This document discusses film openings that the author likes and dislikes and why. The openings they like are for the films "Woman in Black" and "Insidious". For "Woman in Black", they enjoy how it uses typical horror conventions while still being intriguing without revealing too much. For "Insidious", they feel the simplicity yet scariness raises intrigue. The opening disliked is for "Paranormal Activity 4" as while going for a home-video style, it lacks horror identifiers and moves too quickly without them from the franchise's popularity.

1. Film openings
What film openings do you like and
dislike and why?

2. Openings I like
• Woman in Black
I like this opening as it includes many of the typical
codes and conventions of a horror film, such as
the music box sounds, the attic location it is set in
and the three young girls. However, I feel this
engages the audience and raises many enigmas,
due to the contribution of a large range of shots
and the very interesting plot and not giving away
too much of the villain (Woman in black)

3. Openings I like
• Insidious
I like this opening as I think it is very simple, yet
scary and due to it being very simplistic, this
raises more enigmas. I feel that in horror
openings, there should be some typical codes and
conventions in order for audience to identify the
genre, this opening includes this with the low key
lighting, the scary face and the music. I also like
the text that they used, as it was red symbolising
blood and it was bold.

4. Openings I dislike
• Paranormal activity 4
Even though the purpose of this opening is to be
like a home-video styled horror, I feel as if they
should’ve included some typical horror genre
aspects to help identify the horror genre, as
without the popularity of the famous films it
would be difficult to identify. But overall, I feel
as if it goes too fast.