Title sequence analysis (horror)

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Title Sequence Analysis
(horror) By: Klaudia Gil

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Enigmas
Enigmas raised in this title sequence could be what is the
significance of the silhouettes you can see through the door
as the camera comes closer to the house. There is no
significant action but the soundtrack plays a key part
because audiences would begin to develop and wonder
how sound along with visuals will change as the film
progresses.
Target Audience
We can see that the film is aimed at teenagers/young
adults through mise-en-scene. The use of low key lighting
creates a dim and darker scene – trick or treating is
associated with younger audiences, it’s likely to be
teenagers since children would go with there parents,
they’re too young to go by themselves. We can hear that
these people are by themselves, we can tell that this is
happening not only through the title of the film but by the
dialogue of the children singing.
Mood and atmosphere
Non-diegetic music in this film is changing slowly to a
higher pitch which puts the audience under pressure that
there will be a jump scare and release of action. At the
music descending and children's singing, it becomes the
main sound - it would make the audience feel uneasy
because there are no visuals at the beginning to
accompany the dialogue which means that something will
suddenly appear on the screen.
Genre
The use of pumpkin symbolizes the time of year since that
would be the only time you would carve a pumpkin – the
uneasy music accompanied with pumpkin suggest the it
could be Halloween because of the scary idea which goes
with Hallowen. The hand held camera approaching the
door would be used to create and uneasy feeling where the
audience could feel slightly confused. Low key lighting
creates a ‘spooky’ feel and connotes that it is a horror film.
Halloween
(2012)

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Enigmas
What are the noises in the background, audiences could
wonder why is there a pen (noise )that is scribbling circles
on the paper– what happened, is anyone taking out there
anger in that way? What is the significance of the small
circle filling up the space of the bigger scribble? What role
does the phone play in the film, why is it ringing, who wants
to contact? The music makes the audience suspicious and
wonder what is going on.
Target Audience
The title sequence appeals to audiences who are
interested in the horror genre, there are tension moments
which would be too scary for a small child and it would give
a young adult/adult a thrill and adrenaline that will attract
them to continue watching. it’s hard to draw any
conclusions at this point since there are no visuals except
text.
Mood and atmosphere
The atmosphere is confusing, it’s like there are different
elements from the film in the title sequence. Sound is a
mixture of high screaks, weird buzzes, and as if someone
is opening the sewage as well as a phone ringing. There is
a tension feeling that there will be a jump scare while
credits appear, every time a credit name appears the
audience could wonder what the significance of that is. The
font is quite ‘normal’ and would be said to not be typical
font you would expect in a horror film, since all words are
easy to read but not out of blood or gory like you would
expect.
Genre
You can tell that this title sequence is in the horror genre
because of the rather uncomfortable feeling and the weird
combination of sounds that at least now don’t seem to link
to each other any how, it will probably develop once the film
starts. The title sequence is in the colors black & white
which suggests a gory and mysterious setting. You would
expect it to be like that because it creates a darker and
creepier setting. It’s a good way of creating a setting
through mise-en-scene as well as music without giving too
much away but having the feel of the film.
The Ring
(2002)

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Enigmas
• What the girls are looking at – there is a ‘mystery’ person
created, audience can tell that there is someone there
but don’t know who? It’s shown where the girls have
direct contact with the camera and follow their eye sight
at the camera, it gives the audience a feeling that they
are there.
• What happened to the girls, they looked ‘possessed’,
they put everything they had down and jumped out of
the window? There are a lot of close ups, showing great
detail – helps audience understand the situation and
establishes the scene, shows these objects could be
important later on in the clip since they are focused,
camera deliberately ‘pointing.’ The audience would
wonder why they did such things.
• Why did the girls jump out of the window?
• The scream at the end makes the audience intrigued by
why the girls jumped out of the window and who is “the
baby”?
Target Audience
The audience of this film would be teenagers/young adults,
there is nothing gory in this opening scene that would
need to be censored, it gives a feel of more of a thriller
because there isn’t much blood or unpleasant action going
on, this could just be a build up scene to create tension
which will develop into more of a horror film later on in the
sequence.
The Woman In
Black (2012)

6. + The Woman In
Black (2012)
Mood and atmosphere
The music begins to add instruments as the opening scene
progresses, the more instruments there are the more
suspicion is build up. It creates tension and a build up of
action which is released when the girls jump out of the
window and we hear dialogue with a scream, "MY BABY!”.
Close-ups create a feeling as if an ‘interrogation’ is taking
place, and those are the enigmas the audience ask while
watching the opening scene. The imagery is as if color has
been ‘sucked out’ of the frame creating a darker,/duller
scene - since children the same age as the girls should be
more happy and colorful. When the music gets dramatic
and it stops, tensions is dropped through the imagery when
the girls jump out of the window.
Genre
This opening scene can show genre through different parts
of mise-en-scene like costumes, which are quite unusual
for a horror film because the costumes are significant of the
time frame the film is set in. however, low key lighting
creates shadows and dims because of the features it
creates. The 3 girls behaviour is unusual making them
seem quite peculiar which is outstanding of the horror
genre because it’s meant to take audiences from reality
(Blumler & Katz).