My Thoughts...

After looking at these horror opening sequences, I've started to warm up to the genre and ideas have begun to form in my mind.
I've had one particularly prominent idea that could be a possibility for my own opening sequence but it isn't fully formed yet.


♦ I know that I would like the format to be similar to Mirrors and Black Xmas, by having the production and distribution companies shown first, then followed by an event that foreshadows the story to come and then the title is revealed. I'm hoping that by having this order, it will prevent the opening sequence from looking like a trailer.


♦ I also really like the idea of having a creepy tune that is linked to the killer, so that when ever the audience hears it, tension is built up as they know something is going to happen.  
This will probably link in particularly well with one of my ideas.


♦ The idea is that there will be a babysitter and a young child in a house- the babysitter will probably be a young female as is typical of the genre, and I want there to be a young child as it will be all the more tension filled at the prospect that the child may die???
♦ The audience will then see subtle hints of an impostor in the house, during the initial shots to build up tension- this is something done well in Black Xmas- while the narrative is based upon the baby sitter counting in a game of hide and seek while the child runs off to hide.
♦ Since the baby sitter will have her eyes closed, the impostor/killer will be able to sneak up and kill her.
♦ The audience will then hear him say something to himself like 'ready or not hear I come' and he will begin searching for the young child that has no idea the baby sitter has been killed- I think this could be quite creepy.
♦ Here I think it may be effective to have alternating shots of the child hiding and the killer gradually getting closer, to build suspense. I could possibly also have shots of the knife (that he killed the baby sitter with) dripping blood.
♦ The editing could also get faster to reflect the rising tension and panic in the audience.
♦ As the killer comes right up behind the child's hiding place, the camera could possibly show a shot of some blood dripping to the floor right in front of the child and then cut to the child's look of horror and then again at the child looking up at the killer before the killer grabs the child and kills her.

♦ Having the killer killing the child may be a bit problematic because I don't feel entirely comfortable with showing it on camera- I could possibly show it from an angle where you don't actually see it properly...or even through an object like a snow globe as is what happens in Black Xmas.

♦ A further problem with using a child actor is that it may be harder to direct them to act in a certain way. This is something that I'll have to consider carefully if I choose to develop this idea. 

In a way this idea could be seen as a little unoriginal- which may be a bit of a problem, but it's all that I've come up with for now.