Horror Openings

The Mummy

Released- 1990
Production Company- Universal Studios
Release Company- Universal Studios
Director- Stephan Sommers

From analyzing ‘The Mummy’s’ opening two minutes I found that the producers and editors have worked together to give the film an interesting opening. With a mixture of mise en scene and editing, and including the camera angles we get a clear understanding of where the film is set and what is happening at the time. The use of props of pyramids, pharaoh statues and the Tutankhamen statue along with people slaving away in the background, gives the audience an impression of being in the country of Egypt and in the deserts of Egypt. A technique that has been used to add to this would be the use of camera angles as the camera has panned across the top and panned down to show what is happening.

We also see with the use of editing and sound that slaves are working away as the sun is rising or setting. As the genre of the film is horror we presume that the sun is setting and going into the night time period. The audience will also notice that the main colours used for costume are gold and blue, which suit the props of statues inside and out. Another impression the film gives to be included within the horror genre is the non diegetic music used when a character is entering a scene. We see that the production of this film has used lots of mid shots and close ups. The reasons for this are to show the emotions and intensity of the happenings in the film.


Sickle
Released- 2007
Production company- Boulevard Entertainment
Release company- Boulevard Entertainment
Director- Paul Gagne



After analyzing the opening two minutes of the film ‘Sickle’ we see that there is not a great deal of happening in this film bar seduction. The opening fades in and we see an old grimy building. This is used through a panning down shot as we follow the building and towards the 4x4 Landover. We hear the noise of the insect a cricket and also hear thunder, both of these have been edited louder to emphasise the eeriness of the situation. The producers have used many mid and close ups to show emotions in the characters faces and into what they are doing. The characters in the scene are apparent to be kissing, and we notice that the sound of this has been edited out.

Once again this can be related to the matter of emptiness and the fact that there is no one around except the two characters shown. We then see the characters brake apart and the scene becomes very sexual and seductive. We see a series of close ups and hear stumbled speech, and the male character feeling breathless as to what he is seeing. Throughout this scene we see that they have stuck to the 180 degree rule to make the editing look professional and contribute for the film to flow and be continuous with the audience seeing both of the characters expressions and reactions.


more to come......