Film Opening General Research - Horror Films Revised 10/10/10

Halloween by John Carpenter 1978 [LINK]

• Halloween begins with credits that flash on orange fade to red then fade back to orange and fade out.
• The polysemy of having just sans serif titles on a black background creates narrative enigma.
• The piano music is high pitch rhythmical therefore unsettling it helps signify tension. T
• he logo of the pumpkin also creates narrative enigma although it also creates exposition.
• This was the beginning 2 minutes to present an opening like this would not show enough content so I would have to contain more in mine.
• The the scene begins and the film provides anchorage with the sans titles of "Hallenfeild Illanois".
• The white on black signifies it as documentary style.
• Their is an audio bridge of the sounds of children to induce the audiences imagination by creating narrative enigma.
• We then see a long shot with a blue light with shadows of trees on it. The blue light is a signifier of the cold, supernatural and the future though not the preferred reading of this text.

Touch of Evil by Orson Well 1958 [LINK]

• The beginning take is one long continuous point of view steadicam shot of a house with a blue light on it signifying the camera person is the protagonist.
•  A decent way of signifying sex like it does is by showing people going to bed then putting clothes on. Although it presents short cuts to signify action of the murder that go with the beats of the music.
• The music is rhythmical to interfere with the beats of a heart.
• The knife is a common signifier of murder and often used in horror as we see it we hear harsh high pitch violins to signify bad will be done with it.
• The mask used over the lens is a good way of signify a character behind the camera.
• We end on a cut of the boy to signify him as the person behind the mask.
• This opening scene was 7 minutes long so clearly I will have to contain mine.

Bride of Chucky by Ronnie Yu 1998 [LINK]

• We begin with the universal titles though these are modified with the sound of harsh high pitch string music and we hear a thump every time we see the titles.
• The use of this polysemy creates narrative enigma.
• In many film openings we often see the logo then the name as we do here.
• We rarely see a huge strand of credits but a short one as we also do here.
• In this is signified lots of short takes to anchor lots of detail.
• The American Flag signifies America, the blue filter signifies horror, the stonework on the building signifies a high status building, the thunder and rain signifies something is unsettling and nightmare and the camera is off axis on a dutch angle to signify something isn't right.
• All of these elements together provide exposition as to the preferred reading of the text. We see many inter textual references such as the Hockey Mask as a signifier of Friday the 13th and a Mike Myers looking mask that signifies Scream.
• The film uses a lot of shot variation to get the audiences interest. It begins with lots of Narrative enigma an doesn't establish the setting with an establishing long shot till later in the text.
• A common Horror technique is the false scare where the audience is purposely lead into fear of whats going on although nothing really happens.
•  A good way of showing gore in this film is by having the protagonist holding the blood packet to himself in order to hide it as this film does. We see a woman dressed in skimpy leather clothing to appeal to the male gaze.
• There are no long takes in this film as with most openings.
• This opening was 3.5 minutes.

Trick Or Treat by Charles Martin Smith 1986 [LINK]

• This is a teenage horror.
• Their is a voice over to provide anchorage and signify the protagonists voice as wee see the titles.
•  To signify a teenager we see the mise en scene of a rock poster, skull and dinosaur all panning and dissolving to break up the shots and create variety.
• The 1st character is the protagonist.
• We see a low angle shot of bullies to signify their power.
• He speaks though the only dialogue is that of the voice over we cannot hear him this is a good way of avoiding dialogue.
• We see a shot of the male protagonist and a medium shot of a female to signify a relationship that may occur. This was 5.3 minutes long.