At the beginning of the Buffy episode, the aesthetic of horror includes all the elements of horror film : the sounds, the lights and the moving camera. When the girl are called by the teacher to lay down on the desk, things started to be little bit unusual, this attracted the audience to pay attention. Then the man kissed the girl, at the same time, camera zoom in their faces. Then the girl opened eyes and found out the lights are down, A terrorist atmosphere of music starts, She feels strange as the same time with the audience, camera moves with her and there is a cild voice sing a song and when the girl saw the child, the scream starts. This is a complete scene of horror film. In the scene, mise-en-scene is represented clearly with the acting of the characters, First of all, the professor told the girl to lay down in front of the classroom , and then tell the man to ” be a good boy” these unusual actions give people a message that something strange is going to happen. The strange conversation between actors increases the feeling of unease, and this feeling only grows as the scene progresses. When Buffy heard what they said, her face looks little bit scars, this also shows that the danger is coming. Non-diagetic sounds: the main characters didn’t talked about anything normal, but the background music started right after the lights down, this has big effects , the background music is one of the example of non-diegetic sounds add a horror effect. Usually, at the end of the music, something strange would happen. This non-diegetic address the horror feeling. The Diagetic sound will be the voices of characters, for example, in this scene, the voice of the little child’s singing. After the lights down, Buffy heard the singing from the outside of the classroom, she feels scared and follows the voice, at this point, audience would have already get into the horror atmosphere.
Hi, xiaoxue, your analysis is very good. From your beginning description of the scene, I can vividly image that in my mind. The non-diegetic is an important part to make an eerie mood to resonate people. I try to listen the soundtrack of Buffy video and it scares me. The background music and some special sound effect drive me nut. I just close it and I totally understand why some people like listening a ghost story from a radio. The sound I heard from the sound track was appearing in my mind and I was keeping thinking a scene to match it. I think sometime people’s imagination is more horror than what we actual see. Without a visual effect, the sound also can present an ideal effect to audience. On the contrary, I turn off the sound and watch the Buffy drama. There are big contrasts. I did not feel scare. Moreover, when I saw the man turn into an ugly monster, and then a girl open a mouth (I think is screaming) and run away, I just thought funny. I feel boring to watch this.