The opening scene of The Conjuring establishes a sense of mystery and impending danger through low-key monochrome lighting and unsettling non-diegetic music. Newspaper articles provide clues about the film's themes of ghost hunting without revealing details, intriguing viewers to learn more. Character introductions are also obscure and unsettling, hinting at unfortunate circumstances without explanation to keep the audience engaged and wondering what caused events in the film.

1. The Conjuring Analysis
The opening scene of The Conjuring begins with a still long shot of the Perron family. The
monochrome lighting is quite low key, which is a common feature in horror as it creates a
sense of mystery and impending doom. It also makes the image appear very dated, perhaps
to indicate that the characters have now deceased. Horror films often revolve around a
brutal murder of some kind
and the culprit can take the
form of any number of roles,
such as a psychopath, a ghost,
or a monster. This links in to
the primary aim of a horror
film, which is to unsettle the
audience’s primal fears,
including their terror of the
supernatural.
The non-diegetic music sounds like a low-pitched horn that doesn’t settle on a particular
note. This creates a feeling of restlessness and insecurity, which engages the audience as it
makes them anticipate what will happen next. In addition, the volume is quite low which
forms the impression that danger is lurking around the corner, making the audience
apprehensive of an imminent disaster. Joseph Bishara incorporates reverb in this section;
this creates quite an eerie sound which plays on the audience’s fear of the unknown. This
music could be described as resembling a swarm of flies, a noise which many people
consider to be displeasing. The use of discordant sounds to evoke negative emotion is a
common technique employed by film composers. Hans Zimmer, for instance, experimented
incessantly with unpleasant audio when scoring The Dark Knight, particularly when creating
the leitmotif for the Joker.
The start of the film
incorporates a
written narrative in
the form of
newspaper articles.
The subtitle “ghost
hunter gives second
lecture here”
provides a clue as to
the film’s main themes without giving away too much detail. It also forms the impression
that the film is recalling events that have already happened, which allows the chronology to
be manipulated in order to engage the viewer’s interest. Even though the audience doesn’t
know what the film is about they catch a glimpse of the aftermath in the press, which

2. intrigues them to find out what it was that caused such a stir. This could be described as
obscuring the narrative as it is not in chronological order and is a common technique used in
horror films to keep the audience hooked. The omission of key details is continued
throughout the film’s introduction, for example, when the character of Vera Farmiga is
shown on the screen. Although the full newspaper article is not visible words such as “dead
boy” and “demon hunters” encourage the viewer to find out more as no background
information is provided.
The introduction compromises of
slides which appear to be beaming
from an overhead projector. This
has conotations of detective work,
perhaps reflecting ideas being
bounced backwards and forwards in
the light of new evidence. The
characters are typically presented in the style of family portraits. They often appear to be
taken from a distance, as if they were just ordinary people who met with very unfortunate
circumstances. This is effective in unsettling the audience as it ties in with the underlying
message of horror films: that this could be you.
In one long shot, the characters almost
appear to have been decapitated as the
opening credits are pasted over their heads,
perhaps to indicate how they will meet their
untimely death.