In the opening sequence of Sinister (Derrickson 2012) the audience are exposed straight away to a disturbing scene of four characters with nooses tied to their necks. This is is an early introduction to the supernatural sub-genre and Derrickson has presented a conventional opening image that would be expected from this type of film.
Form and Style
A sense of foreboding is very clearly introduced in this opening through the four characters with hangman's nooses around their necks. in this opening sequence there is no character exposition as the audience have no background information about these characters, there is no dialogue or voice overs explaining events leading to this point; the audience also has no knowledge of the setting, but looks as if it may be in someones back garden. the only information that can be obtained from this opening is that it is being viewed as a film, somebody is watching this. The audience are able to understand this because of the diegetic sound in this clip, it is that of a film roll being loaded on a projector, the sound and images are somewhat crackly which connotes a feeling of a homemade video recording, this also connotes a sense of foreboding as somebody is clearly watching this tape, which suggest perhaps, that more than one murder similar to this have happened. this allows the film to lead on and explain the circumstances. this use of sound also brings a sense of realism to the film because it is shot in a way that seems natural and part of everyday life.
there are no credited people in this opening, which again connotes a sense of realism, and allows the opening to captivate the audience by beginning the film with action.
Film Language
Derrickson has used mise-en-scene to convey typical, and stereotypical conventions of a supernatural horror. the use of a color wash on the opening scene connotes that this video clip may be old, but is more likely used to make this seem a more bleak and eerie moment, which it very clearly is. the costume of the characters, a noose and sack covering their heads again is used to make this a realistic piece, as this is the common way people are hung, and have been hung in the years before. this also creates a controversial view of how these characters died, there is nobody that the audience can see who has murdered these characters but is set up to look almost like a suicide. this creates a tension and suspense to find out how these characters died and is captivating for the audience.
the camera shot stays the same throughout this opening sequence, it is a long shot that shows all the action of this clip. i feel that by using this one shot again emphasizes the realism of the piece and is made to look like a home video, this is shown with the use of no varying camera angles, and also a shaky and low quality and grainy camera and no editing. Personally i feel that the realistic diegetic sound of this piece paired with the non diegetic sound which is a strong bass noise anchors this piece with a perfect horror atmosphere.
From this horror opening sequence the parts that i found most effective was the camera editing to make it seem like a home video, i thought this was effective as it reinforced the idea of realism and may take this into consideration when creating my piece.
Representation and Ideology
in this opening sequence it is hard to obtain information about these characters, but from what the audience are able to see we can tell that these four characters are white, and also from their clothing which looks reasonably good may conclude these people are middle class. from watching this opening i initially thought that this was a family because there are four of them and they all vary in size. the dominant ideology of this opening is the victimization of white families, and again may connote that this could have happened to anybody.
Audience Readings
- a dominant hegemonic reading of this opening would be that the audience understand that some characters have been killed and lead to the conclusion that they were either murdered or commited suicide, which at this point is not clear.
- a negotiated positional reading would be that they may think this video clip is a news report, but still understand that people have been murdered or committed suicide.
- an aberrant reading would be that these murders are not real
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