Mise-en-scene opening analysis

The start is a long length of take, which is slow and at first there’s few movement, but then there’s progressive ones from the children who seek to be untied. The use of the forest setting directly links to the horror genre and besides, the consistent use of nature and vegetation enhances the lack of life there in the location/area connoting danger and being representative of the unknown, linking to the moving in.Hung children connotes danger and vulnerability and their slow and torturous hang from a tree death further connotes evilness. This is also an enigma code yet not solved, leaving the audience in a cliff-hanger and is very effective as it directly hooks them and sets off tension from the very start.

 

The title's use of typography and effects is very effective as it’s sprawled across in small, messy white handwriting which has been edited over the clip. The scratched messy handwriting is a convention of horror films as films in this genre have the same style title. This convention has connotations of children as the handwriting is messy, indicating the fact that children are going to be involved in the opening scene.

In terms of the young female child's analysis: The pink room connotes vulnerability and is also sterotypically feminine and cute, which is contrasted by the desaturated colour palette of the pink and the fact the girl is painting on it with cold colours like brown, creating an eerie atmosphere and foreshadowing this girl being a suitable target, as seen in the flashback to the other children hanged from the tree. Dress costume connoting vulnerability and femininity. these younger and vulnerable charceter's are dominant ideologies society has and the horror genre commonly uses these female and weak figures as targets and chooses them to act as the princesses (propps theory) which are chased or tortured by the villain. There is some old furniture, creating a sense of disequilibrium because it might be argued it’s representative of souls which have been there and might symbolize their omniscience presence, adding even more tension. The house moving in and typical house setting, which is conventional in horror and the supernatural and therefore directly positions the audience maybe as a family member also through the use of tracking, making the audience experience first hand. The use of low key lighting in the empty rooms enhances that death theme and the lack of life there is. Sheriff characters used from the very start of the film, which symbolise guard and safety, however, this is juxtaposed by the hanging of the trees and the flashback to these crimes from the past, highlighting the disruption. A desaturated colour palette is used which sets the tension directly from the start and might be a symbolism for the lack of life or vividity there is in that house/village. Props such as boxes and paintings and the fact they are moving in is representative of the unknown. Besides, in horror is important to point out wat is and isn't there. The use of emptiness and space also leves us to feel an eerie atmosphere and leaves space for the supernatural maybe. Besides, as an audinece, we aren't exposed to another family or a welcoming, there is only an inclusion of the sheriffs and the family moving in this opening. Finally, the link back to the intro of the tree hanging dead children creates a flashback, leaving the auidnece hooked.