Analysing the opening scene of 'The Conjuring'

Analysing the opening scene of 'The Conjuring':

The film opens with a voice over narration explaining a dramatic mysterious incident with a doll. This is supported by an extreme close up shot of a section of the doll’s face. This creates enigma codes as the doll appears to be battered, bloody and broken. This extreme close up shot reveals that the doll has a racked eye; dolls are a typical convention and cliché of the horror genre. The opening cuts to a group of young adults who are shown through a medium shot which highlights their anxious faces. They are being interviewed about an event involving the doll; the audience are placed in the position of the interviewer through an over the shoulder shot. This makes the audience feel as if they’re in the scene are in involved.

The scene then cuts to a long shot with a voice over, of the young adults walking through their front door, it then cuts to a shot of the doll in the hall way. The lighting is low key creating mystery and tension. A match on action shot then reveals crayons in the dolls hand after the young adults pick up a note saying ‘miss me?’.

A close up shot shows one of the young adults faces peering through a door where the audience can see some red crayon on the door frame. The young adults then push open the door to reveal the room covered in crayon. The shots change to close up shots quickly cut to view broken pictures as well as another message scribbled on the walls reading ‘miss me again?’. The message is viewed from a low angle shot, showing vulnerability of the young adults. The lighting is still low key therefore create more mystery for the audience.

A medium shot views the young adults standing inside the room, in the background there is a mirror, the mirror is crooked. This demonstrates a form of destruction to the house. The prop of a mirror is also conventional to horror films as they’re usually used when a woman is isolated and alone who sees a creepy and scary reflection. Or they’re used to view a mysterious figure in the background that only the audience can see which creates dramatic irony. However, in this case, the mirror is used to show the house is wrecked.

A long shot is used as one of the young adults grabs the doll, they’re tracked through a tracking shot which then cuts to a high angle shot of the doll being tossed in the trash. There is a sudden on screen diegetic sound of the lit of the trash shutting. The sound is exaggerated to make the audience jump so that they’re one edge.

Throughout the whole of the scene there is constant music. The non-diegetic music is composed of strings. The film score creates tension as the music gets louder it increases the suspense.