Deconstruction of the opening sequence of The Woman In Black

 Deconstruction of the opening scene of The Woman In Black


The mise-en-scene of a little girl's nursery with dolls and a pretend tea-party set up creates the illusion of an innocent opening scene with three young girls in. However, the genre of supernatural/psychological horror is quickly revealed when the 'music box' tune, which is glockenspiel percussion and then some bells come into it, gradually ascends in volume and becomes creepy and eerie.

When the three girls start doing things in unison, the audience can then tell they are in some sort of trance and it comes as a big shock when they jump out of a window, killing themselves. Having this initial shock in an opening of a film sets the tone for the rest of it and can give the audience a clue as to what's to come. It also conforms with common conventions of a slasher/ psychological film opening of ending with an enigma- a cliff-hanger or unanswered question as to which hooks the audience in the hope of being able to find out what happened later in the film.

The close ups of the dolls and toys being crushed by the girls’ feet again portrays the evil and destructive nature that has taken over the minds of these three pure and clean-minded girls.

As mentioned before, the child-like tune is used in a more sinister way and is slowed right down to make it sound supernatural or frightening and the gradual crescendo enhances this ghostly effect, especially when there's a slight echo to the music.

When the three girls all look round and stare, the camera pauses which creates a dramatic effect- it allows the audience to understand that this is of significance, but the camera angle doesn’t allow the audience to see what they are looking at. This is enigmatic because the audience is in the unknown.

The costumes that the girls are wearing is effective because once they are in the trance and doing everything in cannon, they almost look like dolls that a greater force is playing with and manipulating, again giving a twisted edge to the young girls.

There are also lots of close ups of old china dolls used which is a common convention for horror films and is also effective mise-en-scene for this opening.

The orchestra gives one final loud play when the girls jump to their deaths followed by a silence, and then a mother's scream. This opening scene jumps straight into the genre of horror.
  There is also a greyish gloomy colour that has been put over the footage in the editing stage to make it look dated and give it an eerie effect.

FULL OPENING SCENE OF 'THE WOMAN IN BLACK'

Overall, I think this film opening conforms to both conventions from psychological horror by having the murder right at the very beginning but with the 'killer' remaining unknown, as well as having a creepy, eerie feel to it because of the fact that it's based around little girls having a tea party. It's also conforming to supernatural because we can see that the girls become 'possessed' and end up killing themselves. The close ups of the detail on the dolls faces, along with the slow, mysterious music creates an effective opening for this horror film.