Research: The Importance Of Opening Titles: Essay

Codes and Conventions in horror films signify what the film's genre is like, for instance, during an opening title you can most probably tell that the film is a horror because it would become very creepy, menacing and red colours would signify blood which is a code. The human mind points out any codes in films whether it's red coloured text or a blue background it would tell the difference from a comedy and a horror. The three films I'll be analysing in their opening titles are, The Conjuring, Insidious and Cabin in the Woods.

Firstly, The Conjuring, it has the distribution company and production company at the start and goes on about the people who took part in creating the film. The film opening sequence is very misty and can make you feel uncomfortable just by listening to the music, the music plays a massive role in The Conjuring as it's very scary. It has a long violin verse whilst the background is very dark and spooky, it reveals a small story as the opening sequence goes on. The music and background is ghost like and the pictures are glitching which is a conventional code and technical. The technical codes in this film is what makes the film scary, at the start with the pictures and short videos glitching ( Video editing) already gives off a ghostly/spirit sense, and the music goes perfectly with it. I think what made this film generally scary is that when it says it was a true story. Once the opening sequence finishes it goes dark and just silently says it was a true story, it generally scared me especially after researching the horror movie which has given me and Sean massive ideas. The conventions in the opening title are the colours and dark background as it already verifies that the film is a horror involving some sort of spirit, also displayed by codes. Conventions are all through the film but mainly codes at the start.

The second Film is Insidious, like The conjuring it has the distribution company and production company at the start, again, its the music in the opening title of the film which puts the audience on edge, it's a blast of scratching violins which pounds your ears. The red blood type writing already notifies you that the film is a horror. Different from The Conjuring however as it has a short film of how the the story tells the audience, they'd be a few lines of dialogue when automatically there would be a jumpscare where the Insidious title will pop up whilst the person also gets scared. They'd be a bang of scratching violins and zooming in on the main title, already creating huge suspense and a panic environment. James Wan ( Who directed this film ) Also directed The conjuring. He knows how to use his music to make the audience feel extremely uncomfortable. Like The Conjuring the technical codes such as editing are quick and build up that suspense for a demon to jump out in the opening title sequence. You can also tell the difference between ghosts and demons because in The Conjuring the title was very ghostly like with the glitches however the Insidious was more red blood and signifying instead of an evil spirit there's the demon who signifies death. The conventions used like a dark feel to the room and the music giving it suspense, the red font and dark house all contributed to that one big bang of scratching violins.

The third film is Cabin In The Woods, it shows the distribution company and production company along with extras. At the beginning blood is being poured on to a paper which reveals an ancient language, the music isn't actually that scary but the fact there is messages and drawings being symbolised by blood already gives us the hint that this is a horror film .What makes this horror film title opening different is that it's completely normal, just two guys doing work in their work place, it was all so casual, after a few names popped up including the stars there was a big scream and the text comes flying in jumpscaring the audience because everything was just so normal it caught the audience off guard. The short film actually has nothing to do with the film, it's the fact that something so normal can be turned into something that can make the audience jump. The video editing in this is advanced and with the blood messages they used animation which is a hard source of a technical code, but they used blood to signify ancient history and to which instantly jumps to our mind as horror films, because if we see blood or scary music/ background our minds will automatically think it's a horror. The Conventions used are not so common, for example they went from a completely normal scene to something that jumpscares them right at the beginning because no one would be expecting it.

In conclusion, Two of the film titles, The Conjuring and Insidious were incredibly similar, however one represents an evil spirit and one represents a demon, the music and tone to the film is exactly the same and can make the audience feel incredibly uncomfortable, the scratching of the violins violates the viewers hearing senses. A reason those two are so similar is because they were both directed by James Wan who used alot of music and dolls to scare his audience and got many awards for The Conjuring as it was the scariest film of 2013 and have recently released a new one involving The Enfield case ( The conjuring 2), Cabin In The Woods was very different, the music wasn't very scary, but with the blood dripping on the paper ( symbolic code ) automatically told me this was a horror film. It was different because the short film at the start actually had nothing to do with the film but because the audience gets so immersed into it that gives the director to reveal a jumpscare containing the main title which catches individuals off guard.