Horror genre: Drag me to hell 2009 Opening scene

In the opening scene to Drag me to hell, the opening follows the codes and conventions of a horror film because we are shown that the setting of the scene is place in a house, which looks like a like it belongs to someone who is wealthy, and we have seen this through multiply old fashioned cars. This connotes that this is some sort of flashback to the past and we can see this through the title which goes through it as well, which says 'Pasadena, California 1969'. The font is in capital letters, this shows the class of the setting and show that its quite formal to begin with. the colour of the font is white, showing that its quite suttle, and claiming as it’s a flashback to show where a certain event may have started. At the end of the opening scene we see that women is shown a close up to show her expressions, and also the opening ends with her leaving a statement, or a phase saying 'we will meet again ' showing that she will appear again in the film to help someone else, which could possible refer to the protagonist.



During the first 18 seconds we see that the film begins as with a family rushing to the house. we also see that it starts off as a foreign language, so we are also given the subtitle so that we can follow along on why they have rush in and so that it can include a range of audiences to understand what is going on in the beginning. So the women knock on the door to the women who seems to believe in a spiritual events, such as ghosts, comes to the door, which is another convention that the audience would expect to see, and asks what’s wrong. At 2 minute 12 seconds we see a huge crack, with what looks like a fire through the floor boards as the child get up, we are shown a high angle of him trying to move out of the way, but then ends ups being taking into the cracks, so then the non-diegetic sound and the diegetic sound starts to become equal as we hear the non-diegetic sound getting more louder, and the diegetic sound of the boy screaming for help showing some sort of revenge, along with shadow of his figure being dragged in.



The non-diegetic sound in the opening scene we hear a gloomy continuous music introducing the scene. This connotes that this setting or house could be haunted, and something unexpected will happen, which will have an impact on the audience because this will start to create tension, and will also create an enigma on what might happen, so they will be more eager to watch it more to find out what is going on, and might explain the hints. There is also diegetic sound shown during the opening scene, because we hear the family, rushing and calling for help and we also hear the car which drives in, the slam of the car door. This makes it more realistic for the audience and might make them more involved and would also lead to the audience to escape out of their everyday life. We also hear squeaking noises, suggesting that something is haunting the house and it close to the boy. we the hear a rush of a ghost which comes in whilst the women is talking to the boy and the diegetic sound get more high pitched as they enter, and it starts to pace up the scene, as the ghost or a sound of some sort of monster enters into the room. The was also diegetic sound of the child's mother being slapped, this effect of using this is to make it more realist for the audience and to seem as if they are involved in the scene, as the mother tries to protect his son, and this is shown by her standing in front her child with a long shot as well. This connotes that the child’s mother is trying to be protective, and shows that she will do anything to keep him save. As the non-diegetic sound get quieter but yet it still playing we hear more of characters talking and screaming, which shows there fear and anxiousness.



During the opening scene we see the family rush in with their child, to the spiritual women, and comes we are shown a medium shot of everyone and a over the shoulder shot, the effect of using these shots it’s to allow the audience to see there facial expressions, showing there worry and tension in which there child had stolen the necklace, and now it has an effect on the child, as the child now hears voices, which also scares him as well. We also see a medium shot of the spiritual women, which indicates that something bad is going to happen and invites them in, to show that she will try and help them but from her facial expressions we see that she is unsure that is unable to help them. We then shown a close up of the necklace, to indicate that it’s the most important part of this scene and someone is after the necklace. Another close of the boy wrapped up in a blanket, but is still sweating, indicating that he is scared that something bad is going to happened to him especially him, as he stole the necklace. We also shown that the ceiling of the house, shown from the boys point of view. We see the hands hovering over it, showing that they are here for the boy, and the movements are just building tension to the audience and making them feel the tension and so the audience also go through what the boy is going though at the same time. We then see the women saying some sort or spell to try and get rid of the child fear and whatever that is trying to haunt him. We also see a long shot of the boy when he runs and the unknown ghost throws him off from the top of the stairs and down and we are shown a long shot of his body.