Film Opening Analysis 1: The Conjuring

 

Director: James Wan

Writers: Chad Hayes, Carey Hayes

Genre: Horror

Budget: $20,000,000 (estimated)

"Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse." -IMDb

 

Titles 

The first ident in this film is the one for Warner Bros. It changed compared to how it would normally appear, there is a very stormy, dark sky behind the logo and the logo itself is a dark silvery colour. This establishes the genre as horror and already gets the audience scared for the film itself. The New Line Cinema ident appears and has the same background and colours. 

There is no title or opening credits. 

 Semiotics

There is a few seconds where there is a black screen, following on from the idents, and a voice over begins. There is a woman's voice explaining how "you will think I'm crazy" and a man tells her to "tell me everything". There is a cut to an extreme close up of a doll's eye and some of her face. She looks very scary and weird. Again, this emphasizes the genre  of horror.

Narrative Exposition 

During the opening sequence, there is some use of the different theorists. For example, there are two girls who could be seen as the 'helpers' as they describe how they allowed a ghost to enter the body of the doll. This is Propp's 7 character archetypes theory. The doll could be seen as the villain, using this same theory. 

This film opening however, breaks Todorov's narrative theory as there is no equilibrium; the film begins with them talking about the disruptio.