Dawn Of the Dead Opening Review - Horror

Dawn Of the Dead Opening Review

Dawn of the dead opens with silence pacing into dramatic music, the first shot is of an alarm clock and a family picture which could indicate its family film however the sound and darkness of the scene tell us this is a conventional horror. For the first 40 seconds the film only uses two camera shots to build tension and suspense. Both of these shots also create a sort of enigma code as they change so suddenly it’s as if they are mini cliff hangers. The girl standing in the hallway is shown as a dark figure almost like a shadow is suggesting also that the film is in the horror genre, the camera shot is at a low angle when facing the girl to make us feel over powered by her. 

The mise-en-scene shows the girl dressed in white, which emphasises the blood in her clothes to create a more dramatic effect and show that this is something out of the ordinary for this family.  There’s also A Extreme close upshot of the girl showing us she’s got demonic features such as the churned lip and cut neck suggesting she has been attacked by something unknown to the family. The shot of the girl biting the parent figure is backed by high pitched diegetic noise (man screaming) this is a high angle shot which alludes the man is a vulnerable figure. We are then shown a medium shot of the mother figure pulling the demonic child off the man, we are also shown blood and skin coming off the man these are connotations of horror. The audience are shown a power struggle between the three characters as they swap control and power throughout the opening this is proved by the flip between angles to show power via high and low camera angles as they determine who’s in control.

The high angle of the man falling to the bed dramatizes this shot as he again is wearing white to show the blood on his clothing to create the desired effect on the viewer. The opening also uses match-on-action to create more suspense/tension as they lock the door and the girl tries to open it forcefully whilst the mother figure assists the man by putting pressure on his bleeding neck. This followed by more high and low angle shots of the struggle between the man and women as the girl has turned the man into another demonic character and he turns on the women, showing their power struggle through camera angles, with short sharp shots causing the audience to be entranced by the scene.