Friday the 13th - opening scene deconstruction

Deconstruction of a film opening in Friday the 13th

For my deconstruction of a film opening, I did Friday the 13th Part IV: Jason Lives. This is a 1986 Horror with a sub genre of Slasher, directed by Tom McLoughin and supernatural is a follow up of the original  Friday the 13th movie 

 The opening shot is a long establishing shot of the night sky, we can see a forest below. Stereotypical 'horror' mist is on screen and the non-diegetic sound is played on shrill strings. Despite the audience not knowing what is happening yet, the music creates an already eerie setting and is fits in with the image being shown. We can already tell from this establishing shot where the film is set, in a forest which is in an isolated location. This fits in the with the genre of horror/slasher as conventionally they are set in locations away from society and away from help. In this movie they use a forest which is purposely set at night with a full moon to create a 'supernatural' feel to it

As the characters drive down the road, we see a mid shot of a dog eating a fox. This grotesque imagery shows it is a slasher through it's blood and gore. We can hear the dog munching on it diegetically as well. 

 The camera cuts to one of the character's holding the infamous 'Friday the 13th' Mask, used as an iconograpy piece to link the six parts of the movies together and show it is still off the same franchise. This is also to create mystery as we, the audience, begin to wonder why they have possession of this mask and what happened to the killer and where are they taking the mask.

 A creative transition is used of a flash. Originally we see a close up shot of a gasoline bottle which then flashes to a new scene with the characters walking through the graveyard to signify a time differences as they have clearly arrived at their destination (The graveyard) We can tell by the diegetic lighting sound that the flash was meant to signify a bolt of lighting, a typical weather conventions in horror's to portray danger. The use of the character being located in a graveyard is to show the 'supernatural' theme as they are now in the place of the dead, clearly with a purpose to bury one of the graves up (as they have a spade in their hand) Graveyards are typically known for being scary at night, used as a way to frighten the audience.

Typography:

At the end of the opening scene, the title flashes up as if it is paint that has been splattered onto the wall. The colour red, of the text, is to show blood (a convention of a slasher film) and portray danger to the audience. 

I liked this opening scene as it gave an indepth introduction to the narrative story and introduced the characters and antagonist, which is important for a slasher story. However, from looking at it you can tell it is an out-dated film which is overly dramatic, something we can remove from our own to make it more realistic.