What does the color red mean to you? Does it mean power, love, or lust? All genres or media have a neat way of changing the meaning of any color. When red roses or heart chocolates are seen, a love story can be assumed. But if a movie involves death or crime, the color red has a meaning of power or violence. Colors have a strong influence on emotion in film and the audience. The mood is also set as colors are used in certain aspects. Paying close attention to films and poems read in class, I found it interesting how the color red can create so many different emotions and moods at once. For example, red can be frightening, romantic, barbarous, or even symbolize several ideas in literature and film.
The color red is a color of many meanings. It could mean anger, passion, war, violence, or love. When filmmakers and writers aim for an emotional impact, they associate a color with sentiment. Colors help describe the way a character is feeling emotionally and physically. Since red is also a warm color, it has an impact of waking the audience up instead of calming them down. Different colors draw the audience in without them even realizing it. Therefore, Red does a great job at creating a sense of horror or gore.
In the movie, The Shining, it is themed around violence and supernatural activity. At the beginning of the movie, the music sets a sense of curiosity and barbarous. As the family moves into The Overlook Hotel, you see that most of the walls and doors are a shade of dark or light red. Suspense is now a new feeling of discomfort. A scene that repeats itself several times is by the two red elevators. Here looks like a doorway to “the truth” about The Overlook Hotel. As the producers zoom in slowly, tons and tons of blood rush from the corner crease of the elevator. Seeing the blood rush on to the hotel floor several times, makes the audience feel like there is a higher power of some sort in the house. In this case, the “supernatural” ghosts of whom lived there in past lives. As the blood splashes onto the walls, it also creates a feeling of distress when the blood hits the camera and shows complete darkness. With the red blood and a sudden black screen, the audience begins to wonder what will happen next or what it could possibly mean.
Another movie with the theme of suspense and horror is The Godfather. A specific scene in The Godfather is the horse head scene. As the man wakes up, not only does he smell something strange but he feels something like the texture of blood. When he looks under the covers, he sees blood all over him and the bed sheets. At the foot side of the bed, the man and audience see a dead horse’s head at the same time. The reaction of the man is confused and horrified. As for the audience, the gory of this scene is disturbing and throws them off guard. This rich man had a very serious love for racing horses so why would someone do such a thing to his horse? Was the horse head meant to scare the man? Using the context and knowledge from the scenes before, the red blood sets a mood of power and crime in the movie. When I think of a dead horse head and its blood all over, it makes a very scary feeling of environment.
“The Fall of the House of Usher” is a literature text with the theme of supernatural horror as well. This literature story is about a twin brother and sister who live in a huge castle like house. When the sister is sick and dies, she is buried in a casket under the house. What makes this text supernatural is when the sister breaks out of the casket, “dead”, and flies through the floors like a ghost with red smoke. The audience or reader is then thrown off by the sister coming through the floors. But, color plays a huge role as the audience becomes curious when the twin sister flies through the floors in the castle. Each scene in the film and text is described to be a tent of red. The foggy tent of red makes the brother and sister seem as if they are ghost like already and are barely living. But when the sister dies, it is her duty to take her brother along with her. This is a curious color of red because the audience wonders why she comes from the dead to take him with her. The “Fall of The House of Usher” starts off with a sketchy suspenseful feeling of red in the woods. The first image of the house is around a beautiful red and orange sunset which makes the castle itself stand out enclosed in those colors scales. When taken inside the castle, the tent is still red along with red furniture. A red chair in the middle of a room stands out because it is in the center. It immediately makes the audience feel as if he has the power of a king like figure. With the brother feeling sickly as the sister is dying, the red is a sign of death coming in their near future.
Red can also represent romance and desire for something in life. For romance, red can be shown in roses or flowers, valentine’s day chocolates, or even the blood of family members. A few examples that embody romance and desire are “I Sing the Body Electric”, Ruby Sparks, and The Godfather.
In “I Sing the Body Electric”, a father and his kids sit down and have a serious conversation about creating a grandmother at a shop. This shop has everything to construct the perfect grandmother for a family. For example, different sizes for arms, legs, ears. They also have a selection of different colored eyes and hair to put together. The way I see this literature text is through the blood of each family member. Even if the father and kids are not related to the built grandmother, there is a connection they will build throughout time. For example, the blood of the siblings and father will always be a way of connection and love. With the grandmother being welcomed into the family, she does not share their blood. The grandmother is welcomed and loved by all but one daughter who did not agree to having the grandmother live in the house.
In Ruby Sparks, romance and love are the two biggest themes in the film. Here, it is not about roses or chocolate in red valentine’s boxes, it is about the unexpected love at first sight. Calvin is an aspiring writer who begins to create a story on paper. Little does he know he is creating the girl of his dreams. In Calvin’s description of his dream girl, he types “red hair”. One day as Calvin arrives home, a girl named Ruby Sparks appears in his kitchen with red hair and all of the other descriptions.
Another way people can view Ruby Spark’s red hair is that the relationship is not just about romance, it is doomed. The red hair can represent the danger of love and what bad can come of it. For instance, as Calvin fiddles with the magical typewriter, he realizes he has created a monster. A scene that stands out to the audience is when Calvin tells Ruby that he can control every move she makes. To prove it to Ruby, Calvin types and Ruby does exactly what is written, good or bad. This goes to explain a deeper meaning and emotion in their relationship.
Not only can the color red represent horror and romance, but it can also symbolize bigger issues or meanings. Just because a movie has blood or swords, it is not just about gore. Looking deeper into blood and swords, the audience has an image of war and death. Same goes for the films and literature above.
In the Shining, the gushes of blood from the elevator is a repeated scene to make the audience feel curious and scared. But what is the blood actually representing? Is it the blood of the “living” hotel or the blood of all the past families who have lived in The Overlook Hotel? From watching the movie closely, I believe that the blood was to show the families who had died there decades ago. The families had all become ghosts of the Overlook Hotel and haunted each family who took care of the hotel in the winter. The red outfits that were worn repeatedly were also a way to represent life verses death. For example, Danny wore red shirts in every scene. As the movie proceeds, the father of Danny begins to wear dark brown or red clothes. This represents how Danny’s father is possessed by the hotel and becomes the new “killer”. Another metaphor in The Shining deals with alcohol and drugs. Finding himself in an empty red tented ballroom, the father sits at the bar talking to ghosts and drinking an invisible beverage. The hallucinations of the people in the ballroom represent how stressed the father was to type a great book. He is also seen conversing with the father who had murdered his wife and twin daughters who mess with Danny. It is interesting to think about how much meaning is behind a single scene.
Ruby Sparks is also a great example of symbolism. When Ruby is being controlled by Calvin, it symbolizes how a relationship can be good for one person and dangerous towards the other. Calvin represents how one can be super controlling of the other without the partner even noticing. Ruby has no idea that Calvin typed her into life and is scared when she realizes she has been controlled the entire time. A relationship becomes unhealthy when one demands things that are unfair or unnecessary. When Calvin feels that Ruby isn’t in love with him anymore, he writes that he wishes she couldn’t live without him. Once she becomes too clingy, he then changes his mind and writes that he wants to end the relationship. The movie Ruby Sparks is a perfect example of how people can be manipulative and hurt others emotionally and physically.
In “I sing the Body Electric”, blood relation is a huge aspect to the literature’s theme. With the grandmother being built by a machine, she is not related to the kids of father that she will be living with. But what matters is the heart to heart connection between the grandmother and the family. This literature piece was written to show that you do not have to be related by blood to love one another. Another metaphor used is during the time they get to build their grandmother. Instead of being given a grandmother of any color or size, the kids are taken to a special room. In this special room, the kids find sections full of arms, eyes, legs, and voices to choose from. This is a metaphor of making the “perfect”, loving grandmother. I disagree with this factor because any grandmother of any size or color will be just as loving to their grandkids. It is not necessary for the kids to be able to create the grandmother because it teaches them to look at each body part, instead of what is deep down in their heart.
Lastly, The Godfather has multiple scenes that have deeper meaning. A favorite scene is in the very beginning. The Godfather is supposed to look and sound powerful. As he is sitting in his office, he is dressed in a nice tuxedo with a red rose to add color. Here, the audience gets the vibe that this man is very serious about his job. The red rose on his shirt is there to show he is a caring and loving man for his family. But bringing out the caring side of the Godfather is the kitten he is petting. The kitten pulls out the not so scary side that the man is perceived to be. This is a metaphor to show not every high up or controlling person is supposed to be evil. A man can be of a higher power and be loved by everyone who surrounds him.
Given these points, the color red has a bigger impact on the audience’s thoughts and emotions than expected. Every day, color influences the feelings of people. For example, a red night sky verses and blue night sky conveys two different ideas. If film was still black and white today, most film genres would not be able to express a story in a clear way. Through color, a character’s journey and emotions are shown. Studying the importance of color in film is intriguing because it is a factor I personally never thought about. Next time you sit down to watch a movie, pay attention to how color plays a massive role in film and storytelling! Knowing the meaning behind each color scale has