Typical Horror Film Openings

The target audience of the horror genre depends on the age rating of the film. Usually the genre is targeted at a late teen to late twenties audience, due to the age rating. Both males and females watch horror films, but the film can be dependant on which gender prefers it.

Jaws - 1975
Genre Signifiers

• As the film opens, there is a quiet sound track behind the others taking. This then helps to build the suspense of the opening.

• There is a innocent female, the sex appeal for the other male character, that is enthusiastic and goes for a swim, in the dark. When she is out of sight from the others, she is attacked, not showing her attacker and slowly taken under the water.

• The setting of the scene is out in the middle of no-where, therefore helping to create this aspect of there is no help, this helps the viewer empathise with the innocent, as they have no chance of survival.

• Just the viewer not being able to see under the surface of the water helps to build suspense in the extract.

• When the shark strikes at the innocent female, we hear her scream, shout for help, these are all signifiers of the horror genre. Just the sound of the distressed, sets the tone of the film.

• Iconography in the scene is a huge part of the genre, the connotations of the dark blue, black colours has a big effect on the representation of the film, due to it making the film feel cold. Minimal lighting also makes the scene more intense.

Scream - 1996

Genre Signifiers

• There is another typical innocent female character in scream, this shows it is a typical horror genre convention. She bites killed off very quickly like in jaws.

• Later on in the opening, the parents can hear her being killed on the phone and they can't do anything about it. Later, she is hung infront of the parents house.

• The innocent girl references lots of other horror films which is ironic due to her being a victim.

• The iconography in the scene has very cold blue colours like in jaws to connote the feel of coldness.

• The setting is also very quiet, out in the middle of no-where, far from help. This makes the film create more suspense, if no-one can help them.

Poltergeist

The first film I looked at is also a clown based horror film. This film like many other horror films has a very dark setting set with the dark house and flickering TV. It very slowly builds up with slow quiet music. It introduces several stereotypes in horror films such as innocence through the little girl and the dog etc. Another stereotype is the flickering TV which can be associated with fear and the feeling that something is wrong.

I liked it as it had several genre signifiers with the innocent antagonist (the kid), flickering of the static TV and the dark blue lighting which is shown in almost all horror films.

Clownhouse

This opening was very similar to the previous on. It started again at night and had a very slowly built opening. The text is amazingly bright which contrasts to the rest of the setting whilst it slowly builds over a couple of minutes.

It too has very similar genre signifiers with the dark lighting, innocent kid shown as the focus, sound effects of ghastly wind and also the hanging body which is presumably a Halloween decoration. The final scene also sets the seen with the scary clown depicted on the flyer which hits the window dramatically and scares the child showing how a clown could be the main protagonist.

Clown

The opening of clown is very typical of a horror film, using both high pitched sounds and short lengthened montages of imagery very closely related to the plot of the film. Then it goes on to show the innocence of the protagonist in attempt for the viewers to relate and sympathise with the victims in the situation.


Drive thru

This film is slightly different to Clown, the victims in this horror are reckless teens. This has less of an effect on the viewer because they aren't innocent like the child in clown. However the opening is unlike the general rule of horror films, the clown theme is surprising and less themed than the clown themed opening of clown.

The Conjuring

The conjuring opens with someone reporting or documenting the possession of a demonic item. The first clip immediately shows an extremely creepy doll, presumably the one they are talking about in the background. This immediately signifies that this film is a horror. The sounds used are mainly non-diegetic apart from the very creepy backing track which in the piece has a great effect of raising the tension for the film, making the viewer from start to finish on edge.

The target audience of the horror genre depends on the age rating of the film. Usually the genre is targeted at a late teen to late twenties audience, due to the age rating. Both males and females watch horror films, but the film can be dependant on which gender prefers it.

Stephen King's IT

The first horror film opening I looked at was Stephen King's IT. The scene opens with eerie music playing and the camera focusing on washing on the line blowing in the wind and then cups over spilling with water, showing the audience that it is an awful day, this is also shown by the dullness of the colours. The shot then moves on to follow a small child on a bike arriving home. She then begins to look at the washing after Pennywise says hello. She starts smiling indicating to the audience that she can see something we can't. Then we are able to see Pennywise and the camera moves closer to the child indicating that Pennywise is moving closer to kill the child.

Child's Play

The next opening I looked at was Child's Play, it opens with a man being chased by a cop at night, he gets shot and runs into a toy shop. He hides behind a Chucky doll foreshadowing the rest of the movie. He then does some voo-doo stuff and transports himself into a Chucky doll. The darkness of the night shows that it is a horror because darkness is associated with horror.

The House at the End of the Street

Finally I looked at The House at The End of The Street. It opens with dark colours - blues and blacks and a thunderstorm occurring. The scene opens with two murders and someone running away in the middle of the night. It intrigues the viewers and makes them want to watch.