J.R. Horror Opening Analysis - The Woman in Black (2012)

Analyzing an Opening Sequence

The Woman in Black 

A young lawyer travels to a remote village where he discovers the vengeful ghost of a scorned woman is terrorizing the locals. 

Director:

 James Watkins

Writers:

 Susan Hill (novel), Jane Goldman (screenplay)

Stars:

 Daniel Radcliffe, Janet McTeer, Ciarán Hinds |See full cast and crew

(IMDb)

Genre

The film, 'The Woman in Black' is put into the category of being a Supernatural Horror/Psychological Thriller, both sub-genres of horror. Straight away in the opening of the film we are able to identify as an audience that this film fulfills its genre. The sinister setting that the three girls are located in creates an unnerving tension, in addition to the sound used in the background that portrays to us that their presence in the room ins unwelcome. Which implies that their is an element of supernatural activity happening in this film opening. At the end of the clip we see the figure of a female dressed in black, which connotes that she is the 'woman in black' to which the film is based upon or around. This supports the audience expectations of the film that she (The Woman in Black) will be the sinister, supernatural character in the film. However it still remains a mystery as the woman's facial features remain hidden which creates tension in the opening. Furthermore we see that the three girls have more camera time that the 'mysterious woman', which could challenges the audience expectations for the film meaning that they are the main characters that we are to focus on. 


Form and Style of Opening 

• The opening of this film has a very supernatural feel to it. The grey colour grading that occurs in the opening really gives us as an audience a sketchy feel to the film, which supports the residual ideology we have on ghosts (supernatural horror). 
• Foreboding is defiantly introduced to the audience in this opening, and the main contributor to that is the sound used. The dark sinister sound that is used to signify the presence of something that draws the attentions of the three girls, gives the audience apprehension to what will happen next in the clip. To support this the nursery rhyme themed song played lightly in the background also creates tension due to the sound slowly increasing as the opening continues. 
• Once again we are shown as an audience the significance of the 'unknown' character in the corner of the room due to the noise that draws the attention of all three girls in the opening. This gives the character more authority in the scene as we see all the other characters give them their attention almost automatically in response to the sound that conveys their presence in the scene.  
• In the opening the font is introduced to us among a cloudy mysterious background, this supports the supernatural element to the film. In addition to this we see various faded images appear in the background giving the audience more clues about what the plot of the film is about and why the opening has significance on the film. 
• Various production houses are mentioned in the opening credits, such as; 'Hammer Film/Exclusive Media Group, Alliance Films and The UKFC' all in which appear in text from the 'fog like' background. 

Film Language - Telling the Story 

Props are used as a visual signifier to the audience, for example the dolls and the china tea set show us the innocence naivety and vulnerability of the three girls in the scene. This supports a residual ideology in our society that young girls are weak and exposed to all types of threat. Furthermore costume also supports this idea showing that the girls are lacking wisdom as they are all dressed in little 'doll type dresses' which connotes that they are unprotected against the 'dark presence' in the room. Non-verbal language further reinforces the idea that supernatural figure has importance within the opening of the film. This is shown by the three girls faces when the A very significant camera angle is the one looking down on the three girls playing. This bird eye view or the POV (point of view) of the unknown character shows that they have superiority over the other characters due to the fact that the camera is angles down upon them showing they have less significance, supporting the idea that the unseen character is the antagonist in the film. Camera work in the clip is also very symmetrical throughout the clip, in my opinion i believe this shows the audience that the anonymous character has great power and even possibly beauty, as the symmetry may connote this. The camera has a various number of different sizes throughout this opening, some to signify the importance of an individual character and then others to set the scene, long shots shows the significance of the setting that the three girls are in, in the opening of the film. Another important shot in the scene is the close up shot of the little girl crushing the china cup, which implies that something bad is about to happen, fulling the audience with anticipation. 

Narrative     

The narrative in this extract is constructed around the three girls, because they are given shot prevalence in the scene. Therefore due to this the audience are then connected with his emotions and reactions. The three young girls that we are positioned with present a theme of vulnerability and weakness, supporting a dominant ideology that children are vulnerable. Tension through the scene is maintained by the sound used. This sound helps build the tension up to the climax at the end of the scene, the children's music in alliance with the dark depressing more sinister music being played maintains mystery in the scene which places the audience on the edges of their seats as they wait for the climax about to happen.

Ideology & Representation


The opening scene from Woman in black reinforces the stereotypes concerning young females, supporting a dominant ideology that young females are weak and vulnerable. This vulnerability is particularly highlighted in the birds eye shot of the three girls playing, showing that an unknown (who we don't see) has more power than them as the camera angle shows this through its height connoting that it has more dominance in the scene. The representation of the young girls used used through mise-en-scene, it shows the three girls playing with dolls and toys connoting that they are all young and naive, possibly even unaware of what to is about to come. 

Media Audiences 

The target audience for this film would most likely be the core audience of horror films, which range from 12 - 29 year old males. However due to the fact that the scene focuses on the little girls virtually anyone can relate to their own experiences as a child and relate it  back to this film. Therefore due to points like these i believe that the target audience is more 12 - 50 (both sex's), 12 due to the age rating and up to 50 as anyone past that age is generally information poor and will not have easy access to this media content.