Inspiration of Opening Credits of American Horror Story Hotel

Inspiration of Opening Credits of American Horror Story Hotel

After having watched the opening sequence of AHS Hotel, there were a lot of features that I identified which conforms to the genre of thriller. Common conventions of thriller included:

- Low key lighting

- Quick cuts

- Shadows

- Tense music 

- Changes in the angle of shots

- Diegetic sound of breathing 

- Black and white shots

- Montage of shots

- Protagonist is in the mercy of the antagonist 

- Lots of close ups and extreme close ups

- Lots of jump cuts (because there will be things happening that the audience is unaware of but is essential for the film to make sense. Cross cutting is a key point in editing as it is used to build suspense which is essential for a thriller. )

(Music is essential in any film to understand the mood of the characters and hint at a significant part in the film. In a thriller it adds suspense and tension. It will often start at a slow pace and then build up to make the shots more dramatic for the audience)

 The first shot we see in the opening of AHS Hotel is a pair of hands which have broken through a wall. They seem flustered as if they are trying to escape out of wherever they are locked in. From the title, the audience can make the assumption that it could be a hotel room that they are trapped in. It's also worth the mention that throughout this whole opening credits sequence, we are constantly given point of view shots through a spy-hold which creates the implication that there is always someone watching you if you are in these hotel rooms. 

All the typography is like this throughout. It looks like neon lights at a cheap, tacky hotel. It's a red glow which also conveys evil or danger and the harshness of the light creates an uncomfortable, unfamiliar setting in which you wouldn't want to spend the night. The typography is sans serif but also looks fairly modern which gives the programme a more contemporary, unique edge.

Again, we have this shot of the spy-hole looking at a woman's fairly provocative legs. There is then blood flowing towards her which tells the audience about about the sub-genre of slasher horror. The image below as well also contains a dark, rich red blood which could resemble the depth to the murder; the blood looks fresh meaning that the murder was recent and the fact that they are cleaning it makes is seem as though they are trying to remove the evidence as quickly as possible, potentially ready for their next hotel resident.

The silhouette hides the identity of the character and the fact that they are staring at a blood-dripping wall suggests that they were the killer and they are possibly proud of what they have done because it looks as if they have stepped back to admire what they have done. From the hairstyle, you can tell that it's a woman which subverts the common conventions of a killer being male which firstly causes an enigma because of the disguised identity but the audience's imagination is further tampled with when the shape of the shadow narrows it down to a female.   

The mise-en-scene and special effects in this scene are really clever because it creates a personified effect to the bed and makes it look as though the bed has arms and are trapping the girl on the bed. This suggests that the hotel is alive and has a mind of it's own; it's not a person within the hotel trapping it's guests, it's the hotel itself.

Again, the peep hole has been used to frame the writing in this shot. In the same typography that has been used throughout the rest of the opening scene, one of the 10 commandments has been scrawled. The 10 commandments along with the Seven Deadly Sins are woven through the opening, giving the programme a religious edge, potentially revealing a psychological side to it. Below is another commandment but this time it's just on a black screen rather than placed in the peep hole. This firstly creates a range of frames and it also makes it easier for the audience to read when it's enlarged.

This shot is the only shot we have of the actual peep hole, so this confirms the audience's assumption of looking through a hotel door's peep hole and they can also presume that this is a point of view shot and they are looking through the eyes of the watcher which helps make this opening interactive and engaging to the viewers.

Finally, the common typography is flashed up flickering (like a hotel sign) ad then gradually fades to black, almost like the light in the hotel sign as gone off.

The editing in this opening is extremely fast-paced which keeps the minds of the audience on edge because they are constantly having to quickly comprehend what they've seen. This is why the creators have kept the images basic, and by basic I mean obvious as to what they are i.e. it was clearly someone scrubbing blood off of a carpet. This means that because the audience don't have much time in between each shot to interpret what they have seen, making the visuals obvious rules out the temptation for views to misinterpret or overthink what they have seen. However, some of the graphics are shocking and will leave the audience questioning what they have just witnessed after these quick opening credits.