In which we attempt to make a film opening.

Tuesday, 6 April 2010

The Hills Have Eyes 2 has a horrific, gory opening. It starts with a woman tied up giving birth to what the audience is shown to be a mutant. She is dirty and unkempt, as shown by her dull, stringy, dirty hair and over grown toe nails which shows the audience that she is there by force. She is also tied to the bed, showing her to be a prisoner and unable to escape the real-life nightmare.
It uses non-diegetic sound over the diegetic sound. The high pitched strings in the non-diegetic sound enhances the tension of the opening, while the quieter, muffled screams of the woman inform the audience of the danger of her situation.
The frequent close up shots of the woman present the audience with a clear idea of the situation that she is in. The close up shots of her hands being tied to the bed show the audience that she is there against her will, while the close up shots of her hair and feet show neglect and imply abuse. The close up of her screaming face show her to be in immense pain which, when taken with the close ups of the baby, show it to be the extreme pain of childbirth without painkillers- as she is a prisoner, she would not have any priviledges such as drugs to ease the pain of birth.
The shots are mostly still mid shots edited together with straight cuts, fairly quickly, to add to the franticness of childbirth while still showing enough on screen to shock yet entice the audience.

(Just so you know, this film sucks but the opening is suitably gory to analyse for media :P)