We are introduced to the movie at night,it is quiet with the only sound being the asynchronous sound of crickets. The film begins as a POV shot of someone looking at a quiet, derelict home. We later get digetic voices as we see through the windows (with the POV shot.) seeing a couple together, when a light comes on upstairs non digetic music arrives and the camera looks up at it (showing that this is significant to the story). The tense high-pitched music continues as the boy enters in from the darkness into the kitchen and picks up a knife, death is suggested to the audience here, and it is again emphasised by the tense music.
The footsteps of the character are emphasised here as well through digetic sound, as he walks up the stairs however the sound they make remains asynchronous, this emphasizes horror and the realism here. The character then picks up a mask and creeps over to the girl, their is then a lot of digetic noise from screams of the girl as the character stabs her, the music remains surreal and goes high pitched at key and shocking moments (such as the stabbing) The light remains low-key also, again a connotation for evil. The character then runs outside to meet a car, and the characters identity is then reveleaed throgh a high angle shot. As an auidience we are shocked to see it is a little boy as we would stereotupe it to have been a large man, and this is where the opening comes to a close with surreal and spooky music and a fade edit.
The pace of the opening for the most part is slow however just before he kills her to the end of the opening it becomes much faster which builds tension.
When a stranger calls (2006) The word "Stranger" in the the title is a connotation for bad things by it self as we are unsure of what kind of person they are, or what their capable of like the saying "Don't talk to strangers" so when a stranger calls it implies evil may be coming to your door. Also using the term "calls" which is the term a lot of people use when they go to someone's house, it shows realism by being relate-able and this frightens the audience, that the events of this movie could actually happen.
The movie begins with non-digetic asynchronous sound of a man with a deep voice calling a house, then hanging up. This gives us an insight on whats to come for the rest of the film, and the creepy voice clearly implies something bad is going to occur, it also relates to the title. We then see alot of high angle shots of a fair (close to the house that was called) which implies an overpowering character, by showing how small and significant everyday people look, we assume that this power is given to the caller. The high paced of the fair ground with all its noise also implies that we can easily be oblivious to danger, shown by the asynchronous, digetic scream which is blanked out by fair rides and no one noticing a silhouette quickly moving across the screen, this itself is scary to the audience as shadows and the colour black is also a connotation for death.
The opening is again shot in low key lighting and uses pathetic fallacy with the wind blowing through wind chimes to imply the genre further as wind like this we normally stereotype to be spooky and scary. There is a lot of red in the opening as well which is a connotation for blood and danger again emphasising the horror genre here, we see a lot of it as well when we at last hear the girl's screams in amongst the commotion of the rides.
1408 (2007)
The opening begins in low key lighting at night and uses pathetic fallacy with rain and thunder, as its bad weather which pulls us in to a scary ambiance. We are introduced to the main character with a close up and we learn he is a lone traveler. He is in an isolated location in the rain, which also is a clear stereotypical convention of the horror genre. We learn from who he talks to when he enters a hotel which is again isolated that he is a well known righter and that he is there to investigate something paranormal, by this we get a foreboding hint that whats to come will involve ghosts in some way of form, introducing us to the story.
There is creepy, non-digetic music throughout the opening which again gives us a feel for horror. As he enters the so called haunted hotel room we get a feeling of suspense that something bad is going to happen however this outcome is spoiled by bathos because its anti-climactic as we expected something to happen, however nothing does, apart from the sound of lightning. An ellipsis is used to fast forward time, which reveals to the audience that nothing happened all night long. Just because of this however we still expect something horrific to occur later on due to the initial connotations of the horror genre.
I've also studied various other horror film openings such as Psycho, Drag me to Hell, The Exorcist, Blair Witch, Dracula, Saw and child's play, to aid in the horror movie opening, that we will film ourselves.
From this research its clear to see general similarities in horror films, such as the...
.iconography: black cloaks (evil connotation) , abandoned/isolated areas or buildings, shadows, blood, weapons, pathetic fallacy fog etc.
.Themes/ideas: Dark,gathic,gory,deselette,creepy,suspense,abstract,tense.
.Production style: Dark, low key lighting, twilight, handheld camera,close ups.
.Characters + relationships: Young couple (often), girl, isolated location, get attacked/harassed/chased by a someone/something like a monster/ murderer. Normally there is a girl featured as stereotypically thought of as more vulnerable so adds to the fear and scare factor.
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