Opening Sequence To Horror Movie

SYNOPSIS:

The opening sequence is a 4 minutes extract of the actual horror movie, it has to have the codes and conventions of horror movie as well as titles suitably done and we get marked according to variety of shot usage and choosing right props and location.

Narrative

Firstly we thought of the narrative within the slasher sub-genre and we came up with this idea:

A girl walks into a lift, presses the 4th floor button(Over the shoulder shot), while she is on the line with her boyfriend talking about a part. 

Her phone goes dead and she is trying to reach him while lights of the lift goes on and off. A little bit frightened and anxious, she finally reaches 4th floor and makes her way to her flat through the dark corridor. She tries to put the keys into the lock with her hands a bit shaky.

After struggling for a short time, she gets into her flat, and goes to her boudoir, where she checks herself up in the mirror. 

The camera zooms-in on a photo of her and another girl, the music goes a bit scary and suspicious. 

She grabs her comb, look in the mirror and brushes her hair. Her comb in a quick shot turns into a knife as if she is brushing her hair with a knife, a short shocking piece of music will be used for this part.

She then makes her way to the sitting room which is decorated for the Valentine party. The flat is dark and she feels a bit cold, putting on a jumper, she lights a cigarette and walks into the balcony with the dark view of the outside (it's night time). She looks worried and stressed, but we do not know why.

Her phone rings. Her friend is on the line and asks her to go to the lift to help her with her shoppings. She dumps her cigarette, and walks toward the exit door, leaves it open and goes to the lift. 

The lift is now reached the 4th floor, doors are opening and her friend is laid in bloods, with a writing on the mirrors of the lift which says happy Valentine. The girl screams as she sees her reflection in the bloody scripted mirror.

Similar Texts

As we came up with a rough idea of what we wanted to do, we started our investigations through slasher movies and note their use of codes and conventions.


The movies we looked at was "Scream" and "My Bloody Valentine". They are both slasher films which well link with our ideas.


"Scream", is an American slasher movie came out on 1996 and is about a Ghost-face serial killer, who kills a group of school friends. Ghost-face's identity does not reveal until the end of the movie when it becomes clear that the killer is Billy who is Sidney's boyfriend. Sidney is the survivor, whose mother is being murdered a year ago. Billy reveals his revengeful murder of Sidney's mother who has been on a relationship with Billy's father which has torn apart his family. 

Here is the Scream opening scene:

Analysis of Scream opening scene:
After the institution's name, The first thing that appears in the middle of the screen is "Scream", the film's title in white, follows by a phone ring, slash of a knife and a scream. The film's tittle then quickly dissolves into red and fades away. 




In the second shot, the phone is ringing and a creepy male voice is on the line with the blond Drew Barrymore who looks childish and naive, which are the victims characteristics in most horror movies.

Then the camera is moving around her showing the window and the dark outside. Follows by that is an establishing shot, shows her location in a nice countryside villa house; what makes it harder to seek rescue especially at night time. These all give the audience a sense of danger especially with the swing moving outside the house they suspect some one is outside, watching the girl inside the house.


Taking us back inside the house, the girl is cooking a popcorn when the phone rings again. Here fire connotes danger, and popcorn shows her childishness and therefore her weakness and vulnerability. With the phone ringing audience feel the stalker still being around. 


Then they talk about scary movies when Drew Barrymore takes out a knife which makes an slashing sound with lights shining on it. This is another way that Wes Craven has used to inform audience about the danger threatening the character.


Drew's favourite scary movie is Halloween which is also an slasher movie just like the film itself. And in Halloween the killer wears a mask which is another similarity with Scream. The film is providing us with information about the film by pointing out how the stalkers or killers possibly look like and what their intentions can be. And then the guy on the phone mention another horror movie of the same sub-genre "Nightmare On Elm Street". They talk about Freddy Krueger and his knives fingers, and the guy on the phone says how he loves the film. 





The camera is following her to the lounge(Tracking shot), where she can see the dark outside. It gives us a feeling that something is going to happen there. The stalker then says that he wants to know her name so that he knows who he is watching. The film pauses here for a second and Drew starts fearing some one is either in or outside the house. She tries to secure herself by making sure the doors are locked and she hangs up the phone. 

He calls back again and again, but this time violent. He is threatening her not to hung up and listen to him, at the same time the popcorn is burning and smoking. He says he is playing a game which is bloody!


She runs to the back doors making sure of them being locked. She is frightened and attempting to call the police.



The house is in darkness with her startles when the doorbell rings. She cries and warns him that her boyfriend is big and plays football and will be here any second! Then the stalker tells her to look in the patio where her boyfriend is being strapped. He then plays a game and asks her to name the killers of the "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th". She loses the game and the killer stabs the boyfriend in the patio from back.