Film Opening Deconstruction - Insidious

Film Opening:

Synopsis:

The film starts with an eerie old woman seen inside a house while the residents are sleeping. The parents, Renai and Josh Lambert, with their three children have lately moved into a new home. An unexpected event starts to happen in the attic. One of the children, Dalton, enters the attic to go investigate after hearing sounds. He tries to turn on the light but climbing the ladder but falls as the ladder cracks. He then gets put to bed and doesn’t awaken from his sleep the next morning. Rushed to hospital, his parents are told that he is in coma. He is moved back home still in his coma 3 months later but then disturbing events starts to occur. There are voices on the baby monitor, described as shouting voices and bloody hand prints on beds along with a man in their youngest daughter’s bedroom. Their other son, Foster, says he does not like it when Dalton ‘walks around’ in the night which terrifies Renai even more as she begs Josh that they move to another house. That night, she was then assaulted by the strange man.

Even though they have moved to a new house, supernatural events continue to happen. Strange, dancing boys and a red faced figure who seems to want Dalton. This figure then attacks Dalton violently in the middle of the night which prompts Renai to contact a friend, Elise, who works in investigating paranormal activity. Elise then goes into Dalton’s room with her team and describes a figure to them, the same figure that Renai had seen.

It was told that Dalton has the ability to astral project while sleeping and he has gone too far in a different spiritual world called ‘The Further’, a place for the tormented souls of the dead. The demon in his land wants to use him for a malicious reason but for a spirit to consume a body, a period of time and energy are essential. Josh then sees pictures of the demon as he discovers Dalton has been drawing the demonic figure described. They run a session to communicate with their son but the demon appears and uses Dalton’s body to fight with the group. After this session, Elise reveals that Josh can also astral project and was terrorised by an evil spirit during his childhood. There were pictures to prove this as when Josh was younger, in the background of the pictures there was the same old woman and the more photos taken of Josh, the closer the figure would get. This is why Josh hates himself being photographed and the suggestion of Josh using his ability to find and help return Dalton’s soul is agreed to.

To start the astral project to find his son, Josh is sat in a chair and placed in a trance. He is then awoken seeing his own self asleep in the chair as well as the others surrounding him. He goes out to find Dalton and enters a house. He makes his way to the attic (demons lair) where the strange man Renai saw had attacked him. Once defeating him, he enters the red door.

Inside the door is the spiritual world, ‘The Further’. Josh discovers his son sobbing, chained to the floor. He frees his son but the demon senses Josh’s presence and attacks them. As they are searching for their physical bodies, Josh and Dalton flee the demons lair while he is chasing them. Just before they awaken, Josh goes to confront the old woman and shouts for her to get away from him while screaming he isn’t afraid of her. She then retreats into the darkness and as they both awaken, the spirits vanish.

The family are then happily reunited but Elise senses something wrong with Josh and takes a picture. He quickly goes on a range and screams and her knowing he doesn’t like to be photographed while leaping on her and strangling her to death. As Renai hears Josh yelling, she goes into the room to find Elise dead and looks at the picture taken of Josh. She again, sees the old woman and it is revealed that the old woman had possessed Josh. Josh then places a hand on Renai’s shoulder and says, “Renai, I’m right here” and horror is plastered on her face as she looks behind her. It then ends with the creepy old woman blowing out a candle as the screen fades into darkness.

LINK: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1591095/synopsis

Production:

Blumhouse Production

''Blumhouse Productions is an American film and television production company, founded by Jason Blum. Blumhouse produces micro and low-budget horror movies, such as the Paranormal Activity, Insidious, The Purge, Sinister and Ouija franchises. In 2014, Blumhouse produced the Academy Award–nominated drama film Whiplash, for which Blum was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture''.

Productions Include:

Griffin & Phoenix (2006), Directed by Ed Stone, Gross - $1.4 million

The Darwin Awards (2007), Directed by Finn Taylor, Gross - $309,408

The Reader (2008), Directed by Stephen Daldry, Gross - $108.9 million

Paranormal Activity (2009), Directed by Oren Peli, Gross - $193.4 million

The Accidental Husband (2009), Directed by Griffin Dunne, Gross - $22.7 million

Paranormal Activity 2 (2010), Directed by Oren Peli, Gross - $177.5 million

Tooth Fairy (2010), Directed by Michael Lembeck, Gross - $112.5 million

Insidious (2011), Directed by James Wan, Gross - $97 million

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011), Directed by Oren Peli, Gross - $207 million

Lawless (2012), Directed by John Hillcoat, Gross - $53.7 million

Paranormal Activity 4 (2012), Directed by Oren Peli, Gross - $142.8 million

LINK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blumhouse_Productions

Distribution:

Film District

Film District is a leading independent distribution, acquisition, co-production and feature film financing entity, designed to bring commercially viable films to targeted audiences across the United States.  The Company focuses its efforts on wide release films from prominent filmmakers with notable casts. Film District, run by CEO Peter Schlessel, houses a top tier leadership team possessing a rich background in both independent and major studio distribution platforms.  This breadth of experience offers filmmakers and producers a well versed comprehensive viewpoint on how best to market and distribute each individual film.  The company’s independent ownership structure allows Film District to be innovative and agile in today’s ever-evolving and competitive marketplace.

Founded in September 2010 by Schlessel and GK Film's Graham King and Tim Headington, Film District plans to distribute an average of six to eight films per year.  Operating independently from GK Films, Film District maintains a distribution relationship with Sony for the various home entertainment platforms as well as free television.  The company also enjoys an agreement with Netflix to distribute its films in the pay television window.  Filmmakers and producers have found that partnering with Film District allows them a high level of creative freedom while at the same time being provided with first-class marketing and distribution to maximize the potential of each film.

LINK: http://www.filmdistrict.com/about

Analysis

Timeline

• 0:00 - 0:10 - As you can see, the opening begins with a black screen for the course of 2 seconds and then a beige coloured, glowing circle rises from the bottom with the director’s name on it, 'James Wan'. On the whole screen, it says, 'A James Wan Film'. The whole background is black including the directors name in the circle but the words, 'A' and 'Film' are a neutral colour so it stands out. Eerie music is playing and it starts of as quite high pitched and constant. When the credits appear, the music starts to 'layer-up' and more tunes come in.

• 0:11 - 0:25 - The music then starts to play a bit more softly but disturbing. the circle on the screen then starts to do a 360 degree turn and at 18 seconds, the writing slowly faded out. The camera was also moving with it and props then started to show in the background and it wasn't a fully black screen anymore.
• 0:26 - 0:45 - At this point, the camera then started to move down into a little boy's bedroom, He was in bed and as soon as he started to come into the shot, the music got very 'echo-y' and sinister. When he fully came into the shot, the music went back to normal like how it was in the beginning. It then started to move to the right into a different room and a bright blue lava lamp was shown 45 seconds in.
• 0:46 - 0:50 - It then turns to complete darkness for about 2 seconds and just as it was about to go into the next room, a curtain and what looks like an old fashioned object was shown. The music got a bit quieter but more 'metal-like' as it sounded like metal was being hit against something. The light is hardly there in this scene but when the props are shown, there's some dark blue light that comes in for a short time.
• 0:51 - 1:00 - The camera then quickly starts to move into the next room and from there they show an establishing shot of the room which looks like there are statues in there and old-fashioned things. The room is mostly dark except from one bright light hanging on the wall. The camera then turns right into another room which is full of darkness. The music starts getting very high pitched and rapid, sounding like a squeaky violin.
• 1:01 - 1:10 - In this shot, as the camera is turning, only a few props can be seen but not very clearly. Things like small objects or the outline of couches are shown. It then turns to a lit candle most likely on a table with a face above it. For the first few seconds, the face isn't shown very clearly but then the camera zooms in on the face quite quickly and stops with a close up of the face for about 1 second until it fades into the darkness. The music stays constant during these seconds and when the face fades, the music quickly fades out and silences. Here, you can tell that this opening scene was shot in a point of view shot.
• 1:11 - 1:19 - At the first couple of seconds of this shot, there is complete silence and a black screen which could easily trick the viewers into thinking the opening scene has ended. All of a sudden, the music starts of loudly again like a bunch of string violins playing as the title, 'Insidious' comes up onto the screen in devil like, red writing. There is black lighting flashing onto the red writing as the camera zooms into the title. It then stops suddenly with no music again and a clear black screen as the title immediately disappeared. 

Setting

Grey knowingly connotes to being dull, moody and emotionless but also can be known for sophistication. It also symbolises loss or depression which links to the storyline. The setting can trick you easily as it looks like any other ‘normal’ house and in the daylight, it doesn’t look scary at all because it wouldn’t be dark.  The lighting in the setting overall is quite dim and only one light is used which is the porch light. The light shines down onto the door which could symbolise a summoning so it’s like the lighting is guiding you to go in the house. The white shadow in the left hand corner may show the viewers that it may look like your average house but it’s not all it seems.

Costume

The main three colours in this picture that can be shown is black, grey and pale white. The colour black symbolises more ‘dark’ meanings than it does ‘cheerful’ meanings. It comes across as quite negatively seeing as it’s linked to many horrible things, like the black death. The shadowed grey in the picture is more of a lighter black and is shown as that colour because of the lighting. It looks as if she is wearing red make-up and the colour red symbolises danger and anger which is what the character may be feeling.

Motifs/Reoccurring Imagery

                       

                        

The parents of the boy possessed is shown a lot in the film and they are one of the main characters. Throughout the film, they are trying to come up with ways to help their child whilst also trying to survive themselves. Their facial expressions tell us, the viewers, a lot about how they're feeling in particular scenes and you can tell that the mother, in particular looks scared whilst the father is determined to get his son back.

Effective Shots

Point of View shots are effective as the audience can then see everything from the character’s eyes and they could imagine they were in that situation which makes the movie scarier. The end when she blows out the candle is also effective because then it turned to a black screen for longer than most people would imagine so they didn't expect the booming noise to then appear. Fire symbolises spirits and danger which connects with the storyline. Red is a colour of blood and danger and yellow and orange and yellow could associate with determination which could link to the enemy (the demon) as they are determined to harm them.

Transitions/Camera Movements

All of the opening scene is effective as it was all filmed in one shot. It's effective because at each moment the camera turns, the audience may be expecting something to pop out but nothing does. The whole shot has an eerie feel to it and it smoothly moves in sync with the music up until a face is seen at the end and then a close-up shot is done. The whole scene doesn't have much lighting at all and is mainly in a grey, black colour.


Credits/Typography

As the font of the title looks devil like, this links to the story as it's like the devil has come to haunt their house and create havoc. Red connotes to danger, blood and murder which associates with the plot of the story.

Music/Sounds

The music starts off a very high pitched and it stays like that for a while until it gets more soft but it turns creepier. This may trick viewers into thinking that something scary will happen right in that scene because the tone of the music changed. The music then sounded a bit echoed and then after that, it went more and more quiet. This also tricks viewers as they might think a loud bang would then pop out because the music got quieter as that's a stereotype in most horror films. The music then starts to get very 'squeaky' like a badly played violin and then it stays constant for a while. After that, the music stops and a black screen appears until at the very end of that scene, music starts to play up again but this time, loudly and very terrifyingly.

Focus Group Responses

Orla Fletcher-Dowd: ''I like how the moon changed into the bedroom light at the beginning and how the music progressed to build up tension - so the high pitched violins'.

Sahar Khan: ''I like how the graphics make the whole atmosphere eerie. The camera is showing the setting effectively and gradually which builds suspense. It's like something's going to happen but nothing does''.

Clara Bowater: ''I really liked the way the opening was set out and how it was all in one shot. I think that the music goes really well with the whole scene and at the beginning when they presented the producers name in a creative way. I also really like dhow at the end, the face holding the candle came out of nowhere and I wasn't expecting it either''.

Yuli Moore: ''It wasn't that jumpy which was good as it's not going into anything scary straight away. I like how the music goes well with the whole scene and how the lettering is at the end with the red colour which symbolises the evilness and how the font reminds me of an evil spirit or devil''.

What I have learnt from this analysis and how it might influence me in my production:

From this analysis, I have learnt that many horror films that I have seen in the past and looked at for research have used dim and low-key lighting in most of their scenes and that is what mainly makes a horror film effective. When the lighting is dim, it makes the audience more agitated and then when something pops up, it will be even more frightening for them. The music should change tones depending on what scene is showing so there should be loud noises and quiet sounds. With the music changing, it creates different types of emotions for the audience so when it's quiet and slow, them being afraid and intrigued of wondering what's going to happen next is just building up and then when it switches to loud and fast, that's the climax of when they're scared and afraid of what's happening at that moment.