I will be analysing the intro to the film ‘Mirrors’ which was released in the year 2008. Mirrors was directed by Alexandra Aja who has directed horror movies before, which gave her some experience in the genre. The reason I am analysing the intro to this film is to gain an insight into how horror films are put together. This will help us to put our own horror intro together. It’s is rated an 18 so it’s aimed towards adults who are into horror films.
The introduction is 3 minutes long. It starts off by fading into a shot from below a man running. The camera isn’t kept still, its handheld to put us into the film and make it seem more realistic. From his face expressions you can tell that he is very afraid and must be running away from something. He is in the subway and in the background you can see that the walls are graffitied on suggesting that he is in a rough neighbourhood. He comes to a gate that is locked so he’s trapped on the other side. This was clearly shown because the camera was behind the gate where as he was on the other side trying to get through.
The cameras movements are still very jerky as he carries on running still looking very scared. It flicks through lots of angles to give it a quick pace, to almost make us feel out of breath just as he is running. The camera sometimes zooms onto him very quickly to say that something is defiantly happening to him, it’s putting all our attention on him. We get wide shots showing us the whole setting, which is still in a subway because of the trains. The lighting is very dingy to create a scary atmosphere. The music is scary music (violins) to make the audience very tense about what's going to happen next. It has high-pitched long notes to drag the running out, to put us in his position again.
He comes to a door that’s padlocked so he grabs a fire extinguisher to smash it off. The bang sound effect has been added for dramatic effect, if it’s added they can make it louder and change the pitch etc to exaggerate the effect. He is now in a room with no way to get out except for the door he came through. The clips are now longer than before which shows the running is over. There are lots of lockers with mirrors in that open up to face him. You can see his reflection in all of them with a point of view shot seeing into the mirrors. This puts us into his shoes to see what it feels like with all of the mirrors pointing at him. The lighting in the room is very dark and a light is flickering on and off which really sets the scene. It makes it seem like something is wrong in the room.
When he gets upset the camera gets really close to his face to emphasise the fact he is scared for his life. The camera keeps changing from the mirrors point of view to an over the shoulder shot of the mirror. They are putting us in both places, the monster and the man. They are giving us a taste of what it feels like in both places to see what it feels like. When the mirror kills the man he falls to the floor and there is suddenly a loud bang noise that was added over the top, it then goes straight into saying ‘Regency Enterprises Presents’. I guess its saying you have seen the beginning of the film which was very scary and to watch the rest at your own risk. It’s like an invitation to watch the rest of the film.
After analysing this film’s intro I have learnt that to create a brilliant horror film we must: Have tense music to slowly scare the audience, hand-held and still camera shots to make it seem more realistic, loud sound effects to exaggerate the effect and to make it more scary, and finally to set the scene with good lighting. Good lighting can determine what the genre will be.
by Ben Schramm
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