'The Others' opening scene analysis

Analysis of "The Others" opening scene

Introduction

I will be analyzing the opening title sequence of 'The Others'. The reason why I am analyzing this opening title sequence is because I will be creating an opening title sequence for my AS coursework of the same genre, which is horror/thriller and sub genre supernatural. 

Narrative Enigma

The opening scene shows various images, trying to show a storyboard of the film and what is to be expected. All these images also have a flickering effect on them, like a flickering candle. This gives a kind of scary feeling and ads to the audience’s adrenaline and makes them aware of how scary the film will be. So basically narrative enigma is created through the use of all the images (storyboard), which makes the audience want to find out what is going to happen next. There is no dialogue used, as it makes the audience imagine what is going to happen next.

Genre

The genre is Supernatural, which firstly tells us that the movie could contain things such as ghosts, spirits, witchcraft, the devil or other scary things related. The images used when the opening credits come up, include no dialogue, which leaves the storyline up to the audience. The images also show that the film is of a supernatural genre, as the images are of shadows of a body, which could be a ghost. These images make the audience aware that the house is haunted by something such as ghosts. There is also a age restriction (15) on the front cover, which also tells us this movie is not for younger viewers. This also gives a sense or horror.

Music

The music has a scary sounding tune to it, which makes the audience aware that it is a scary movie of some kind. The music sounds like a children’s lullaby at the beginning, which makes the audience aware of the importance of the children characters in this movie. Lullaby’s are normally supposed to give a relaxing sense, whereas in this case they don’t, they give a scary effect. Also relating to horror movies, in many horror movies the main characters are children, as they can make the film scarier in a way, such as the child being a demon or being possessed, etc. Further into the opening credits, we hear different types of musical instruments, which also give off a scary effect and could show that things might be going wrong in this haunted house. At the end of the opening credits we hear a piano, as this is used to create another scary feeling for the audience and make them uncomfortable some how. Pianos are used in many thriller, horror and drama movies.

Typography

The typography doesn’t really stand out in the opening credits as it is in plain white and in a normal font. This is maybe because the images are more important than the font. It also shows that the movie is not really gory in a way, otherwise the writing would be in red and bold and would really stand out to the audience.

Mise En Scene

Camera shots & Angles

There weren’t any camera shots or angles used. The opening credits were all done on computer, although there was an effect where the images where zoomed onto and out again to show details of that image and what it is trying to convey.

Lighting

The lighting used is low-key lighting, as this gives off a scary and thrilling effect. Most horror movies contain low-key lighting to make the film more intense and make the audience’s hearts beat faster. If the lighting were high-key, it wouldn’t be as scary. 

Setting

The setting of the opening scene is of a book, like a story. There are different images to show what the film is about. It’s almost like a myth of some kind, like a scary fairy-tale. The images of the storyboard are also hand drawn, which could show the importance of these images. Many of the images contain children, which tells us this film could be like a nightmare for a child, or the main focus of the plot is on children and their fears.

Props

There weren’t really any props used in the opening credits, mostly just hand drawn images, which were enough to show what the film was about and what is to be expected. There was editing used, where the images where zoomed onto and out again, this could show us more important details about the image, trying to tell us something in better detail.