Deconstruction Task - Babadook Opening Scene

Deconstruction of Babadook opening scene.

Here is a link for the opening scene of Babadook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wpS9otWz9s


The film Babadook is a psychological horror film which was created in 2004 many different editing and sound techniques help to portray the way that it is a psychological horror. In the opening scene the viewer already can tell that it is going to be a psychological horror because there is a woman in a car and there is weird sounds and screams around her that play with the audiences mind to question what was going on.

Non-diegetic sound is used in the opening sound to engage the viewers. The non-diegetic sound that is used is a high pitch sound coming from an unknown source at the very beginning and for a few seconds there is no sound when the opening scene starts the viewer can just see the woman sitting in the car looking distressed and this creates an effect because they cant hear anything the viewer is unable to tell what is going on and then after a few seconds of silence there is a high pitch non-diegetic sound coming from somewhere but the viewers are not sure where the sound is coming from. The high pitch sound creates an effect on the viewer of confusion and eeriness as they don't know where the sound is coming from and why the sound is occurring. After the viewers hear the high pitch sound there is another sound that is created and it is a low quiet sound and it creates the sense that the woman is falling but it also creates confusion upon the viewer as the woman is in a car and she couldn't fall for that long in a car. In the opening scene there is also another use of non diegetic sound after the voice has shouted ''Mum'' there is a spooky sound that is created and the audience don't know what it is and it sounds like voices but it is unclear to the audience once again. All the sound that it used in the opening scene of Babadook is conforming to the fact that it is a psychological horror because it is playing on the audiences mind the sound that is used is creating thoughts upon the viewer about what could be happening.

The camera angle shots that are used reflect the idea of a psychological horror because there is a high angle camera angle used upon the woman in the opening scene and this shows that there is someone above her looking over her and it creates the idea that there is someone in this film who has power over the woman and the audience in the opening scene cannot see who it is so this makes them think and it plays on their mind about what it could be that is above/looking down onto her.

This is a screenshot of the high camera angle:

Also in the opening scene of Babadook a close up shot of the woman's facial expression is shown. The close up shot focuses on the woman's facial expression and it shows the audience that she is obviously distressed and that she is being hurt by someone or something that is happening at the time to her. This conforms to the point about it being a psychological horror because the audience will question why the woman is in pain and creating that facial expression and it will be unclear to them and play on the audiences mind.

This is a screenshot of the close up shot used:

Finally the mise-en-scene that is used in the opening scene of Babadook is very simple. Throughout the opening scene there is the woman in a car and then she falls into her but the mise-en-scene that is used may be simple but it makes the viewers unsure of what just happened to the woman because one minute she was in a car and the next minute she was falling from somewhere and lands on her bed. Also in this scene there isn't any weapons shown or used when she is in distress which conforms to the common representations of a psychological horror.

Opening Titles Genre Effectiveness - Se7en

I think that the Opening Credits at the beginning of Se7en are effective throughout. One way in which I think that credits are effective is through the editing. The opening credits have been edited in a way to make them very quick and choppy so not much can be seen. This gives mystery throughout the first scenes as you can only see snippets of everything happening and makes it tense from the very start. The titles have also been edited so that certain scenes overlap each other and look transparent so two different scenes can be seen at the same time. One example when this was seen was when words were being crossed out and an overlay on top of this shot shows the words which couldn't be seen. This gives the viewer as hint on what the film may be about before it begins.

Another way in which the opening credits for this film is effective is with the choice of typography. There has been a use of a Serif font in the opening titles which creates an older and more ragged looking feel to the movie. It also suggests that the film is eerie and tense as the typography is uneven and made to look as though it has been warn away and scratched at. The typography is also effective as its look also fits with shots in the background relating to religion and obsessions which are highlighted to be in the film making it appropriate for the genre of film.

There is also a lot of links made to religion throughout the opening titles. This is shown through the close up shots of the Bible, with sections being highlighted, crossed out and cut before being added to another book. Words such as 'God' and quotes relating to the 7 deadly sins are cut out and kept suggesting that an obsession with Religion is one of the main focuses of the film. This relates to the film genre as Psychological Horrors are often based on an obsession of some sort which is focused on throughout the whole film as the serial killer uses it as his main focus in his crimes.

Finally, the opening scenes are effective as the shots ensure that the identity of the person committing all the crimes is well hidden, so to not give away anything at the beginning of the film. This creates mystery as we see close ups of the characters hands and fingernails but not their face as we are unaware who has the obsession and why.. This is also made more effective by the extreme close up of the character using a blade to peel off his skin and fingerprints suggesting that the character commits crimes and is going to extreme measures to hide his identity and ensure that he doesn't get caught.

Opening Titles Credits Timeline - Se7en

For this blog post I made a timeline for the Opening Credits for the film Se7en. The purpose of this was to look at how often the credits came up and to allow me to look further into the type of fonts used for the typography. It also allowed me to look at the shots and scenes that were included behind the text and how it made it more effective and stand out more.

Here is a timeline of the Opening Credits for the film Se7en:

From doing this timeline I learn that a lot goes into the Opening Credits of a film and that when deciding whether to create an opening scene or opening credits for my coursework, there is a lot that needs to be considered, such as the font used, the music, the shots and scenes and the editing to put it all together. I will use this timeline as a guide on how opening credits should be presented and edited.

Psychological Horror - Black Swan