Drag me to hell review

Task 2 - analysis of an opening sequence to a horror film.

The beginning of Drag Me to Hell, shows many conventions that apply to a horror film. The camera slowly pans down to show an establishing shot of a Spanish mansion with palm trees and green scenery. This gives the impression to the audience that it is a normal house in Spain and maybe rich people live there because of the size of it. This could be sectioned out to be odd to other horror film sequences such as Texas Chain Saw Massacre, as that shows you clues of what is to come in the movie were as a mansion and palm trees only suggests to the audience that it may be set in a different country for example Spain.

  

You then see a tracking shot of a van pulling up to the house. With this shot, it shows the audience more of the scenery and where the film is set. A man dressed almost like a cowboy then jumps out the van to carry on running round the back to help a women jump out the back of it. There is a long shot as the man helps the women off the back of the van, and as she is wearing a dark brown skirt and top suggests that she has been travelling in the van for some time. The sequence can make the audience then think about why they both look to be in a hurry and why the man is dressed like a cowboy, again referring to the country and culture that they live in.

  

As the scene continues the women hurries towards what we can now see due to another long shot is tall green metal gates and starts to bang on them repeatedly, subtitles then come up on the screen which tells the audience that the women is foreign and what she is shouting. As another women looking similar to the first women dressed in the same type of clothing but this time purple, runs out of the building and the three gather round in a circle as the man holds a young boy in his hands. All this is done very fast as you can tell that the people are concerned, an over the shoulder shot shows the three talking and by having this shot shows the facial expressions on each characters face which all appear to be worrying.

 

You then see an ariel extreme close up shot of the boys face, the boy appears to be disturbed and upset. This can un ravel the confusion of what the audience is thinking is going to happen and keeps them hooked to find out why the three adults are centred towards this young boy.

 

Later on in the opening sequence, you see inside of the building and the camera pans round at a high angle to show the stained glass decoration of the roof and window inside. The stain glass windows suggests that the family are in a religious building and as the camera goes to hand held when the women walks in to again show the surroundings of the building inside.

 

There is a cut away from the boy lying on the floor to the women in purple standing up praying, this shows that the atmosphere in the room and between all the people is tense and them and you don’t know what’s going to happen, and the audience still don’t know why exactly they are all there. This is like horror films, as you don’t find out the identity of the murderer or why a murder has happened for example until the end of film. 

 

As the boy tries to escape from the ‘demon’ in the room, there is a match on action as he is ‘blown’ over by the force of the ‘wind’ ending up with him landing on the floor as it starts to crack. The visual effects of the floor cracking and breaking up add to the effect of the fire starting to surround the boy. This now, is beginning to look similar to what the audience will expect from a horror movie with death being the main priority and aimed towards the boy. As the boy falls through the floor, a shadow of a hand pulling him down grows bigger which suggests to the audience there is a lot beneath the story of drag me to hell that the audience doesn’t know about yet.

 

At the beginning of the sequence, the audience can have a guess that the film is set in a foreign country as the mansion doesn’t look like a building you would find in the UK, but can then know that it is set in Spain as the woman starts to speak in Spanish and the subtitles come up on the screen. The panic that you can hear in her voice suggests that she is worried and wanting to know something, as the incidental none diagetic music is playing slowly in the background. This is typical of a horror movie as most have music at the beginning for example you know that something is going to happen in the film ‘Jaws’ when you hear the sounds come on.

 

Throughout the sequence of the ‘wind’ in the room and the boy running out of it there is a ‘roaring’ sound which suggests that something is in the room but no one can see it but know that it is wanting the boy and wanting to hurt him. This creates suspense in the sequence and may shock the audience, as so far the film has just been dialogue and subtitles. The screams and screeches from the women when the boy is falling into floor adds to the mayhem going on around the characters, and the audience can be drawn into the characters and can begin to feel sorry for them and sympathise with them as the characters don’t know what’s going on and neither do the audience.