Task 2.1: Analysing Opening Sequences - The Descent (Horror)

Media Evaluation

Horror Movie – The Descent

The opening of this movie shows an establishing shot. With the car being main focus. The forest surrounds the edges of the shot giving a creepy feel to the scene as it blocks some of the image, giving the audience anticipation. The credits are shown in the bottom left corner with clashing contrast which makes it easier for the audience to read. There is a gloomy atmosphere to the opening scene as the skies are grey and a lot of dark colours are used. There is rain on the roads which is pathetic fallacy of what will happen.

The next scene is an over the shoulder shot. Two female characters are in this scene. One older female, perhaps a mother talks to her daughter who appears to be asleep. We connote these characters to be damsels in distress in horror movies as this is a normal convention. We sympathise with the mother with having a younger actor, as we feel more protective over younger people than older.

The editing technique of shot-reverse-shot is used to show the conversation between a mother and daughter. The focus pull is set on the woman, while the male character drives the car. Again, also in editing is opening credits which appear in the corners of the screen. The woman has a crossed body action, gripping onto the chair like a shield away from her daughter. This could be seen as the mother protecting her child from what is about to happen, this is seen as foreshadowing the movie events.

This is a point of view shot, giving the audience a sense of being dropped into the scene. Here we see the vehicle swerving into the vehicle ahead. We as an audience already know what is happening before the actors which make us want to do something about the situation. This is used to create tension and involvement with the audience. It also makes the audience look away from the screen which horrors intend to make them do. It is positioned in the little girls POV which scares us more for the little girl being hurt.

Another POV shot is used from the little girl’s perspective. We see blood and gore which are average conventions for a horror movie. What makes this sequence more dramatic is the angle used. As an audience we see this is from the girls perspective so the little girl has witnessed this herself, making the audience pity her.

A birds-eye-view shot is used here to show the destruction and damage caused. The audience waits for the actors to get out the car but never do. This creates tension, commonly used in horror movies. Also, this is used to come away from one story to the next. This sets location and sometimes the scene for the following sequence. This scene fades out, used in horror movies also. It gives the image of something dying or someone closing their eyes, as the image fades. This is popular in conventional horrors to use fade out transitions in the editing stage of movie making. 

The editing here differs from Rom-Coms and Thrillers as the transitions are sharp and frequent and contrast against slow and paced. This is to allow the audience to build tension or suggest something bad is going to happen. Most horror movies edit a blue filter over the top of the shots to give a cold sort of affect to the movie and make it look surreal instead of bright and cheerful, just the way they use green filters for when making science based films for instance. This allows the audience to feel cold and uncomfortable when watching the film.