mise en scène: sound

The movie that I chose to analyze is The Call. This movie is about a 911 operator who has fails to save a young girl whose house was invaded by a kidnapper. While on the phone with the victim, she is alerted that the intruder was leaving because he couldn’t find her and the phone disconnects. The operator (Jordan) calls back and this is what alerts the intruder that someone is there and he finds her. Upon finding her, Jordan speaks to him and says that he shouldn’t harm her and he replies with a chilling “it’s already done” and hangs up. He then kidnaps her and Jordan later finds out that he kills her and discards her body. After this incident, because the ring back was the reason this young child lost her life, she retired as an operator but continued to work as a teacher and trainer to new, incoming operators. While showing around a set of new potentials, a similar case arises in one of the newest working operators who panics and asks Jordan for help. She takes on this call and helps the child (Casey) the entire way. When the killer arrives to his underground torture chamber, he takes Casey out and realizes that she has been on the phone the entire time and becomes infuriated. He puts the phone to his ear and Jordan tells him that he should just let her go and not cause harm to her and this killer replies with “it’s already done.” At that moment, Jordan realizes that is the killer from her past case and she then makes every effort to go find and save Casey herself. She tracks down their location, goes there, has a head to head battle with him, save Casey, and they end up leaving him tied to one of his torture chairs with intentions of telling the police that she found Casey in the woods with no trace of you. He then he says that they can’t do that and Jordan replies with his disturbing response of “it’s already done.”
The different categories of sound that were used in this film were dialogue, sound effects, and music. This movie was very suspenseful and thrilling so the parts where there was struggling and fighting, cars speeding, people screaming and weeping, and doors slamming were very intensified and gave the movie that “made you jump” aspect. The sound effects and the supporting music is definitely what influenced the quality of this movie. Most of the time, the sound was outside of the music because it was that vigorous, building music that led to the big scare that makes the audience jump. An example of this would be when Jordan gets to the torture basement of the killer and she is slowly creeping to where he is. The orchestral music helps build on what is happening and it gets you to the edge of your seat because it makes you absolutely dying with anticipation. Inside sounds could include when the killer set the gas station attendant on fire when he pours the gas on him, you could then hear when he flicks the lighter, and you can finally hear the flame expanding when he becomes engulfed in the fire. Another intense moment where a helpful man alerts the kidnapper that paint is spilling out of his drunk (where the kidnapped Casey is stored trying to get someone’s attention) and he pulls over where this citizen follows and asks if he needs help. When the kidnapper returns to his car, suspicious, he began to dial 911 when suddenly his window is smashed by the kidnapper and his glass shatters. The kidnapper then starts to continuously hit him and knocks him unconscious and stores him in the trunk as well.
Goodykoontz, B. & Jacobs, C. P. (2011). Film: From Watching To Seeing. San Diego. Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1911644/fullcredits/