Comparision of two opening horror scenes

For this task we had to pick two horror films and compare the two opening scenes to them.

For my first one I picked ‘Prom Night’, I thought it was good as it was a typical horror opening I chose this one because it’s a teen horror and it’s what we will be doing in Media lessons. She’s the typical American blonde that they want to put in movies. It keeps us wanting to watch this because she mentions when she says bye to her friends that she won’t be going on holiday with them because ‘of everything that’s happened lately’ but we don’t know what’s happened, leaving us wanting to find out. The lighting as she gets in the house is dull and the scene is quiet. She starts calling for her family, but no one hears her and as she goes upstairs there is a shot of her dad, who has been killed, it is also night.

The second one I picked was The Children, they arrive to their families’ house at night time, we already know who the last girl is going to be as they focus on her a lot at the beginning. The young boy of the family gets sick, but they blame it on travel sickness not knowing he has a virus that makes him a killer, we know something is wrong as in the background there is creepy music. There families’ house is near woods and in the middle of nowhere, typical horror. The family are wearing casual clothes as they are only going to their families’ house. It keeps you watching because you expect something scary to happen because of the creepy music, but doesn’t, so you end up keep watching. To begin with once they arrive, nothing does seem wrong, you get a shot of them all having a laugh in the kitchen but this is where their son acts strange.

They are very similar, but I think prom night is the better one as you don’t see her family die, you just see the expression on her face, and it keeps you watching because you want to know what’s happened to here lately and why her family died. With both films we know to start with who the last girl will be, as the camera focuses on both of them a lot. Both houses are family homes, but in prom night, her house isn’t in the middle of nowhere, surprisingly.