The Woman in Black Opening Analysis

The opening sequence to 'The Woman in Black' is clearly meant to frighten and intrigue the audience. This is obvious not only because of the actresses, but definitely due to some of the things that you can see in certain shots due to the camera angles.

This is the first shot in the film. As people already know that this film is a horror movie, to have something as innocent as this be the first shot on screen will make people feel uneasy as the mise en scene connotes thoughts of childhood and purity, giving them a false sense of security. The non-diegetic sound of the soundtrack starts to play in these close ups and because this music has such an eerie feel to it, it makes the audience start to think that something bad is going to happen, although they don't know what. Also during this shot, the diegetic sound of the glasses hitting each other echo to give a more eerie feel to the opening sequence.

In this next extreme close up shot we start to get a better idea of the creepiness that this film is trying to display. This is mostly because of the doll which is a piece of mise en scene stereotypically seen in the horror genre, but also because of the fact that we can now see the little girls hand which reminds us of this idea of innocence.










This extreme close up gives us a good look at another sinister looking toy, and also shows us that their is more than one child currently in this room. the close up also hints at the era this film is set by the mise en scene of the type of doll they are playing with.









This wide shot is meant to prove to us that their are in fact three girls in this room. We can also see by looking at the mise en scene in this shot that this is based around the 1900s. The mise en scene of the costume and props are effective in demonstrating where about in time we are in this wide shot because the audience can see that they are not only playing with old fashioned toys but are also surrounded by other aspects of mise en scene that can place the time period such as the furniture or the style of pram. the wide shot also reveals that the little girls are alone, increasing the feeling of uneasiness in the audience as young girls are stereotypically seen to be naïve and unable to protect themselves.




The repetition of extreme close up shots in the opening amplify the feeling of uneasiness in the audience as they cannot see what else is in the room, so they are unable to identify anything that could pose a threat to the characters in this scene. It also makes the audience feel trapped.





















This two shot and close up shot show the audience that these girls are innocent and pure. The reason for this is that it shows their happy facial expressions. It increases the eerie atmosphere as it continues to give the audience a false sense of security as the girls look happy, though we can tell by the shot types and both diegetic and non diegetic sound that something bad is going to happen.