Task 2.1 Analysis Of A Horror Film (Saw)

The film opens in darkness with the sound of water and desperate cries from one of the protagonists, this connotes an element of fear and uncertainty from the audience, as not being able to see much of what is happening in the background is scary enough, but the added sound unnerves the audience even more. The lights are suddenly switched on and the room immediately illuminates, to break the audiences false sense of security. The lighting of the camera is tinted slightly blue and this creates an element of chaos and pandemonium in the scene as the colour of the shot is something we subconsciously associate with feelings of anarchy and turmoil. 

The second protagonist is introduced through a point of view shot, where a blurred image slowly focuses. This introduces us to the hazed memory of the character and provides us with the impression that they are disorientated and do not know where they are or what has happened to them

and this is a concept which is unnerving for us as we ourselves are seeking answers that the protagonists can not provide us with. 

Once the characters have allowed their eyes to adjust, they notice a bloodied body in the center of the room with multiple gun shot wounds. Before the camera tilts to show us the victim, ambient sound is used to assist the protagonist's realisation of what they have found; followed by a high frequency sound as the camera reveals the corpse, similar to that of a scream.

The opening scene ends with three cut away shots of the victims body and the objects he is holding. This is used to create an element of confusion and hint to the audience what happened without fully revealing the whole story, whilst drawing fear from us as we see the body and the brutal way in which he died.