Narrative
The Woman In Black (2012) is a thriller/horror film set in the Edwardian era, in the Yorkshire Dales. The film is based around the terrifying story of if you see the "Woman in black", all the children you come across will be killed. By basing the film within the Yorkshire Dales, this suggests the notion of isolation, a typical convention of a horror film in order to entice the audience and keep them intrigued. The film opening establishes the horrifying theme of children committing suicide, which re-occurs again and again within the rest of the film.
Mise en Scene
The first shot establishes the lighting of the scene - low key, grey and mysterious, creating an eerie atmosphere within the room and therefore, immediately scaring the audience. The prop of an old china tea set communicates the innocence of the children, how they are just having a fun time together playing with their dolls. However, there is a juxtaposition within this scene due to the lighting and the sound, as these two aspects suggest a darker, scarier side to the scene. Obvious juxtapositions such as these are common within horror films as they entice the audience into wondering what is going to happen and the sense of vagueness scares them - however, this is how people who are into horror films want to feel.
The prop of the dolls has cleverly been used to symbolise the youth of the children and their innocence. Although dolls are supposed to be nice and aesthetically pretty to look at and play with, these particular dolls are oddly terrifying due to their old, worn down Edwardian appearance. This makes the audience wonder why they are playing with such toys. Old, eerie toys which the audience can associate with are often used as a prop within horror films as it allows the audience to become more involved within what is happening, as toys are familiar objects. We see a small, child's hand pretending to make her dolly "drink the tea", therefore, controlling the toys actions. This notion of controlling foreshadows what is about to happen to the children.
This establishing shot introduces the audience to the three characters of the little girls playing happily with their dolls together. Their facial expressions are happy as they are smiling, and the audience can identify that all the dolls are placed in a circle, communicating that the young girls are having a 'tea party'. Again, here, the non-diegetic music and low-key lighting suggests otherwise. Within the background, an old Edwardian style pram is in the left corner, and an old high chair is in the right corner. These props suggest that the scene is in a nursery, located in an attic room at the very top of the house (implied by the slanted roof in the background). This significant detail comes into consideration later when the children jump out the window, enticing the audience to think about just how high the small children jumped from, exaggerating their death. Exaggerated deaths are common within horror film genres as it creates suspense, tension and drama - which is just what fans of the genre want to see.
Suddenly, the children stop concentrating on their tea party and look up to the corner of the room, where the camera filming them is situated, suggesting that this is a point of view shot from whatever they are looking at (which in this moment of the scene, the audience don't know). This sense of unknowing entices the audience and the intense change in music grasps them further, perhaps scaring them even more, giving them the adrenaline that they want to get out of watching a thriller/horror film.
As the children stand up and walk towards the window, they step on all their toys and break them with their feet. This symbolises how they are possessed by whatever was in that corner of the room because what they treated with gentleness only a matter of seconds ago, they are now treating with disregard. This shot resembles the death within the dolls, and therefore, within the girls.
The lighting in this shot is cleverly done. The main source of light is coming from outside the window, where the children are standing, the rest of the room has a low-key, eerie lighting. The contrast of light and dark allows the girls' figures to become silhouettes. As they are about to jump off the window to their deaths, the bright light connotes heaven, because the scenery outside the window is barely visible; it is just a bright white light.
This final establishing shot of the nursery room implies to the audience that the children are no longer there, for the audience to take into account what just happened, and the room is completely empty, apart from the toys they once played with. The window in which they jumped out of is in the centre of the frame, which connotes that this was the main subject of the scene. As the camera zooms out, there is suddenly the outline of the side of someone's face; a woman with a veil over her face. Due to the position of the camera and the lighting coming from the window, the audience can only make out her black silhouette suggesting that maybe she is the Woman In Black. As she is standing in the right corner of the room, this allows the audience to link back to the shot where the girls look over at that very corner, implying that this woman was the one who possessed the children to kill themselves.
Sound
The Woman In Black opening scene uses very sinister non-diegetic music which starts off quietly and gradually becomes louder, and more emphasised, to enhance the scary atmosphere and tension within the audience. The music sounds as if it would come from a music box, only the tempo is slow and has a twist on it so it sounds similar to tolled church bells ringing, like they would at a funeral service. There is diegetic sound of the china set clinking as one of the girls pretends to pour the tea into a cup and later on, again as the girl drops the cup onto the floor as she's possessed. The diegetic sound of smashing comes from when the girls tread on the cups and porcelain dolls heads. This sound is loud, and echo's slightly. This effect on the noise is used to build tension within the audience and to accentuate the noise over the non-diegetic music. As the three girls jump in slow motion, the music box style music stops and intense non-diegetic strings play. This sound gets louder and louder, scaring the audience, perhaps making their heart race as they find out that the children are killing themselves.
The only dialogue within the scene is a woman's voice after the children jump. She screams and shouts "MY BABIES!", suggesting that this voice (which the audience can not see as it's coming from outside the window) is the mother to these children. The personal mother and child bond is felt within the audience, therefore exaggerating just how horrifying their deaths were.
Editing
The first shot uses a fading in transition, as this goes along with the fading in of the music. It also introduces the slow tempo of the scene, to create more of an eerie effect. Continuity editing is used in time with the music in order to create a sense of realism, because this will scare the audience more if they believe that it is all real. The entire scene is in a slight slow motion and especially when the children jump out the window, the tempo of the filming is slowed right down in order to accentuate and intensify their deaths - implying that this is an important action of the scene.
Opening credits
Horror/thriller movies do not conventionally have their opening credits within the opening scene as this could potentially spoil the introduction to the whole mood of the film, depending on how it's done, or what specifically the opening is. Due to the opening scene of The Woman In Black being so important to focus on due to the plot, it would be unconventional to have opening credits here.
I like this film opening as it really entices the audience into wanting to know what happened, why it happened and it also really introduces the genre of horror/thriller because within the first 3 minutes of watching the film you are already scared.
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