Opening Analysis: 'The women in black'

The woman in black opening analysis:

The women in black opens with eerie and unsettling non-diegetic sound combined with a close-up shot of a children’s tea party. This highlights to the audience that the film is part of the horror genre. The scene creates several enigma codes for the audience as the music creates a sinister atmosphere whereby the viewers suspect something dramatic and unsettling is going to happen at the tea party.

The mise en scene includes a playful innocent image of three girls having a tea party, which turns into something creepy, and conventional of horror films, as they approach the three windows at the end of the room. The audience follows the girls through a tracking shot. This further creates an enigma, as the audience wants to know what the girls are looking at and doing. Match-on-action is used to show that the girls open the window, this creates tension and suspense as it is highlighted as a significant action.

The three girls jump out of the window and shockingly die, this is conventional of horror films and could be classed as a cliché. This is followed by a medium shot of the bedroom, creating an eerie and unsettling scene. The sequence is silent except for the non-diegetic horror score that drives the scene, until we hear the off-screen sound of the mother screaming, as they cut to a startlingly quick close-up shot of a creepy looking doll.