Analysing Thriller Openings (#5)

During our lesson before the Christmas holidays, we watched the opening sequence to a variety of famous thrillers including 28 Days Later, Arlington Street, Collateral, The Shining. After looking at these film openings we were asked to write an analysis of one of them, describing aspects such as how the camera work creates suspense. the film i chose to write about is 'The Shining.'

‘The Shining’ begins by setting the scene with an establishing shot. The location used creates an eerie feeling as the lighting is very gloomy showing, what seems like, an isolated house surrounded by trees and a mountain in the background. This shows the importance of location and setting when trying to create a particular atmosphere. There is then a cut straight to inside this ‘house’ and it becomes clearer that it is actually a hotel. We know this by the mise-en-scene of long corridors and many hotel room doors facing opposite each other. The camera is located behind a young, small boy on his tricycle and begins tracking the boy as he rides along the long corridors. The camera appears to have a hand-held effect as if we, as an audience, are also riding a bike behind the little boy. A lot of suspense is built as the camera is at the same level as the boy and following him directly which means that we can only see what he sees, this idea is emphasised particularly as he turns around the corner because we are expecting something to happen. The non-digetic background music adds to this uneasy feeling as well as the long unedited and slow pace shot.
The little boy stops by a door and looks up at it. There is a low angle shot looking up at the door from his level emphasising his vulnerability. He continues to stare at the door numbered ‘237’ suggesting that this is possibly a relevant number used later on in the film. Next, there is a clear close-up of the little boy’s face which is made clearer due to the surrounding background being out of focus. It then cuts back to the previous low angle shot showing the door number and then to a medium shot of the boy looking back at the door. The slow editing pace is continued which again, really builds up the suspense as ‘the scary part’ that we are all expecting is very unpredictable. The boy then stands up and walks towards the door as the camera pans his movement and he edges forward and puts out his hand to open the door then takes his hand away and looks up. The camera then quickly cuts to two little girls standing there and then straight back to the little boy who gets back onto his tricycle and rides off quickly along the corridor whilst the camera, this time, does not track him and remains static.
The fact that the little boy is riding along an isolated corridor on his own and the feeling of emptiness in the hotel seems quite strange however, I think that the music plays a major role in building tension as when the same clip is played without the music, the two twin girls just appear to be normal little girls who in fact, are not scary at all and the little boy just seems to be riding around on his bike.
This opening is overall very effective. So much suspense was built up slowly making a quick shot of two little girls appear to be very scary. I personally like the idea of having the camera behind the main walking/moving subject as it gives the impression that you are there with the character and only know as much as what the character does.