Research: Effective horror film opening: Halloween 2

  http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=uzKuFMU459I

Micro

The opening of Halloween starts with very dark lighting and there is a storm outside which can be heard, we hear thunder and lighting whilst she is lying in the hospital bed and this helps to create tension. It shows the audience the genre of the film.
It then moves to the nurses and we see a medium shot of them talking and laughing which then changes to a close up a shows they are happy, this is in contrast to the previous scene as that was very dull and negative.
We also see a close up of the girls face which is very scared and this shows that it is a follow on film as she has already been through a trauma.
A low angle shot is used to show the girl struggling down the corridor and we see that she is very ill and again injured. We also see long shot and this shows the audience her isolation and there is tense music playing in the background to show the audience something is about to happen.

There is a long shot showing the nurse walk in with blood all on her face and then the thunder sounds in the background again this shows the horror aspect and then the Halloween man walks in and screams are heard. The opening ends with the nurse laying dead on the floor and this is shown through a high angle looking down on her.

Macro

The setting for the opening sequence is typical for the horror genre and shows the audience straight away what sort of film it will be. It is set in an isolated hospital with hardly anyone around with dark lighting.

We see the main protagonist who is the main girl and we see how she escapes from the antagonist. A monster fodder is also used and it is a nurse who is of ethnic minority and this is something that is reoccurring within horror films and the ethnic minorities are often killed of first.

There is Halloween decorations around the hospital counter and this shows what time of year it is and ties in with the title of the film this is also something that helps to show the genre of film to the audience. Horror iconography is used when we see the scars on the patient and the blood that is covering the nurse. 

For example in the picture this is the perfect way to use iconography to show the horror genre.