Tuesday, 14 October 2008

Amityville Horror Opening Analysis



‘Amityville Horror’

Andrew Douglas, 2005


The ‘Amityville Horror’ belongs to the genre of Mystery Horror, the opening sequence is set in the 1970’s and the storyline is clearly linear. The generic audience’s expectations are fulfilled in the text as in the opening scene ominous music is playing, it is night, lightning is striking constantly and there is a yellow filter used whilst the original colour is slightly washed out. The evil character “Ronnie” is male and the innocent characters are mainly females which reinforces the generic horror movie expectations. ‘The Amityville Horror’ conforms to the characteristics of the genre because it is produced by American’s who conform to the conventions of the genre. They stick to the classic style horror intended to unease viewers so that they jump at anything. The sequence is action charged and fast pace employing many of the classic conventions of horror including lighting, location, sound etc.
In this opening sequence mise-on-scene is used to inform the audience of certain things without explaining them in dialogue within the film. Firstly we can tell that the sequence is set in the 70’s due to the clothing worn by the characters. We can also tell by the text’s font which looks like a typewriter’s font that the sequence happened a long time ago and that it was a documented event. The items lying on Ronnie’s table also convey a sense of evil to the viewers. By showing a quick shot of the items viewers only have a split second to interpret them. Cigarettes are shown which have unpleasant connotations and are usually associated with criminal people. There is also a book lying on the table which title reads “EVIL is PROOF of GOD” this instantly gets the viewer thinking about evil, god and other powerful forces that may be at work in this scene. An establishing long shot is then shown of the basement which Ronnie is in, we know it is a basement because of the mise-on-scene of the location showing a low ceiling, staircase and old basement boiler. This is another example of how mise-on-scene explains certain things to the viewer without presenting them in dialogue form. The way that Ronnie’s hair is long and partially converging his face connotes that he is a rebel and that he doesn’t follow rules which adds another level of fear to this sequence. The pictures of Ronnie on his shelf show him at graduation which conveys the message that he was once a good person and that something has changed. The layout of the house once Ronnie starts to walk through it shows that the family is wealthy and large and from pictures hanging on the wall look happy, this adds a great contrast as the family is at peace expect one family member, Ronnie, who is presented as evil. The camera work in this sequence is also used to convey meaning by using different camera movement and different shot sizes. One of the first shots of the sequence is an extreme long shot of the house. This establishing shot sets the scene introducing the location. Then extreme close up shots of Ronnie are shown, this is to convey his emotions which at this point in time are possessed. A very fast cutting rhythm is purposely used to add tension to the sequence and emphasize the action. The shots usually start at a medium long shot to establish whereabouts a character is an then cuts to a closer shot such as a big close up to firstly add tension and secondly show the emotions of that particular character. The angles used a very deliberate, When Ronnie is shown in the shot the camera is at a low angle which shows him as big and powerful whereas when the rest of the family are shown the camera angle is very high which shows them as weak helpless and defenceless. There is a mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic sound used in this opening sequence to anchor the images shown. Firstly the non-diegetic sound, throughout the whole sequence ominous and ambient music is playing. This music creates and maintains the tension within the sequence and makes sure that every shot is seen in an evil light. The only change to this music is that with the action it speeds up and gets louder to emphasize fear and tension. Other noticeable non-diegetic sound is a deep bass boom and camera click. The booms happen in synchronisation with shocking elements within the sequence to enhance them and cause an increase in tension within the audience. This works very effectively and also coincide with the fast cutting rhythm to add to the fast pace of the sequence. The camera clicks are played as the shots cut to convey the message that this is an event that has happened in the past and to help the fast cutting rhythm flow well. There are many diegetic sounds within the sequence one of the most important being the voice over. This voice over is diegetic because it is actually a somebody’s voice coming from the house, the voice is in a whispering tone but loud in volume so the audience can clearly make it out, the voice speaks the words “Catch them, kill them!” which reinforces the sense of evil within the scene and adds a very sinister level to the sequence. There are also many conventional horror sounds within the sequence which also conform to the generic expectations of the genre, these include lightning strikes, creaking doors etc. We also learn things about the characters through their dialogue. In the opening sequence there is only two lines of dialogue spoken by two individual characters, this happens right at the end of the sequence when Ronnie is about to murder the last family member Jodie. She asks him “What’s wrong Ronnie?” which is spoken in an innocent quite voice. This explains to us the characters naivety and also her innocents. Ronnie then replies “I love you Jodie” before killing her, this shows that Ronnie does not want to kill her and is being made to do it by something else. This idea is also reinforces by the tear that is running down Ronnie’s face at the point. The director uses many visual techniques to connote subliminal messages in the sequence. Firstly he washes out the colour and uses a yellow tint, as well as making the sequence feel slightly surreal it makes it feel old conveying the message again that this is an event that has happen in the past. He also uses lots of flashes and black screen to increase the cutting rhythm even more to action charge the sequence and to avoid showing gory parts so that the viewer assume what has just happened. Another visual technique used is a light ray effect. This is used when the light source is positioned behind Ronnie, what it does is cast Ronnie completely in shadow causing him to be a silhouette, this silhouette of Ronnie has connotations of evil and the light source behind him connotes the fact that there is some good in him.
In “Amityville Horror” the audience are not positioned within the narrative, they are a spectator who is shown everything that happens to each character. Even though the audience is positioned as a spectator they are set up to feel emotion for certain characters as if they were positioned within the narrative. The director has used the fact the Ronnie lives down in the basement on his own to alienate him from the rest of his family and to raise the audience’s suspicions of Ronnie himself. He also used old clothing on the characters so that it is easy to identify them as from the 70’s.
In this sequence there is an ideological discourse because of representation of social groups on a macro level. The ideological ideas of capitalism are reinforced by “Amityville Horror” because it shows how wealth leads to a happiness and success in life. The ideological ideas are also challenged in the sequence because family idealistic views seen in the photographs on the walls show a happy family whereas the truth is that there is something going horribly wrong within the family. This also challenges capitalism because even though this family is wealthy and supposedly happy in reality something is going horribly wrong. This can also be seen as challenging capitalism as it can be trying to show how capitalism can blind you from the truth as Ronnie’s family members could not see him changing into the evil possessed character he is. The semiotics in the scene work as a framework to show how capitalism is good, for example the pictures on the walls of the house show how the wealthy people are also happy and live a healthy lifestyle. There are also other symbols to show characters profession, for example Ronnie is wearing a checked shirt which would connote that he was a manual labourer.
I believe that from watching the opening sequence of “Amityville Horror” the target audience is young males aged between seventeen and thirty. The audience could read the text in many ways that differ from the intended reading. The preferred reading of the text is to show how a wealthy, successful and happy family is destroyed by paranormal experiences experienced a young male in the household. This is the preferred reading but people may interpret the text in other ways for example they could read the text as trying to challenge capitalism. As a young British male I interpret the text in my own unique way, I do understand the text in the preferred reading way but I also do not feel completely connected to the text because it is set in America with American actors. This means that the text is actually more powerful when shown to American young males as opposed to British young males like myself.

1 comment:

c_fernandez said...

Well done George - excellent technical analysis.

I'm not sure that I agree that there is an ideological discourse on capitalism in this sequence - in fact, I would have discussed how family values are reinforced and how christianity is reinforced through the discourse on good and evil.

however a solid attempt - 4-