Deconstruction of a Demon's Mise en Scene in Supernatural

Eyes

Annie and I would like our demon/devil to have an extra-ordinary eye colour in order to distinguish themselves as something supernatural for the audience's understanding. The TV series Supernatural is a rich in mise en scene - especially eyes - so I will deconstruct this.

Demons are commonly used in Supernatural - they resemble normal humans but their eyes are entirely blackened - these are regular demons. The demon force itself is a black smoke that enters and leaves through the person's mouth. When the person blinks, their eyes become black and this indicates to the audience that the person is possessed. If the person blinks again and their eyes return to their normal colour, it means the demon has 'turned itself off' - it is still possessing the person but is dormant and returns whenever it wants. See 3:54

When the main protagonist Sam turns into a demon, there is an extreme close up of his eyes as they slowly grow black to emphasize his possession, in order to trouble the audience. See 2:55

However, there is another type of demon whose eyes roll back to make their eyes entirely white. This demon looks like a human - she appears angelic due to her background (she was an angel alongside Lucifer) with wavy blonde hair and in a long white dress, so the white eyes fits in with that as white connotes heaven and purity. See 1:34 in above video

There are other types of demons whose eyes are of a different colour. One has yellow eyes - which resembles a reptile, however the demon is not associated with anything reptilian. The Yellow-Eyed demon possessed a priest who then slaughtered a room full of nuns in order to communicate with Lucifer. I like this idea of yellow eyes as it subverts the usual all-black or -white eyes, and seems slightly animalistic. Additionally, these yellow eyes have a glowing effect so if we were to create a scene in the dark with our 'demon', we could edit it so all our can see are yellow glowing eyes on a black silhouette - this will be effective as it will scare the audience and maintain their attention.

There is also a demon with red eyes who makes deals with humans, however their eyes aren't always red. They usually show their normal colour but sometimes show their red eyes to seem menacing to the other characters and to the audience. The red eyes also appear from time to time in scenes to reiterate how the innocent character is making a 'deal' with this demon which never has good results in the show. The colour red has connotations of danger and bloodshed - therefore, the eyes fundamentally urge the character not to make a deal with this demon, however they do it regardless of all the warnings.

Clothing

The demons wore clothing that the person they possessed wore in order to remain 'undercover'. For example, a demon possessed Father Gil, and when Lilith was younger she dressed as a stereotypical young girl.


However, another demon named Meg dresses herself as a 'tough' girl when the women she possesses are not like that. She always wears leather jackets - conforming to the tough girl stereotype, and she has messy hair which connotes roughness and carelessness. However, she still appears feminine by wearing jewellery and make-up in order to look attractive so she can deceive people. Meg is a crucial villain in Supernatural and she subverts the common stereotype of male villains because she is a tough female. However, there are times in the show where she softens and is compassionate, and I personally do not like these qualities in a villain as it is confusing - so I do not want our film's villain to have a soft side.

Forms

Some of the supernatural creatures are not always human - or human in form. There are hellhounds who work with the deal-making demons and the regular demon which, as mentioned, appears as black smoke.

Hellhound are not visible, however there was an episode where the audience could see the outline. They are strong and fast and it is impossible to escape them. I like the idea of having an invisible creature that is virtually invincible attacking the victims as it terrifies the audience because they feel helpless as they cannot see what the thing is that is killing people. I also like the idea of black smoke - or maybe a silhouette - as it is visible to the audience so they can understand the scene better as portraying an invisible force is difficult for the audience to imagine while watching a film.


From deconstructing demons in Supernatural, I would like our devil creature to take on human form as it is more doable in terms of filming as well as helping the audience understand better. Also, when the devil is in human form, the concept is real and this-worldly, and this therefore scares the audience as it is relatable in that the 'devil' is a human like them. Additionally, I would like the devil to be a black silhouette as this adds mystery thus gripping the audience as they are intrigued as to what the devil actually looks like (which we will not disclose - further in-keeping with the supernatural convention of enigma behind a supernatural force's history). I would also like the devil to have, perhaps, red eyes due to the connotations behind the colour red, as well as emphasizing how the devil is extra-ordinary and therefore capable of doing anything - thus scaring the audience and persuading them to watch the film.