Horror genre opening film analysis of the conjuring - 2013

The conjuring opening film analysis

Analysed the first 2 minutes

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 dolls face, this reveals that the doll has a cracked glass eye and cut cheek which is a typical cliché of the horror genre but also very abnormal for a typical doll a child would play with. This also creates enigma codes as the doll appears to be battered, bloody and broken. 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.

As one of the female teenagers begin to talk about their experience with the dolls, it flashes back to the time she is describing. A medium shot shows two girls opening the door combined with a diegetic sound of the girls giggling, their costumes shows that they have potentially just came back from an evening at the pub. With both characters being female this highlights how vulnerable the both are as they enter the apartment. They notice a note placed on the floor which has a creepy message written in red pen on it, it reads “miss me?” There is then a close up shot of the doll placed on the floor holding the red pen in its hand, this makes the audience question the dolls innocence. The use of low key lighting (flickering) and eerie non diegetic piano music goes with the typical conventions of a horror film. There is then a wide angle shot which reveals the same message on the wall as it did on the piece of paper. A medium shot shows the characters looking up, it shows that they are weak.