CB; Textual Analysis 2 of Insidious (Wan, 2011)

Analysis of Insidious

 Opening Sequence

Genre
The film belongs to the horror genre and is the sub-genre of supernatural horror, having a shadowy old women inside the house while the inhabitants sleep. To a great extent, audiences generic expectations of a horror film are fulfilled with the use of low key lighting presenting dark shadows outside the window, which then go onto reveal a ghostly looking woman holding a candle to highlight her gaunt looking face as well as producing a sense of visceral pleasure with audiences receiving a spine chilling reaction.

Form and Style of Opening
This particular style of opening includes a range of movement in which is communicated by the use of panning of the camera, this builds tension on the audience as they are constantly moving with the film and have little time to actually focus upon one aspect.  A montage of images are also incorporated within the opening, appearing black and white as they have been saturated in order to create an eerie as well as malevolent effect. A sense of foreshadowing events are structured by the shot where the boy is sleeping in his bed, from this the audience can link the image with the shot of the ghostly woman and can therefore predict that the boy will play a victim to her possessive requests. This is additionally presented within character exposition, as the high angled shot of the boy sleeping in his bed instantly connotes innocence and vulnerability and so provides him with credit from the audience. The title is integrated into the footage after the setting scene, appearing vividly on the screen in red block capitals before flickering by the use of lighting, creating a dramatic emphasised effect in which remains with the audience all throughout the film. The title of the film defines as the 'proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with very harmful effects' , in which helps to explains the presence of the woman and how dangerous she could possibly be to the health of the people consumed within the house.

Film Language - Telling the Story
Mise-en-scene is key in identifying characters in the sequence as well as placing them within the good vs. evil category. For example, the demonic spirited woman appears in a long black dress with a veil over her face, connoting death alongside a corrupt intent to perform heinous activities whereas, the boy is seen to be wearing fairly colourful pyjamas highlighting childhood and exposure to adverse events. The camera angle always places the characters within the centre of the shot in order to reveal more of the surroundings, giving the audience a feel for the atmosphere in an attempt to build suspense and tension as well as keeping them engaged. The sound played throughout the sequence anchors the images well as it gives them a sense of sinister consequence which further foreshadows likely acts that we can expect to see as the film progresses. The ideas I could take from this opening sequence to include within my preliminary task are:

• Montage editing
• Saturated images
• Panning
• High camera angles
• Low key lighting

Narrative
The narrative is organised by a selection of images in which reveals aspects about the story. For example, the montage of images illustrated within the sequence each convey an image in which the audience will see at some point during the film, being significant within constructing the storyline. The audience are positioned in relation to the narrative as we are provided with lots of information about the characters and their surroundings, with the long shot of the boys bedroom reinforcing innocence with a teddy to be seen in the bottom right hand corner. We are mainly positioned with the boy as he is given the most prevalence  (appearing on screen the longest) than the demonic woman, as he is younger and gains the sympathetic vote from the audience being defenceless and fragile. The major themes within the narrative are:

• Evil
• superstition
• Possession
• Innocence

Representation & Ideology

• Both young and old social groups are represented in this sequence mostly by the use of mise-en-scene (costume). This concept is constructed within the shot of the woman that she is old, as she appears wearing a black dress covering her neck, in which the audience can relate to as being of a Victorian style.
• We make a value judgement that children are percieved as corpses for possessive spirits to take over as they are seen as weak. This is demonstrated within the shot where the boy is asleep in his bed, with a birds eye view shot being present  in order to make him seem small and defenceless.
• Ideological discourse of both age: young and old and gender of a boy and older women.
• Emergent ideology is illustrated within the sequence as girls are often used as victims within horror films, having a male antagonist manipulating them with power.
• This challenges the dominant ideology that boys are more superior than girls as the boy is portrayed as the protagonist. This is again highlighted as the boy lay asleep in his bed, whilst the woman stands dauntingly in a dark black hallway with a malicious look about her.

Media Audiences
The target audience for this film is mainly aimed at the horror genre audience of males aged between 15-24, containing elements of visceral pleasure that satisfy the need for excitement and the desire to feel intense emotions. The possible audience readings of this opening sequence are:

• Dominant (preferred)- with the understanding of that the child will be used in some spiritual activity in where he will be possessed, if not tormented, by the elderly woman.
• Negotiated- as the audience can recognize the events in which will occur but don't necessarily think it right to use children as targets of evil doings.
• Oppositional- as the audience could absolutely oppose  and objectify to the use of children being prime targets of evil.

Opening sequence clip: