Horror opening scene research

 

 

 

 

IT (2017) 

Steven king 

2017 

Director: 

 Andy Muschietti 

Writers: 

 Chase Palmer  Cary, Joji Fukunaga  

Top billed cast: 

 Bill Skarsgard, Jaeden Martell, Finn Wolfhard 

 

 

Early on in this sequence we are shown a overcast day, with heavy rain and not much light, this is done to present a melancholy and gloomy tone to the scene. Though the use of Costume with the young boy wearing a bright yellow rain jacket, this is symbolic to the nature of the film, as we are aware that this is a horror film, along with the grey used, used to juxtapose the fact that the boy in the yellow jacket sticks out on the frame, almost symbolically victimising himself as he is almost now a target for harm in this sequence. Moreover, using a long shot, with an establishing aspect, to show the boys importance relative to his surroundings, painting him as a victim. Through this suggesting in the first seconds of the film, we expect the duration of the film to follow similar ideas, as we expect lots of darkness and disturbing realisations. As the age rating for this film is a 15+ we expect the target audience to be 15-35-year-olds, as well as fans of steven king as he is the author who wrote the book in which the film is based upon. We can see the fact that this is a horror early on due to the tone of the set as well as the shot of penny-wise the clown, showing us the true horrific nature of this film adding to the genre convections associated with horror. We are introduced three characters in this sequence the boy, the boys friend/brother and the killer clown. 

 

 

Furthermore, the suggestion of the boy victimising himself is furthermore enforced as he looks to a window in house and waves, this is almost suggesting he is waving goodbye as we know this is a dark film and the load heavy rain ambient sound effect adding to the suspense and suggesting that something is about to happen, and the fact that he waves goodbye makes the audience think, will that be the last time? 

 

As the small boy chases the paper made boat down the street, he gets further and further away from his home, and the audience's sense of comfort and knowledge. As the suspense builds in this section of the scene we are anticipating some form of climax. 

 

This climax is given as the boy hits his head, taking a heavy hit to the ground, temporarily easing the anxiety associated with the building suspense. The moment he hits his head the non-diegetic soundtrack calms to furthermore portray the break in suspense. Furthermore through this whole section of building tension the boy is filmed from a long shot angle and is all shot from a 3rd person perspective giving the subtle suggestion that the boy is being watched from the beginning  

 

Suspense then builds quickly, as the boy looks down the side of a street drain after his boat. This along with the prior long shot duration adds to the foreshadowing aspect of this scene as it it hinted from the beginning that something is going to happen and this scene makes us think this moment is about to arise. 

 

This opening scene is very successful as it sets the tone for the duration of the film, as we know nothing as of this point about the characters and why they are there. This opening brings forward so many questions about the plot and ideologies of the characters such as, what made the boy run so far away from the safety of his home, and why there is a clown in the storm drain, this interests the audience on the plot line and gives a representation of the movie ahead therefore being successful in its function.