CK: Insidious Chapter 2 (Wan, 2013) Opening Sequence Analysis

Genre:

• Insidious belongs to the subgenre of supernatural horror, the dark setting, typical scary house and a person who we assume is a medium are all key conventions represented in this introduction.
• Other films which share these conventions are The Conjuring (Wan, 2013) and The Haunting in Connecticut (Cornwell, 2009).
• The audience’s expectations for a film such as this are fulfilled in the opening sequence, due to the eerie backing music, and the general feeling of supernatural unease which the audience get in the first few moments because of the theme of ghosts and hauntings.
• The text conforms to the characteristics of the genre.

Film Language:

Camera:

• The sequence opens with a low angle shot, in which we see a car pull up, and then a pair of legs walk into the shot, turn and begin walking away from the camera, up a set of stairs.
• As the woman walks up the stars the camera tilts up, revealing her destination, a rather foreboding house. The low angle makes the house look more imposing and scary. As well as this, the fact that we don’t see the woman’s face makes her seem mysterious.
• The mystery is then reinforced by an over the shoulder shot when she knocks on the door. This leads the audience to question who this woman is, and this adds to the suspense of the sequence.

Editing:

• Editing is used to add to the tension the use of the very slow cutting rate at the beginning. This keeps the audience waiting for the action, and the longer they wait, the more the tension builds.

Mise-en-scene:

• Mise-en-scene also conveys meaning in this sequence. The dark, eerie setting and the creepy, haunted house create a very tense and uncomfortable atmosphere for the audience.

Sound:

• The voice of the mysterious woman comes as quite a surprise, she has a very friendly, calming and almost matronly tone, which isn’t typical of horror. It makes the line ‘In my line of work, things tend to happen when it gets dark’ all the more surprising, as it seems strange that this kindly woman would be working with ghosts, as is inferred by her dialogue.
• Her tone of voice makes the line sound less ominous and more ‘matter of fact’ which has the effect of making the viewer feel uncomfortable and on edge.
• Non-diegetic sound is used at the beginning with the creepy introduction music, whilst the titles are being shown. This contrasts with the relative silence when the actual film starts, putting the audience on edge.

Titles:

• There are a total of 5 titles in the opening. They are pale blue on a black background, and little puff of smoke comes off each title as it appears, which clearly links to ghosts and the pale blue could link to cold and death.
• The title of the film doesn’t occur in this sequence of titles, instead it is shown about ten minutes in. this helps create suspense and mystery in the film, because the audience are forced to wait for the title, increasing the anticipation.

Narrative:

• In the introduction, a medium arrives at the house with the intention of helping a young boy who is being followed by an evil spirit, and suffers with nightmares. The audience see things from the medium’s perspective, with events unfolding for the viewer simultaneous with when they unfold for the medium.
• The key themes are death, possession and the supernatural.
• Tension is created and maintained through a combination of techniques. The location of a creepy house at night immediately creates a sense of foreboding, combined with the eerie silence, slow cutting rate and the fact that the audience know that they are watching a horror film creates and maintains tension within the audience.

Representation and Ideology:

• The medium and hero in this clip is a woman. Dominant ideologies in society would state that a strong male should be the hero, also in horror films in general, mediums are usually men, and it is usually woman who require help from a strong male figure. In this case, we see the woman take charge of the situation, she is clearly the expert, and her male colleague clearly looks up to her as such.
• This clip also reinforces dominant ideologies, because the mother is portrayed as being very motherly, caring and extremely concerned about her son's well being. She looks worn out and sick with worry, much like a typical mother who is worried about her child, and thus this clip reinforces this ideology.

Media Audiences:

• The target audience for this film would probably just be fans of the genre. It has quite a specific target audience as there are a lot of people of dislike horror. I think that teens would perhaps be more likely to enjoy something like this, due to the visceral buzz that you get after having been scared, whereas adults may be a bit calmer and thus uninterested in the genre.

Institutional Context:

• The main two characters in this film are played by Patrick Wilson, and Rosie Byrne, two reasonably high rated and famous actors.
• The quality of the cast would certainly have attracted a few extra viewers who wouldn't usually watch horror movies due to the typical 'B movie' standard of acting and production .
• This film was produced by Blumhouse Productions, a successful independent film company. They have produced films such as the 'Paranormal Activity' franchise, the first Insidious movie and Sinister, which were all very successful films, this would have attracted extra viewers as the film was in safe hands.
• With a budget of $5m, the film's box office was $161,919,318.