"beDevil" a film of ghost stories

beDevil, directed by Tracey Moffatt in Australia, is a collection of three cultural based folk/ghost stories. Though I did not enjoy the film at all, it was a very artistic attempt at creating a cultural horror film. The stories mix together the tales Moffatt was told as a child, those from her Irish-Australian background in merger with her Aboriginal background.

The use of color is extremely important to the film. Each story has a clear focus on a thematic color and each frame is fully saturated with some vibrant colors. The first story is about a child who is, seemingly, possessed by the ghost/spirit of a deceased GI who lays at the bottom of a swamp. The main colors of this section are very earthy and brown. This symbolizes the impact of war and the bleak color left after complete destruction. This is highly contrasted with scenes of narrators living in the present who are recalling this story. They have quite lively green and blue colors, this only seems to differentiate between the world of today and the world where the story is taking place. The second story is of the weird happening of a home which is situated next to a railway, the spooky thing is that years ago a bling girl was killed on the tracks by an oncoming train. Here the colors are extremely purple, this seems to enhance their solitude, which can increase the eeriness. The vibrant purple symbolizes the darkness in which the family lives and their separation from civilization. There was also heavy usage of orange. This, to me, seemed to symbolize the hotness of their location along with the hotness of a train engine as it is in motion traveling at rapid speeds. The third story was of a couple, who had many problems, and their haunting of a tenants building. In this section, red clearly dominates the screen. This is a simple symbol for both the passion and rage the two lovers felt for each other. 

In beDevil, color is a huge symbol for either characters emotions or the circumstances of a location. This is one of the big reasons why I would consider this to be a art film. Its use of color is important and extremely prominent to the films deeper themes.