Analysed the first 2 minutes.
Nightmare on Elm Street opens
with a short tracking shot of a character's feet, the character is wearing worn
out work boots and is standing in some sort of factory as there is dirt, oil
and pipes by his feet this is combined with non-diegetic eerie music playing in
the background. Using a close up shot, the audience see the character pick up a
brown bag, the camera then quickly shifts to a birds eye view shot of the
character emptying the bag with knives, nails and screws onto a table these are
typical mise-en-scene used in a horror film. A close up shot reveals the
character's hands ruffling through the knives and nails to pick up a knife in
one hand, the camera switches to another close up shot of the characters hands
again but this time of him picking up a workhouse glove. This entices the
audience to watch more as they want to know what the character is going to
make.
There is then a series of
short close up shots showing the character making some sort of glove with
knives on the end of it, this is connected with the sound of the characters
diegetic heavy breathing, the enhanced diegetic sound of the instruments being
used to mould and manufacture the weapon and the continued eerie non diegetic
background music, the music is mainly high pitched instruments to build up
tension. The character's hands are grubby and dirty to show that he isn’t
worried about his appearance and that he has probably been working on this for
a long period of time. This creates some enigma codes for the audience as they
want to know who this character is and why he is making this weapon. This heavy
breathing makes the audience feel uncomfortable as they feel like they are so
close to what’s going on and like they are being breathed on. The final shot
before the title appears is a bird’s eye view shot of the characters hand with
the glove on he goes from clenching his fist to releasing it to show the
audience the final product he does this with a combined diegetic sound of him
saying ‘Rahhh’ along non-diegetic music increasing in volume and pitch. The way
the character hasn’t said anything and only made noises shows that he is more
animal like than human.
A title then appears with a
black background and red bold writing, these colours are typical conventions of
a horror genre. The camera then quickly moves to a low angle shot to show a
sheet hanging and 4 knives bursting through it with a shadow of someone’s hand,
this is connected with a non-diegetic sound of someone screaming and a storm.
It then flips to a close up shot of a young female character looking around in
distress and sweating, she then looks directly into the camera where it shows
an extreme close up shot off the character. Her eyes are quite striking to the
audience as you can really see her fear in them. The audience then see a long
tracking shot of the female character running through a damp and dark corridor
of a factory, constantly looking behind her. This suggests to the audience that
she is either running from something or looking for something. This is a
stereotypical cliché of a horror film a damsel in distress running from a
villain, the use of her white gown reflects how pure and innocent she is. The
character stops at a medium shot to the camera, still looking around anxiously
a sudden off screen low pitched sound is made to startle the character and make
them turn around to show the audience the shock and fear on her face. The
camera then switches to show a medium shot of a goat running through the
factory with a combined off screen sound of a character's deep laugh. The
audience begin to feel like there is some sort of chase going on by the female
characters horror and body language.
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