At the beginning of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode the male character is talking on the phone at his desk he says, “can’t even shout cant every cry the gentlemen are coming by.” This is an example of diagetic sound. You can see that he is speaking and hear his voice filling your ears. The words he is saying add to the aesthetic horror of the film because those are the same words that Buffy heard in her dream and the sentence is not normal and weird that they have never heard of it before. The words are also foreshadowing for about what is going to happen in the episode.
An example of non-diagetic sound in the Buffy episode is when the car is crashed into the fire hydrant. The music that is playing in the background is very eerie and scary and helps add to the aesthetic of horror in the video. Then the music changes and becomes a bit happier and cheerier when Buffy finds Riley and they kiss. This gives the viewer an idea that they are happy even thought they cannot talk. This takes give the viewer a break from the horror of the film for a quick second.
Mise-en-scene is created nicely in this video with the scary people and how their bodies are floating above the ground and they move very slowly and smoothly than normal people do. These creatures also have very detailed makeup on that makes them look almost like skeletons but most definitely not normal human beings, which adds to the scariness of the video. Also, the creatures that are walking on the ground move with erratic behavior and their arms not in normal motion. They are also wearing outfits that you see people in insane alyssums or really dangerous prisoners (at least those characters in movies) wearing. This all adds to the aesthetic horror of the film because all of those things are not normal and things we associate with scary objects. They also only seem to come out at night when there isn’t much light, and nighttime is associated with being more dangerous compared to the middle of the day.
Here is a link to the Buffy Episode used in this response.
I also chose the fire hydrant scene for part of my analysis because I thought it was just really great film work. The way the water hits the ground created a really good ambient noise for what was happening around it, and paired with the non-diagetic music, set a unique tone to that scene. Like you said, it started off more melancholy and eerie, but eventually cheered up a bit when Buffy sees Riley. I think it was just really cool that they found a prop for the background to help create some ambience since the characters couldn’t speak and we needed some noise to fill the scene.
Personally, I am not a fan of horror movies or television shows. These types of shows are not aesthetically pleasing to me. However, I was able to appreciate the different elements of non-diagetic, diagetic, and mise-en-scene that contributed to the horror of the Buffy episode. I believe that sound is a major contributor to the aesthetics of horror. Background music can make or break a scene. When the music lines up well with the scene it can greatly enhance the horror of the scene. Each individual has different aesthetic needs that must be met for the horror to affect them. For example, some people are frightened by the “Paranormal Activity” movies, but some are not. Why is this? The movie is meant to evoke a feeling of horror in the viewer, but the aesthetic needs of some individuals are not met and therefore do not contribute to the horror of the movie. As you mentioned, there is a break from the horror in the “Buffy” episode when the characters kiss. I think it is important to give the viewer a break from the horror in a movie/episode as it adds to the horror that will be shown later on in the film.