The Conjuring Opening Scene Deconstruction

The Conjuring Opening Scene Deconstruction.

   I looked at the film "The Conjuring" which is a supernatural horror film, so we can get a feel of what the opening sequences of supernatural horror films are usually like.

  This is the first scene of the opening sequence.

  They start off with an extreme close up of something which is seemingly very gruesome, but the audience is not sure of what it is at the moment, but the camera slowly zooms out of this to reveal what it is. This technique creates a tension, and because it suddenly appears, it's designed to frighten the audiences.

  I think the way the doll was designed is also very creepy, because you can tell that it is old with all the dirt and scratch marks, and you can tell there is some imperfections in the eyeball of the doll, which makes it seem very malicious.

  They used a mid shot, to showcase the rest of the doll's body. The doll is dressed in very girly clothing, but very "olden times" gregorian clothing. I think they chose this outfit in the pre production, because to stick with the theme that the doll had to seem very old.
 Also they used lighting which was not too bright, so that it created a tense atmosphere, as they described their situation with a demon. They also chose not to put any non-diegetic sound into this scene, as it would destroy the tension created.

    The lighting in this scene is extremely minimal, with only very dim bottom lighting, which casts a lot of silhouettes on the face. This is effective, because it gives a sense of helplessness, because the visuals are extremely minimal so you do not know what it is that is lurking round the corner. It also makes the character seem more susceptible.

  This is a classic scene, where the demon starts to wreck havoc within the household. Here they scratched the faces of the two characters which are being haunted. We could use this in our piece, as it is seemingly easy to do.
  The suspense is starting to build up in this scene with the help of clashing chords on the piano, which gets louder as the scene reaches it climax.

Overall, I think it is more effective for a supernatural horror film, to first open up with a short case of supernatural hauntings, just to introduce it to the audience. This would mean that we don't exactly have to think of the entire plot for the entire film first, we just need to come up with something short to fit into our 2 minute slot.