Insidious Opening Title sequence:
Straight from the beginning of the opening title sequence the director introduces us with a vile and grotty non diegetic sound track which instantly tells us the genre of the film which is horror. The director presents us with a stereotypical horror film narrative starting with a young boy laying in his bed late at night. The narrative of the opening title sequence is very continuous leading to something shocking and terrifying indicating the genre of the film. Due to the opening title sequence we can also immediately tell that the target audience for the film Insidious is going to be aimed at horror film lovers and a older age category. It is not aimed at children or young teens as the events we can retain happening from the opening title sequence are very terrifying and not apt for younger age categories. we know this due to the scenario the director has put us in. We are visualizing a “normal” house with a young boy sleeping late at night. Everything is dark until a scary figure just oops out giving the viewer a scare jump. From this little information we have seen we can already obtain a lot of information about the genre of this film. The fact that the non diegetic soundtrack which is composed by many violins just playing at different notes gives the viewer a weird and nightmarish feeling. There is also an introduction to shadows which create a thrill and a build in tension to what could be hiding in that house. The fact that we are presented with only one character which is a young boy makes us want to help him and get him out of this haunted house creating a feeling of unsettling.
Due to the time of day, as it is at night this creates more of a terrifying feeling throughout the while scene. we are only introduced to one character in the whole opening title sequence, which is the little boy that we can guess is around the age of 8 - 9 because of how his room is decorated. For example, his bed sheets are different colors and he has a teddy bear sitting at the edge of the corner of his room. The room is also surrounded by toys which makes us understand the age of this character. We are also introduced with the spirit at the end of the opening title sequence who is holding a candle and is in the middle of the camera shot signifying they are staring right at us and are going to haunt you. Prior to that we can see a sniper of the sprint because of the shadows this creates tension as we know something bad is going to happen. In general, this all builds up tension and makes the viewer know something bad is going to happen to this young boy.
Throughout the whole opening tile sequence there is a hand held shot which is continuous until the end. This shows continuity and creates a slower motion for the viewer to understand what is happening and then create a shock at the end. It start with a up to down long shot and then it smoothly runs into a establishing wide shot of the little boys bedroom, the it continues out of the door and shows some characteristics of the house, lastly it Enid sin a mid shot of the spirit holding a candle. The sound is astonishing, at first there is a slight non diegetic soundtrack with sort of spirit sounds and light violins playing almost silent. It then moves on to loud violins playing at different chords this is to signify something is happening.
Personally, I believe this is a great opening title sequence as it gives the viewer a small piece of what they are going to watch without spoiling anything to quickly. It introduces the characters in a slight way and sets a theme and genre of the film. It is a very simple opening title sequence however shows everything needed to show to produce interest to the viewer and want to keep watching more of the film.
