Analysing three horror film openings
Setting:
Generally night time to build an element of suspense and the unknown as well of connotations of darkness and danger.
In all 3, the film is set in a familiar location, for example, Scream is set in her house, Get Out is set in a relatively average looking American estate, though it's unfamiliar for Lakeith Stanfields character for the audience it's not far from what's been seen in other films and media and It is set in Georgie's estate as he runs through it. This is most likely because adding a element of fear in to a more realistic, grounded and familiar environment can help the audience immerse themselves fully in to the film
Colour:
Colour is generally very washed out and grim using desaturated colours so that important features can stand out like vibrant red blood or the clothes of main characters.
Character expression and Movement:
For the most part actors start in their most natural form living their daily life and then stumble in to the danger and progressively become more paranoid to build tension. This can be seen in all 3 openings, characters will naturally move around their environmnet and slowly become more panicked and scared as the scene moves forward.
One thing all these have in common is that every person shown in the opening scenes are side characters/not the main character and are used as bait almost to die or get injured immediately to hook the readers attention. A clear trope in the horror genre is that you don't have to be strict about showing your main character straight away.
In this opening scene, the student uses a large amount of close ups on objects of interest that may not necessarily have a huge correlation to the narrative. This is questionable, but does help build tension effectively. Using a style like this in my own coursework but focusing in on more eventful objects may be an effective way to present my cinemetography.
There is also an ambient soundtrack running through it, something I may want to incorporate, however a lack of diagetic sound design.
This opening scene also features a familiar environment (school) but adds an added hook to watch the rest of the film by introducing us to a list of targets for the killer at the end. Introudcing a narrative revealing piece of information at the end of my scene may be something to incorporate as a hook.
This opening scene features a slightly less familiar environment, but utilises colour in certain shots effectively - for example the girl holding the bright red rose in what is otherwise a desaturated colour pallete definately helps the shot come together as a whole.
Something all these openings incorporate is a use of someone innocent, young or "weak" appearing as an immediate victim to illicit a more visceral response than an average looking person.
