Supernatural Horror Openings - The Woman In Black (Characters & Situations) // Research

Characters

Antagonist in the left foreground

Only one key character appears to be shown in this opening and this is shown right at the end where there is an over the shoulder shot of someone wearing a veil. This is likely to be the antagonist as it is where the being who made the children jump out of the window appeared to be earlier in the shot when the children looked over at someone. In this shot very good cinematography is used as the antagonist is only shown a little on the right hand side and if I'm honest at first after watching this film twice I didn't even notice the antagonist in the right foreground. This is good because it's very subtle, which makes it more creepy, meaning that if people notice her they will be worried about who that woman is and why she did that to the children. While if others don't notice her in the foreground they are left to their own imagination to wonder who made the children do that and why.

Some stock characters are also shown (the 3 children). These stock characters are young, female children which is quite typical as they are very vulnerable to supernatural beings. They are first shown at 0:16 in a long shot. These actresses are not recognisable (well known) showing how the star system wasn't used as these actresses are likely to be able to behave how they want when not filming as they are not under pressure to be perceived in a certain way in the media. It is highly unlikely for the star system to be used anyway as it ended in the 1960s and was used in Hollywood (this is a British Independent film). As well as this diegetic dialogue is heard at the end of the opening revealing another stock character of the mother or mother figure to these children.

Situations

This opening is quite a typical stock situation. There's no better way to start off a supernatural horror than killing off some stock characters. The fact that these girls kill themselves under the antagonists order suggests that similar events may occur later in the film. The audience can also conclude that the antagonist has something against children.