Supernatural Horror Openings - The Woman In Black (Genre Iconography & Themes) // Research

Genre Iconography



A creepy doll

The props used follow the typical horror iconography very well. Items that people can relate to, but made a lot more creepy are generally used. For example, lots of the female audience will relate to playing with dolls when they were younger, and in this opening dolls are shown, but they are made to be very creepy. In addition to this a creepy rocking horse and other old fashioned toys can be seen in a long shot of the girls in the room.

As well as this the location is pretty iconic as the room and décor of the room is made to be old fashioned and spine-chilling. Throughout the opening some long shots and some close ups are shown. This gives the audience a chance to take in the location and at the same time focus on specific elements of it. In addition to this in this freeze frame you can see how there are 3 windows which matches the amount of girls there are. From a glance these windows appear to have the tops of trees as their view. This tells the audience how the girls are not on the bottom floor of the house and if they jumped out of the window they would get hurt. Putting characters (even stock characters) in tricky situations like this is typical of the horror genre as almost every time it means characters will get killed off.

A long shot showing the location



This film is likely to be set in the Edwardian era and the costumes strongly reflect this as the girls are wearing long dresses. This old fashioned style again as I said before can be very iconic for horror films as old fashioned settings and costumes are very easy to put a creepy twist on and make people feel uneasy.

However, one of the main iconic aspects of supernatural horror in this opening is the incidental music. This music fades in at the start of the opening and stays there throughout. It typically builds towards the climax of the opening when the girls jump out of the window and then fades out as the diegetic scream is heard. The music is very effective and iconic as it is one of the main things that create atmosphere. If you try watching this opening with One Direction playing in the background then the opening will not have the same creepy effect (unless One Direction creeps you out).

Themes


The theme in this opening is definitely the unknown, unfolding terror. I know this simply because continuity editing shows clearly the girls staring at the unknown being and then following it's orders. The unknown being unfolds a little with the over the shoulder shot at the end but there is still a lot more time for the being to unfold and reveal itself throughout the rest of the film.