Director: Christopher Smith
Genre: Horror
When the characters are first introduced the mother is crying, her vulreability is soon revealed, she has blonde hair and looks fairly young , this being a typical convention of a horror film. Sympathy is soon felt towards the little boy and the mother as we see her crying and the expression on the little boys face, as an audience we are unaware as to why she is crying. The mother is shown alone with her son, portraying her weakness in not having a strong man to keep her safe, this being another typical convention as she is known as alone with a son, therefore very vunerable. The fact that she is rocking her son back and forth portrays the comfort she is trying to give him, she is trying to reasure him that everything will be alright. As an audience at this point we are still unaware as to what is going on, therefore enigma codes are soon raised.
The enigma codes which are soon raised consist of, what was the little boy's dream? and does that have anything to do with her dream later on? Why is she crying at the very start? Who rang her doorbell? Why does she apologise to the man when she see's him? these enigma codes keep you wanting to watch more and find out the answers.
The sound throughout the opening sequence is soft and quite, this makes it slightly creepy. Once is begins, you can hear seagulls which illistrates the film will be based around the sea possibly, the fact that while these noises are ongoing the screen is kept black with titles coming up, this portrays the importance of the noises as they want the audience to pay attention to them. Slow diegetic music is then played which is carried on for a while, this creates an on edge atmosphere as it is creepy and slow. The music then increases an upbeat tempo with demonstrates the opening sequence developing and the story unfolding. A diegetic sound consisting of the lawn mower shows that there are other people around her and at this moment, she is not alone. As well as this, we can hear her breathing heavy which is another diegetic sound the effect this has is that the audience is cleary meant to hear this, therefore you associate her heavy breathing with worry, shock or fear. The music then progresses to become more like music you come across in a horror film.
Once we have met the mother and the son and the events of somebody knocking on the door and the paint on the floor are over, it then cuts to a different day introducing new people. This portrays these people are important as they are shown early on. Whilst the camera is moving along their street, it is seen as looking from somebodys point of view, whom we are unaware who at this point. Whilt this is obvious with somebody knocking on the door who then disappears, you then become to imagine that somebody (who we are not suppossed to know yet) is there. The camera movement is constantly slow, there are a number of different cuts to different things. The effect this has on the audience is that they are left not knowing the true picture as of yet, as different cuts are constantly changing. There is a close up of one of her son's toys, this portrays it has some kind of unknown signifacance. At the start when the mother and son are hugging, there is a close up and almost over the shoulder shot of both the mothers and her sons face, therefore you can see the emotion of both of them. After the slow camera movements, there is soon a fast zoom in of the mother when she comes to the door, this creates servere tension as the audience are wondering who is there, and so is the mother. The camera then pans round from the back of her head to the side of her face, which is then a long shot of the garden. This enables the audience to see beyond the mothers vision, this being a typical horror convention, letting the audience witness something the characters cannot.
The iconography is based around the expected characters (a women alone with her son) and the ironic suspeicious music. There is natural light throughout the opening sequence, therefore the expected dark atmosphere is not always portrayed within this opening sequence.
The location seems preety friendly, which is not expected of a horror film, as there is no big house in the middle if no-where, this location almost seems nice. The mise- en- scene throughout is kept fairly to the point and basic, but then develops when they leave for departure on their boat. The suspiciousness of the paint being on the floor, leads to engima codes as the audience are clearly unaware of the reasons behide this. The atmosphere almost always seems on edge and arkward, the mother looks constantly tired, stressed and worried. This creates questions for the audience as you want to know why this is the case, the main reason why the mother is acting in this way.
The titles within the opening sequence are kept running for quite a while, the white writing against the black background stands out therefore is easily understood. The black and white colours signify dullness and possible danger. When the title of the film comes onto the screen it has three different effects coming of it, emphasisng the title. The title is then faded into the centre with block capitals, keeping it simple and bold.
As the opening sequence doesn't give away too much, and is fairly suitable for younger ages. I would say the intended audience is for 15+ being both genders, however partically women as it seems like the film is based around them, as the main character is female.
Below is the opening sequence:
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