Opening Title Sequence Analysis
The Woman In Black
In the opening scene we see a close up of three girls having a tea party with their dolls. The pace is deliberately slow, in order to create tension and build up to the horror aspects of the scene. We then see the children look towards something off screen. This is where the scene is effectively creepy and successfully engages the audience, as we want to see what they are looking at, so we carry on watching. This creepiness continues to the end of the scene, as we see the three girls slowly walk out of the window. The slowness of the close to the scene again creates horror and tension, as the audience have no power over the distressing visuals they are witnessing. This all creates an effective horror opening scene, that establishes the tension of the whole film. WF
Dawn Of The Dead
In the opening scene we are presented with a series of choppy shots in quick succession of a variety of news bulletins and footage of violent destruction, along with obscured yet gory visuals of zombies. The fast pace of these changing shots create an atmosphere of panic and danger, while the static, damaged and dated look of most of the footage gives the audience as sense of the unknown and a lack of control. The use of soundtrack dissonance in the scene is where a lot of the horror atmosphere comes from, where a calm upbeat song is coupled with horrific and quick visuals. The use of a real world song makes the film feel as if it could be a reality, and the song used having a sound of carelessness makes this horror of an apocalypse seem all the more hopeless to fight against. This all makes the scene effective in establishing the tone of the film, whilst simultaneously distressing and engaging for the audience. WF
Paranormal Activity 4 (Unrated Opening)
The opening scene for Paranormal activity 4 (unrated opening) is a large contrast to other horror movie opening title sequences and the rest of the paranormal activity openings. This is because the is no real horror shown In it (no flashing images, dark music or horror stereotypes). Throughout the entire clip the camera is held by a human and therefore makes the audience feel that it is more human and as if they are there, there are no set angles or movements, just the unsteadiness of the mans hand filming. The start of the clip shows a child running however soon after it is seen to just be a joke which makes the audience feel as if there is nothing wrong. When the characters go to the house with the scarecrow out front, there is a 'jump-scare' that is exaggerated by the camera movements of the man holding the camera and therefore shocks the audience more. Towards the end of the clip, 2 characters are leaving their house and going into the night, this is when the audience will feel most on edge however the clip soon changes back to daylight when a figure is spotted in front of a house they are passing by giving the audience a sense of relief. AL
ZombieLand
In the opening scene the audience is presented with the United States flag upside down and a narrator saying how the world has been taken over by zombies. The camera is from a person's perspective and looks at the blood on the floor, flipped over cars and guns. A zombie then appears over the car and chases the male character until he falls over and is eaten. This makes the audience not feel safe as everyone is vulnerable, but also adds some comedy in the scene, with the zombie burping after eating some of the man, which can make the audience feel even more uneasy. The shot then changes to the world, and shows it being corrupted as the narrator talks about how he survived in a step by step process which is shown through snippets of other people NOT doing what he is saying, followed by them dying in a gruesome fashion. Then there begins multiple shots that have been slowed down, showing further people being killed in horrible ways. This effectively makes the audience feel like the zombies are going to go after them, in the same way they see on screen. TP
The scene begins with an extreme close up on Annabelle's eye (the doll) and the camera begins to track out to show the rest of her face. Whilst this is happening there is audio of a girl's voice talking about how the doll moves by itself. This is done to immediately show the creepiness of the doll. It then cuts to a clip of 3 people sitting on a sofa and reveals it is one of the girls that is talking about the doll. The camera is at a slight high angle and is at a mid shot, this is to show they are just ordinary people but are still at danger. The two girls start to talk about an entity who died in the house wanting the body of the doll and so they allowed it to. The camera then makes a cut to a high angle close up shot on one of the girls face as she says,"but then things got worse." This is done to show the audience that they are in actually great danger being near the doll. It then shows a flashback of the 2 girls walking into the apartment and finding the doll in a different place and one of the rooms being wrecked. It then cuts to a clip of one of the girls throwing Annabelle into a bin, it shows this from a birds eye view and an extreme long shot. They have done this to show Annabelle is being suppressed as she is being thrown in the bin but the woman is also in danger because annabelle is going to come back. JH