Film opening 2: The Cabin in the Woods (2011)

WHAT I CAN APPLY

Director: Drew Goddard

Writers: Joss Whedon, Drew Goddard

Actors: Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Connolly, Anna Hutchison

Production Companies: Lionsgate, Mutant Enemy

Budget (estimated): $30.000.000

Genre: Horror, Thriller, Mystery

Five teenagers head off for a weekend at a secluded cabin in the woods. They arrive to find that they are quite isolated with no means of communicating with the outside world. When the cellar door opens, they go down to investigate. They find an odd assortment of relics, but when one of the women, Dana, reads from a book, she awakens a family of deadly zombie killers.

The idents of this movie are "Lionsgate" and "Mutant Enemy". In most movies, the ident of "Lionsgate" is known for opening up doors where it's title then shows up on a background of a blue sky and clouds. 

However in the case of this movie, there is a binary opposition, since this time the gates are not opened to heaven, but are opened to hell.

This change of the "Lionsgate" ident, already emphasises on the genre of the movie due to the color, but also the non-diegetic sound of old rusty metal when the doors open up. 

After this, the screen goes black and there is blood everywhere, while the titles of the director, and the production companies show up. 

When the two men who have been introduced to earlier drive around in a mini car, the man on the right talks about that he needs to pick up some things. In that very moment that he says that, there is a freeze frame and the title of the film "The Cabin in the Woods" is projected on screen. That same second, there is a non-diegetic sound of a scream.

It is written in capital letters and in a big red font. Again the color red is used. This color is known for several things such as blood, anger etc. The chosen font and the scream underline the horror genre of the movie.

The camera then changes from the freeze frame to an establishing shot, of a boy riding his skateboard in a neighborhood. It is sunny outside and everything seems very peaceful after the scream we had just heard.

There are only about 5 different titles of actors that show up on screen. Due to this, we can conclude that there is probably not any supporting cast in the film, since it is just about these 5 going to the cabin.

Furthermore, the font of the titles are written in red and in blood. Each time the names of the actors, producers etc. disappear of screen, they fade away and the blood runs down from the name.

The way that the media producer has chosen to make the red font drip down the screen as if it were blood helps the audience to identify the genre. In the opening sequence there are pictures shown in the blood. These pictures show old myths and rituals. This entire opening and it's font where used to convey meaning to the audience, since it was clearly portrayed to them, that the genre would be horror.

The overall effect of this red color is that it connotes the genre of the movie and indicates that blood will be spilt and the actor's we see on screen will most likely suffer.

Especially in this part of the film opening, the media producers may have wanted it to look like big pools of blood. In these, the audience can see pictures of hooded men, a women sitting etc. It looks a bit like pictures taken out of books from old myths.

Moreover, there is a very dark and mystical non-diegetic sound of a song playing in the background. This is added for effect, again to build up tension in the audience.

In addition, there is blood mixed with flames and what looks like lava. This again emphasises on the genre, since it is the typical signs an audience looks for in a horror movie. Especially blood.

All of a sudden, there is a binary opposite created, when the opening sequence ends out of the blue and a mid-shot of a coffee machine comes up on screen.

This binary opposition is very clear and straightforward to notice, since it goes from a dark and red image with a dark sound of drums in the background to a mid-shot of a happy feeling of a nice cup of coffee and no music at all in the background.

There is a conversation taking place between these two men for a while. 

While they are having a conversation they walk around the place where we assume that they are working. This helps the audience to establish a setting. In addition, the mise-en-scene of the costumes could hint that they are working at either a hospital, a lab or something similar.

In the case for the symbolic signs in this movie, you could notice that the colour red was being used very often. On many occasions, the colour red signifies passion and love. However in this film, you can immediately notice that it signifies hell, anger and blood. The audience can notice this, due to the chosen non-diegetic music and other signs such as the blood and the fact that all the titles have been written in red.

In this opening sequence, we are introduced to two actors that we consider to be working in a lab or hospital. After this, the audience is introduced to the main actors in the movie. It is sunny outside and they are laughing together. This definitely suggests that Todorov's theory of the narrative formula has been implied since there is an equilibrium. 

Since the task was to analyse the opening sequence and not the entire movie, it is difficult to say if the institution has created this movie with the entire conventional structure suggested by Todorov. However, we can state that in most horror movies it is often the case that this narrative structure is not being followed except for the first 2 steps. 

In most horror films, the equilibrium takes place and then there is a disruption of the equilibrium. However, it is unusual for a horror movie to have a reinstatement of the equilibrium.

Through the chosen structure of the opening sequence, with having the introduction in red and blood and then creating an equilibrium, the audience knows that something is about to happen and that there trip to the cabin probably wont work out the way they expect it to be.

Moving on to discuss the conventions of the horror genre, we can state that "The Cabin in the Woods" is a great example of the ususal scream queen/final girl.

In the film opening, we find out that the girl with the brown/reddish hair who is portrayed as smart with all of the books on economics that she has packed and the creative drawings, is the one that survives in the end, whereas the typical blonde is one of the people who is killed first. Her friend is pictured as the stereotypical dumb blonde,  who does whatever she pleases, by throwing out a drawing.