By Samah Raja

Analysis of Horror Film Opening Sequences

Psycho – created by Saul Bass

Print Credits- The opening title of the film is seen to be big and bold, and white, which creates emphasis around the it, making the title stand out. The title and text also appears to be cut up before whole words join together. This creates a sense of distortion and confusion, which could be a representation of the mind of a psychopath (liking to the title “Psycho”).

Music/Sound- from the very beginning and throughout the music used is extremely high-pitch, intense, and dramatic. It creates a frightening atmosphere and builds up tension and fear within the audience because it sounds so aggressive and threatening.

Cut up text before and after it joins together to create the opening title.

Dawn of The DeadPrint Styles- The title itself appears to be bold and red which is a connotation of blood. Blood is a typical feature horror films are associated with. The opening displays the credits and text on the screen as big, bold, red, and the way the text transitions off the screen resembles trickling blood or how disease is spreading. This may represent the infection of the flesh eating virus spreading globally.

Film Title

Opening text trickling away representing blood.

Action- The beginning displays splice cuts of crowds of people praying in foreign countries and images of bloody zombies, which is a representation of the disease spreading globally. Using the images of zombies within the very beginning was effective because it highlighted that the genre of the film was a horror straight away, as zombies are associated with the horror genre.

There are images and videos of the chaos occurring within cities, news reports of the killings by the zombies, and images of virus cells multiplying. This emphasises of the severity of the outbreak and the effects it is having on the world.

Virus Cells Multiplying

News Reports

Cultural representation of the spread of disease.

Chaos and destruction as an outcome.

Music/Sound- In the very beginning there is dialogue and sound of a news report trying to explain and comprehend the situation but failing to answer many of the questions asked by the press. This is effective because it creates a build up in tension as the audience would not know what to expect.

The background music used subverts to what a typical horror film would use because when first heard it sounds very country, up-beat and happy. Although, when listening to the actual lyrics of the song properly, it represents a much darker meaning and creates a more evil tone to the opening. This is effective because it would cause the audience to feel discomfort as they manipulated something that originally sounded “jolly” and turned in into something much more sinister.

News report with press asking questions within the beginning.

Alien 3Print Styles- The text within the opening is curvy and bold with a futuristic style, which helps the audience to identify that the film leans more towards a sci-fi horror mix. The text of the title is spaced out and is a washed-out white colour, which again gives a futuristic, cold, and saturated look to it.

Music/Sound-There are supernatural whistling noises in some scenes, which further helps the audience to identify this film as a sci-fi horror. Several times we can hear sounds of an eerie horn playing throughout the opening. The sound is played very irregularly and is slow pace, which creates effect because it would cause discomfort for the audience and build tension as they don’t know when it will play again and again.

Film Title

Action- The opening displays a shot of a huge futuristic spaceship, which identifies to the audience that this is a sci-fi film. However, as the scenes go on, this concept slightly changes as we then see disturbing images of a terrifying beast which in the film is known to be an alien. This suggests to the audience that this film is a mix of horror and sci-fi. There is also a scene with a sheet turning red from blood stains, which conforms to the horror genre as blood is always associated with horror.

Fresh Blood Stain

Long Hand/Claws of Alien

Futuristic Spaceships

Evil DeadPrint Styles- The title and text are bold and red which automatically highlights the genre of this film to be horror. The title further seems to have shadows within it, which appear as cracks but also looks like creepy tree branches (both perceptions of the image creates effect because it further connotes the horror genre). Blood pouring and covering the text could suggest to the audience hoe this film ill contain gore, violence and death.

Music/Sound- The background music is extremely loud and dramatized, which creates a tense atmosphere as the audience watches from the start. The music further starts to starts to slowly accelerate in pace, which is effective because this builds up the fear and tension inside the audience. Then all of a sudden the loud dramatic music comes to an end out of nowhere, which leaves the audience on the edge of their seats as they wouldn’t know what to expect next.Film Opening Title

Action- In the opening the beginning scenes are very graphic and disturbing as it displays an innocent looking girl pleading her father not to kill her as she is tied up. This creates a sense of sympathy for the girl for the audience as she appears helpless and scared. As the father is about to burn her, the girl then turns out to be processed by a demon and starts to act crazy as her father sets her alight, then shoots her dead. This is effective because it is a twist and creates a shock factor as the audience would not have expected her to be evil. This whole scene displays images of darkness, blood, pain, witchcraft, and filth, which all conform to the genre horror as it sets the scene and devises a frightening atmosphere.

Images of the ‘Innocent’ girl turning into a demonic being.