Director: Brian De Palma
Genre: Horror
The first character whom we see is a little girl, who in which is portrayed as cute and innocent. Similar to the other two opening sequences i have anaylised, she is young and blonde. The first diegetic sound we hear is the little girl singing which portrays her innocence and youth. As she is the main focus so far, and she is conveyed as cute, by herself and innocent, the audience instantly will guess something bad will happen to her shortly, as this is a typical horror convention. The killer (in this film being the clown) is introduced almost striaght away, this isn't always the case as the killers in most horror films are kept unknown for a while, however within this opening sequence the killer is soon revealed.
Once the titles are over, the music begins. The start is shown with pictures of past events in photo frames, these could be significant characters within the film or various past events, lots of enigma codes are thought of. The music which is played is slow and creepy, which is therefore typical of a horror film. A diegetic sound in which we hear is a childs laugh, the laugh comes across as un easy therefore puts you on the edge of your seat making you wonder what is going to happen. Whlist you can hear the child's laugh, the clowns laugh then get's mixed within the child's laugh, this signifies something bad will happen with the child and the clown, as they have been drawn together from the start. Soon is revealed and the clown murders the little girl, as expected, once this has happened there is a non- diegetic sound of slow music, the music instantly makes you feel smpathy towards the mother as she has just lost her little girl. As a typical horror convention there is use of a telephone phonecall, the person who is on the line is unknown with a distictive voice. Finally, to finish this scene there is a diegetic sound of somebody playing the piano, this creating a creepy uncomfortable atmosphere.
The enigma codes which soon arise within this opening sequence consist of, what are the pictures to do with at the start during the titles? why did the clown murder the little girl? and what happened to the little boy Georgie?
These enigma codes make you want to carry on watching the film to find out the answers later on.
The sheets which are in the washing line where the clown is, create a tense atmosphere as they are blowing in the wind and the little girl is not knowing what she is looking for/at. But surprisingly, the little girl does not look scared when she see's the clowns face, but intriged and happy. This makes you feel sorry for the little girl as she is obviously not knowing she is in danger, it almost makes you wish you could tell her and warn her! which again is a typical horror convention.
There is constant edits from the little girls face to the clowns face, which is seen as a clear edit. The continuous cuts throughout illistate the status of the clown and that he is seen as the bad scary character. There is the use of a cross- dissolve of when the man is reminded about the event with his son Georgie which is then followed with the women playing the piano. The piano almost signfies the emotion he is feeling, portraying the sadness. The use of the fade out which contines onto the next scene once the clown has killed the little girl, has a heart warming effect of upset for the mother to come out and find her daughter missing.
The use of the low angle shot portrays power within that shot, you are looking up to a character who therefore has alot of power over you, this is the connotation for this shot. This shot has been used to present the clown, instatly this proves the amount of power the clown has over Lorraine. The zoom in of a close up of her face shows her emotion, as i mentioned she looks happy to see the clown, this conveys her lack of knowledge as she is obviously very young, therefore doesn't see danger upon her like we do. The location is shown through the use of an extreme long shot of Lorraine riding her bike, this enables the audience to see the mise-en-scence and how alone she looks, portraying something bad will be coming her way. The opening sequence is located within a neighbourhood, despite the extreme bad weather the setting comes across more friendly than average horror films.
The use of the match-on-action shot creates a tense and suspence atmosphere, it keeps you alert. There are cuts of close ups of both the little girls face and the clowns face, to show the emotion of both of them as in this moment in time both of the characters are equally important. When the clown approachers the little girl, through the use of a point of view shot, this instantly makes you feel sorry for the little girl as she is helpless and not aware of the danger she is in, as at this point we know the clown means harm.
The iconography is important within this opening sequence, the old pictures in black and white at the beginning illistrate bad events will occur within this film, as the atmosphere is kept tense from the start. The little girl singing alone keeps the suspence atmosphere as it comes across as creepy as there are no other sounds. The killer being the clown, has an extremely distict look about him which is kept obvious throghout. The bad weather within the opening sequence with the stuck of lightning is a typical horror convention of extreme bad weather.
The props and costumes within the opening sequence play a major role, as the props such as the distinctive pictures at the start and the little girls bike are used as kay materials. The use of the little girls toy portrays her age and her innocence. Also, the clowns obscure costume is extremely different and disticant therefore he will be an obvious character who stands out.
The titles at the start stand out immdiatly, the expected black and white background (most horror films undertake these colours) go together well, the word "IT" is the followed with massive red writing, this also being a typical horror convention as red signifies blood and danger.
The actors names are shown whlist the pictures at the start are also presented on the screen, just as the titles are ending, there is an extreme transistion from an old photo, into a different photo which then becomes real life. This is a different and unique way of starting the film, creating tension.
I think the intended target audience are people of the age 18+ as so far the film comes across as uncomfortable and disturbing. Both genders could be intrested in this film, however i think it is more aimed at men as women generally will feel more sensistive about the children dieing.
Below is the opening sequence:
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