RG "The Woman in Black" (Watkins, 2012)

Genre

• The genre that is represented in 'The Woman in Black' is horror but a sub-genre of supernatural horror.
• In this opening sequence the audiences expectations for a supernatural horror are fulfilled. This is seen through the use of a house as location, the use of selective sound when the girls step on the dolls, and the fact that the antagonist is shown as unknown throughout the scene.

Form and Style of Opening

•  A sense of foreboding is created in this opening scene through the use of sound, mise-en-scene and camerawork. 
• Character exposition is present as we only see a portion of what we are led to be the antagonist of the film. We are also shown a preview of what her role is in the movie, which involves the death of children.
• The titles are integrated into the footage through a transition of smoke, this creates an eery effect for the words 'The Woman in Black' to appear on screen.
• The title of the film connotes negativity as the colour black normally connotes darkness and fear of something we cannot see. The woman being the antagonist reverses the typical convention of a supernatural horror movie as they are normally the protagonist.

Film Language and Narrative

At the beginning of the opening sequence there is an extreme close up of a little girl pretending to sip into a tea cup and then a cut to another extreme close up of the girl giving it to the doll. As they are using teacups and saucers, it represents the idea of the movie being located in England, as tea is shown as a stereotypical part of British life. Meaning the location creates verisimilitude as it is realistic and able for the audience to relate to.

The chime in the music gives the soundtrack a childish feel and the use of children is a very common convention for the horror genre as they are vulnerable, and many humans "care for children" instinct kicks in therefore they fear for the children more. The soundtrack isn't dramatic, but, quite hypnotic and repetitive which builds tension for the audience. Also, through the use of bells, it creates the idea of a funeral for the audience, meaning, the audience realise that the movie will include elements of death throughout.

When the girls stare into nothing in the scene, the audience are intrigued to see what they are looking at. With the known genre being horror, it is suspected it is a ghost or another type of evil creature. The audience soon begin to realise the children have been put into a hypnotic state and create sympathy with the children which places the ghost as an antagonist.

From this sequence we could take the idea of using no dialogue and just non-verbal language to convey the idea of the unknown. We also aim to use a child as the central character in our opening sequence, from this scene, we could take the mise-en-scene and sound used to portray the children as innocent.

Representation and Ideology

In this sequence the children are represented as innocent through the Victorian dolls that are being used to represent the time period this is being set in. This is a dominant ideology of age and gender, as in our society, children and especially females, are viewed as being playful, and harmless.
In this clip we culturally mark the children also, this is because the children agree with the stereotype that audiences have. Which is that not only are they innocent as I previously mentioned, but also are easily led on, and in this sequence we believe it is 'The Woman in Black' that leads them to kill themselves.

Media Audiences

The target audience for this film is the general target audience for horror films which is people aged 15-28. The movie was originally going to be rated a 15, however, when they realised they'd prefer their target audience to be younger (12 and up) they cut parts of the film to make it appropriate to this age rating.