics. If the purpose of a horror film is
ultimately to scare the audience, then what does the eye/camera do to contribute to
that sensation? Certainly Wood’s idea of voyeurism implicating the audience in
sadism could contribute to this fear, but it turns the fear inward as a shock at the
viewer’s own dark tendencies. The essential fear element provided by the
eye/camera is more basic and superficial than this, but extremely important to the