Research: Effective horror film opening: 28 Days Later

Micro Features

The film starts with a long shot of the town and this shows how deserted it is and sets the scene for the film it also makes the opening apear creepy and eerie. This helps to show the genre of the film. We also see a high angle and this helps us to see how vunerbale the protagonist is as he is alone is a very vast city. A dutch angle is used to create a sense of disoriantion and its makes it feel strange and unusual.

An alarm, digetic sound, is sounded in the opening scene and this stands out from the tense background music that is heard throughout the opening scene and this is used to make the audience jump and again helps to show the horror genre.

The lighting throughout the opening scene is very natural as it is mainly set outside, however when the protagonist moves in to the church, a place where you would believe he is safe, the lighting is used to show otherwise. It is extemely dark inside the church and this helps to build up the audiences tension as they can not predict what will happen and there is only a small amount of lit coming from the window.

Macro Features

The costumes that are used for the zombies show the audience the part that they are playing; they are wearing red lenses and old torn clothes. The main character is wearing hospital clothes and has messy hair which shows that he has been unconcious for a long time.

   The setting is very important for the film as it shows the audience the genre and gives them an idea what the film will be about. The first setting is a deserted hospital, we are able to see that it is deserted by all of the over turned chairs and drinks cans that are spread across the floor. When the protagonist walks out in to the centre of London there is other items scattered on the floor such as souvenirs and there are over turned buses and cars. The protagonist also see's a missing persons wall which shows that there has been something terrible going on. All of these settings are used to show the audience the genre of the film.

There is a limited amount of characters in the opening scene and these are the main protagonist and you see a few of the zombies and this helps to make the opening a lot more intense