Horror Film Openings

Today as a class we were all set the task of researching our personal choice of a film opening and ask to make an analysis of it which we were then asked to present to the class.

I (Summer) chose House of Wax which i found quite interesting as its use of an uncanny setting in both the modern day part and the 1974 section which as it opens with what appears to be a normal family home based in a kitchen, a place that potentially has many dangers in, where a young child an  mother are having breakfast. the opening to house of wax is not particularly frightening but it's odd as it uses to scenarios which at the time seem totally unrelated.
We feel sympathy for the family in beginning as it shows a young boy being restrained and see as quite a pain to his family as this seems like an everyday process for this family. The combination of diegetic and non diegetic sound was well used as it helped to show us the difference in times as well as area, the most interest part of the opening is that even though we seen at least 4 minuets of a family home we never see any of the families faces we only ever see below the shoulders regardless of the high angle shots.

Alex chose Donnie Darko as she found it to be fairly unsettling as the opening goes straight into the story line which begins to seem quite simple like just a slightly strange family who don't really get alone whereas other horrors typically show something slightly more devious however the tension does get built slightly later this is indicated where the usual diegetic sound of conversations suddenly changes as we begin to hear a piano score over the top. The opening lulls us into a false sense of security as it seems to us to be quite normal until we realise that there is something a bit different about this particular family mainly the leading protagonist Donnie.

Steven chose Halloween which he found that he the opening which shows the young boy wearing a mask which causes a lot of controversy amongst his house hold. Steven found that the mask seems to be the key item in this opening scene which helps with the unravelling of the film as we instantly realise that the young boy & this mask is going to be the focal point of the film as a lot of attention is paid to it especially when the young boy (Michael) is wearing in the mirror wearing the mask and the camera is slightly blurred and at a canted angle which helps show the confusion and the fear that lies within the mask.