TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

AMERICAN HORROR STORY

OLD IMAGES USED DURING THE TITLE

American Horror Story uses a lot of old images of children during it’s opening credits. This adds a creepy factor to the opening credits. This is due to the fact that children are perceived as generally more creepy when used in a horror context, I believe this is due to the fact that they are supposed to be innocent.

The fact that they show some of the images burning in the fire gives you a hint that there will be quite a lot of destruction in the show.

Also, due to the condition of the images, you would presume that the show was set during the 1940s-1980s. The old forgotten pictures of the children give an eerily feel to the opening credits, which corresponds to the title ‘American Horror Story’.

The images are shown through fast cutaway camera shots which could make the viewer feel uneasy as there are so many images at once.

ANALYSIS OF THE IMAGES USED

TEXTS AND FONTS USING IN THE OPENING

CREDITS

American Horror Story created it’s own font especially for the show. After the actor/actresses name has appeared on the screen for the

desired amount of time, they used a transition that looks like an old film burning. They used this to resemble the fire that you see in the title scene that is burning all of the old baby pictures as seen in previous slides.

This transition gives a unnerving feeling to the viewer when it is paired with the music in the background.

They did this to make the viewer anticipate the upcoming episode, and exaggerating the word “Horror” in the series title.

ANALYSIS OF THE TEXT FONTS AND

TRANSITIONS USED

This music is deep and has an element of creepiness to it and it is also unpredictable.

The noises that you can hear during the opening title of American Horror Story is non-diagetic.

The sound is also frequent but it is played in different lengths, for example, in one part of the scene you might hear the noise once and then in another part if the scene you might hear it five or six times.

MUSIC USED IN THE OPENING SEQUENCE