Opening Scene Evaluation - "The Ring"

These are the opening credits from the film "The Ring". I decided to use the opening credits from this film as it fits in with the horror/thriller genre I am using for my own opening sequence

• The sequence starts with the Dreamworks logo on screen, which usually has the Dreamworks theme accompanying it, however instead, this has the sound of rain. This immediately tells the audience that there is something different and eerie about this film, and it sets the mood and tells the audience the genre before it has even started.
• It then fades to darkness, then there is a shot of a house in the dark. This tells the audience that it is at night time, which is a typical time of the day to set a horror film. It also makes the people inside the house seem more vulnerable  as you can barely decipher what is going on outside.
• We are then shown two young female characters in a dark room in the house, which indicates that they are in trouble and are going to be the next victims. The camera is moving slowly towards them from in front, which may be another indication that something more sinister is coming towards them. We also know that they are facing the television, which is what this film is set around, as this is where the creature emerges from, so it looks like the camera is moving out of the television.
• As one of the characters starts to talk about a horror story that she has heard, the camera is slowly zooming in on her, which means that the tension is building up. This puts the audience on the edges of their seats. Then the other character appears to be dying, and there is sinister music on. After it is revealed that the character was faking it, a lot of the tension goes, and the mood goes back to normal. However the audience is still aware that something may still appear. The same things happens later with the phone, as the audience and one of the characters thinks that something bad is happening, when actually the other character was just pretending. This keeps the audience engaged and on the edge of their seats, with out anything bad actually happening.
• One of the characters then exits the room, leaving us with the other character. We see her in the kitchen, and then we see the television turning on in the other room. The noise it makes is static, and gives the scene an eerie feel. the character then turns around and there is a close up shot of her face. This shows us how scared she is, and how vulnerable the character is. After she turns the television off, it comes back on again, and the camera slowly pans in on her to see her reaction. The camera action also portrays, like earlier on in the sequence, the creature out of the television, meaning that there is a lot of tension. 
• After the character has run over to the television and unplugged it, the camera moves around so we get a full shot of the screen. This implies that it is going to switch back on again, however, there is a noise from behind in the kitchen, and the camera quickly turns around to the direction the noise is coming from, making the audience feel that they are a character in this film, and that they are just as vunerable as the female character.
• After she has walked into the kitchen, the fridge is open, even though there is nobody around, making the audience feel uncomfortable. When she goes to shut the fridge door, tension is high, and the camera shot is facing in the inside door of the fridge, so as an audience member, you expect something to be behind the door when she closes it, as this happens in a lot of horror films. However, there is nothing there, which makes the audience feel even more uncomfortable, as they expected something to happen, which it didn't, so they may feel that from now on, anything can happen.
• There is a camera shot from the top of the stairs looking down. The character is at the bottom of the stairs, looking up. The camera shot implies that there is something upstairs which may be after this character. 
• There is another shot as the character is walking up the stairs, and it is a close up shot of the stairs, which you can see her feet walking up. This is another indication that there is something sinister around which is after her.
• When she reaches the top of the stairs, there is a low angle shot from the corridor floor, in which the audience can see there is water on the floor. Having already been upstairs earlier on in this sequence, we know that this was not there earlier, so somebody, or something, must have been up there to cause it. As she is walking down the corridor towards the door, which is to the left of the camera shot, the shot does not change. This builds tension, emphasizes on the importance of the water on the floor, and implies that something is behind the door.
• There is no music on whilst this is happening, only diegetic sound of the rain outside. This means that the music isn't building up to a specific moment, so the audience can be jumped, or the creature could appear at any time. It also makes it more naturalistic, and emphasizes what is going on onscreen, rather than the audience paying attention to the sound.
• Once the character gets to the door, there is a  close up shot of her hand reaching for the handle, which is dripping with water. This means that the audience knows that something is behind the door, but they do not know what. The tension at this point is extremely high, and there is an anticipation for the character to open the door. 
• As soon as she opens the door, the camera is where the television is, and it zooms very fast into her face as she screams. This makes the audience jump, and even though it only lasts for a very short amount of time, it has a long lasting effect.