Lovefield Genre Analysis - Short Film Research - Sam Swinson

Lovefield Genre Analysis - Short Film Research - Sam Swinson

This is a short film that was analysed in class. The genre of the short film is a hybrid because it has elements of a thriller/horror film, but, then there is an unexpected twist at the end and the film becomes a romance/comedy.


The semantic codes for horror include:

• A crow is iconic for horrors because they represent death, also, they represent Dracula.

The Crow

• The knife is another semantic code for horrors and thrillers.

The Knife

• Creepy non-diegetic background music is another semantic code for horrors because it builds up suspense even though it is not a visual code.
• The setting for the short film is very secluded which is a setting that is iconic for thrillers or horrors.

The Setting

• The telephone on the floor that is beeping is another semantic code for horror.

The Phone

• The woman stops moving as the non-diegetic background music crescendos is another semantic code to represent that the woman has been killed.

The woman as she stops moving

This film it clever in the way that it makes the audience feel safe. This is because of all of the semantic codes the audience have seen so far in the film it suggests to them that the ending will involve the killer burying the body, getting caught or the woman escaping. This means when the audience see the ending there is genuine shock and surprise because of what happened.


On top of this, once you see the ending of the film the rest of the film makes sense. This means that the audience has to re-evaluate what they have seen in the film. For example, the phone on the floor is because the protagonist has phoned the help services then had to leave the phone to attend to the woman. Also, the reason the protagonist stops to look at the crow is because a crow represents death so this suggests to the character the possibility that the new-born baby has died.

Crow possible suggesting the baby is dead

The Baby

The genuine shock comes because of the quick change in genre. This is because the horror aspects of the film have been building dramatically then as the protagonist goes to 'cover up the body or hide the body'. We then hear a baby crying and see a baby in the frame which is when the shock happens.

Short film on Vimeo:

LOVEFIELD (Short Film by Mathieu Ratthe) from thttf2004 on Vimeo.