Analsis of The Conjuring Opening

How does the title sequence establish genre, character and narrative?

Newspaper articles show that the story is about a haunted house, showing that the film is a horror, more specifically, supernatural horror. Black and white images along with music instills a horror feeling within the audience. Black and white indicate a reference to the past, again showing that the events have already occurred.

Character is established at the very beginning of the opening where the two families, the Perrons and the Warrens, are shown by family photos. In the second frame shown above we can see the Warrens giving a lecture, showing that they are the ghost hunters and that the Perrons own the haunted house. The children of the Perrons are shown many times in the opening but, with different people. A newspaper article also shows that the Warrens got rid of a possessed doll called Annabelle. This links the film to its prequel, Annabelle.

Narrative is established by newspaper articles which, sets the scene to show that ghosts are haunting a house, which is shown by a frame showing the house. The newspaper articles indicate that ghost hunters arrived to tackle the problem. These articles along with pictures are placed in front of the audience by an unknown person, indicating that the events have already happened.

How does the title sequence attract an audience’s interest?

The music itself generates a horror feeling and the newspaper articles begin to set the scene and build up tension, making the audience want to know the entire story. The font used seems to be a commonly used one, possibly, times new roman or verdana. This tricks the audience into letting down their guard as the film actually contains many shocking scenes.

What do you consider to be the target audience of the film and why?
 

The target audience appears from the opening to be for a Group A, B and C1 audience as the opening seems to show an old fashion style of life of the characters, which tends to appeal to the higher class audience more. I would rate the film as a 15, as it contains many shocking scenes which are unsuitable for the younger audience. There are no sexual or violent scenes making it appropriate for under 18s. The actual age rating of the film is 15+.

Who has produced the film and how is that evident in the title sequence?

 

The Conjuring was produced by New Line Cinema, The Safran Company and The Evergreen Media Group. This was evident as it was written in the title sequence following the seventh frame above.

It was individually produced by Tony DeRosa-Grund, Peter Safran and Rob Cowan. This was shown in the second frame at the beginning of the post.