Horror title sequence

 NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET: 

For the genre of horror I chose the movie 'Nightmare On Elm Street'. This sequence includes the feature of hands doing different things, such as moving knives and the use of metals. Without any exposure of the person behind this. This immediately adheres to the conventions of the horror genre, as it enforces the ideas of mystery, question and nervousness around what this person is up to. As an audience we are actively engaged and have an anxious response to what is going on. The first 5 minutes of an opening scene is the point of determining for an audience, who the characters are, who the audience like and dislike and what the possible future for these characters are. This scene successfully communicates the horror genre, and adheres to the stereotypes which are typically associated with the genre itself. The dirty hands which we are instantly exposed to have negative connotations and don't present well, Subtly creating awareness around this specific character. Within the horror genre there is always a 'villain' or 'scary' character which causes most of the problems. From this sequence we can take a guess that this is possibly the 'villain' of the entire movie. Although we can guess this, it is yet neither confirmed nor denied that this is true. Which again is a successful way to keep the audience actively engaged with the film and continuing to watch the film and base opinions off it.

The scene is located in an ambiguous/ unknown location. But from the pleonastic sound effects of water in the background we could guess that its in a sewage type location or underground. It connotes an idea of abandonment and isolation making audiences feel uncomfortable. Quite quickly we are exposed to another character. A young blonde girl in a white dress. typically young blondes are the stereotype of a 'damsel in distress'/ victim within the film industry. The dress she is wearing is a long white dress. Conservative as well as the white connoting a sense of purity and innocence reinforcing the victim role she is possibly playing. More of the location is exposed as this female character wonders round, and what we can assume from the body language she is hiding from someone. This creates a juxtaposition between the two characters, someone mysterious and non trusting and a innocent, scared, young girl.

I believe that this narrative successfully plays well into portraying this mysterious character as scary and questionable. we as an audience immediately want to see his face. The sequence just shows us the small journey across this abandoned location to the meet of the characters. Instantly we want to know what happens next, and fear for the female victim within the scene. The possible future narrative could either be the escape of this character or as a way to shock the audience, is to kill her off. This way we are completely shocked and can't guess the ending or who is 

next. but she could subvert to the stereotypes of her being

 weak 

and submissive and prove the audience wrong by fighting back.                    

That is how they have successfully communicated the horror genre, by making it interpretable and unknown.

Looking at the way that mis en scene has been used is clearly been used by the choice of colors within clothes, material and atmosphere. The white dress is a huge symbol and communicates the characters personality without even speaking. When this is combined with the non diegetic soundtrack (contrapuntal), something so innocent is present in a creepy atmosphere. 

The choice of editing is effective as it 

plays to the chaos of the scene and the unknown events. For 

example,  while we have long shot durations of the young girl

we have short durations of screen time for the unknown character, this is effective as it plays to the idea that we get short exposures as an audience, and are not getting to see who this character is. The character is unknown and this makes it scarier to watch.  Towards the end of the sequence the  shots become a lot shorter, using editing cuts to make the sequence continuous, as well as the high angled establishing shots. This not only captures and gives the audience more of an exposure to the location but also makes the young female character look smaller and 'weak', in such a big abandoned space.