Film Openings

Hey there blog! After careful consideration, Marissa and I chose horror as our genre. We still definitely want to include vampires in our films. Although some films such as Hotel Transylvania or My Babysitter's a Vampire are popular vampiric comedies, horror matched our vision far better. 

To construct our opening scene, we needed inspiration from various horror films. We asked ourselves questions like, "What kind of audio do we use?" "Should our film opening start off scary or casual?" "Is there a certain color scheme we should use?" etc. 

These questions and the proper expressiveness of our film opening were aided by doing further research!

IT

An overview of the film opening of the movie IT would be a small boy, playing in the rain, who comes across a sewer drain. He meets a mysterious clown that supposedly lives in the sewer, the film opening ends with the boy reaching into the drain and the film title appearing on screen. This is the less graphic version. 

In the graphic version on the other hand, we see the young boy's arm ripped off and blood on the street as he gets dragged into the sewer by the clown (Yikes...) 

Watch the film opening here!

This film opening is considered "a landmark in horror" as said in an article related to the film opening IT Opening Scene. This is due to the act of children dying in such violent ways. A clown feasts on children, unlike other movies this is the main plot point. By killing off innocence the aspect of horror is magnified by a landslide. 

For our vampire/horror-based film opening, we were thinking of including a "bite" scene. Probably not as graphic as IT, but still insinuating blood and violence. The shock aspect of the bite scene in IT really inspired us as it's for sure the type of scene to make you flinch. The low-level lighting also contributes to the clown's mysterious aura. We plan on utilizing some form of dark lighting in our film also, perhaps at night. Overall, the gore and mystery aspect of IT may have some similarities to our film after all. 

Dracula 1992

Wow. This film's opening, in my opinion, was really well made. It doesn't necessarily have a horror aspect to it. Instead, it starts out with a backstory of one of the main characters, Dracula. 

It specifies how and why he came to be a vampire and what he was like when he was human. The suicide of his wife and lover foreshadows his ache to continue to find love in the afterlife. Her suicide was due to the lie of his death, making him furious and damning God, inevitably cursing him as an eventual vampire. 

Watch the film opening here!

 Unlike the movie previously mentioned, IT, Dracula does not have horror elements in its opening. But, the opening does have scenes of suicide, violence, and low lighting. (The low lighting seems to be a common theme here) Many reviews on "IMDb" Dracula (1992) state the film is significant because it is different from more modern vampire films. Many state that although it has a romance aspect its less teen-like and silly such as the Twilight franchise. 

This unique aspect of the opening is something my teammate and I have discussed, we may or may not include non-horror elements in our opening. This might be a good touch as it leaves some suspense for the viewer of what's to come. 

Midsommar

The Midsommar opening scene is incredibly graphic and heart-wrenching. The movie opens with firefighters exploring a dark household. "Silently, Aster’s camera also wanders the corridors of Dani’s parents' home, showing how Terri connected tubes from the garage to both bedrooms, collecting the toxic fumes coming out of the car exhaust." -Marco Vito Oddo Midsommar Opening Scene. Terri, the main character's sister, commits suicide using a car exhaust, taking her parents with her. This extremely graphic scene showcasing the effects of depression opens the movie on a strong note. 

We later hear the muffled cries of the sister for a whole minute before the title screen. The screams and cries add an unbearable and stomach-churning touch to the audience. 

Watch the film opening here!

Once again, this film's opening does not directly have an element of horror right off the bat. But, the opening does include dark elements including suicide. This is another "backstory" approach similar to Dracula, possibly providing context for what is to come. 

The dark lighting is seen AGAIN, with eerie non-diegetic sound accompanying the entire film opening. These pieces added by the director give a sense of uneasiness, adding to the horror aspect of the film. 

However, Marissa and I probably won't include a backstory, as we want our film's opening to be in chronological order of events. The Midsommar opening is still gruesome and creative, but we won't utilize many techniques from the film. 

Bruner, R. (2017, September 8). We need to talk about the opening scene of It. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/40464877/we-need-to-talk-about-the-opening-scene-of-it

IMDb. (n.d.). Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) – IMDb. Retrieved February 9, 2025, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103874/

Collider. (n.d.). Midsommar’s opening scene is a horror masterpiece. Retrieved February 9, 2025, from https://collider.com/midsommar-opening-scene/