The document summarizes and analyzes the opening title sequences of 5 horror films: Psycho, Dawn of the Dead, Alien 3, Evil Dead, and an untitled horror film. It describes elements like print styles, music/sound, and action used in each opening to effectively set the tone and establish the genre for the audience. Elements like distorted text, intense music, images of zombies and viruses, eerie sounds, futuristic spaceships and aliens, red bold titles with shadows and blood, and a twist involving a possessed girl tied to a tree are discussed. The document examines how these elements build tension, discomfort, and effectively conform to horror genre conventions to prepare audiences for each film.

1. By Samah Raja

2. Psycho
– created by Saul Bass
Print Credits- The opening title of the film is seen to be big and bold,
and white, which creates emphasis around the it, making the title stand out.
The title and text also appears to be cut up before whole words join together.
This creates a sense of distortion and confusion, which could be a
representation of the mind of a psychopath (liking to the title “Psycho”).
Music/Sound- from the very beginning and throughout the music used
is extremely high-pitch, intense, and dramatic. It creates a frightening
atmosphere and builds up tension and fear within the audience because it
sounds so aggressive and threatening.
Cut up text before
and after it joins
together to create
the opening title.

3. Dawn of The Dead
Print Styles- The title itself appears to be bold and red which
is a connotation of blood. Blood is a typical feature horror films
are associated with. The opening displays the credits and text on
the screen as big, bold, red, and the way the text transitions off
the screen resembles trickling blood or how disease is spreading.
This may represent the infection of the flesh eating virus
spreading globally.
Film Title
Opening text
trickling away
representing
blood.

4. Action- The beginning displays splice cuts of crowds of people praying in
foreign countries and images of bloody zombies, which is a representation of
the disease spreading globally. Using the images of zombies within the very
beginning was effective because it highlighted that the genre of the film was a
horror straight away, as zombies are associated with the horror genre.
There are images and videos of the chaos occurring within cities, news
reports of the killings by the zombies, and images of virus cells multiplying.
This emphasises of the severity of the outbreak and the effects it is having on
the world.
Virus Cells
Multiplying
News Reports
Cultural
representation
of the spread
of disease.
Chaos and
destruction
as an
outcome.

5. Music/Sound- In the very beginning there is dialogue and sound of a
news report trying to explain and comprehend the situation but failing to
answer many of the questions asked by the press. This is effective because it
creates a build up in tension as the audience would not know what to expect.
The background music used subverts to what a typical horror film would use
because when first heard it sounds very country, up-beat and happy. Although,
when listening to the actual lyrics of the song properly, it represents a much
darker meaning and creates a more evil tone to the opening. This is effective
because it would cause the audience to feel discomfort as they manipulated
something that originally sounded “jolly” and turned in into something much
more sinister.
News report
with press asking
questions within
the beginning.

6. Alien 3
Print Styles- The text within the opening is curvy and bold with a
futuristic style, which helps the audience to identify that the film leans more
towards a sci-fi horror mix. The text of the title is spaced out and is a washed-
out white colour, which again gives a futuristic, cold, and saturated look to it.
Music/Sound-There are supernatural whistling noises in some
scenes, which further helps the audience to identify this film as a sci-fi horror.
Several times we can hear sounds of an eerie horn playing throughout the
opening. The sound is played very irregularly and is slow pace, which creates
effect because it would cause discomfort for the audience and build tension
as they don’t know when it will play again and again.
Film Title

7. Action- The opening displays a shot of a huge futuristic spaceship, which
identifies to the audience that this is a sci-fi film. However, as the scenes go
on, this concept slightly changes as we then see disturbing images of a
terrifying beast which in the film is known to be an alien. This suggests to the
audience that this film is a mix of horror and sci-fi. There is also a scene with a
sheet turning red from blood stains, which conforms to the horror genre as
blood is always associated with horror.
Fresh Blood Stain
Long
Hand/Claws
of Alien
Futuristic
Spaceships

8. Evil Dead
Print Styles- The title and text are bold and red which automatically
highlights the genre of this film to be horror. The title further seems to have
shadows within it, which appear as cracks but also looks like creepy tree branches
(both perceptions of the image creates effect because it further connotes the
horror genre). Blood pouring and covering the text could suggest to the audience
hoe this film ill contain gore, violence and death.
Music/Sound- The background music is extremely loud and
dramatized, which creates a tense atmosphere as the audience watches from
the start. The music further starts to starts to slowly accelerate in pace, which
is effective because this builds up the fear and tension inside the audience.
Then all of a sudden the loud dramatic music comes to an end out of
nowhere, which leaves the audience on the edge of their seats as they
wouldn’t know what to expect next. Film Opening Title

9. Action- In the opening the beginning scenes are very graphic and
disturbing as it displays an innocent looking girl pleading her father not to kill
her as she is tied up. This creates a sense of sympathy for the girl for the
audience as she appears helpless and scared. As the father is about to burn
her, the girl then turns out to be processed by a demon and starts to act crazy
as her father sets her alight, then shoots her dead. This is effective because it
is a twist and creates a shock factor as the audience would not have expected
her to be evil. This whole scene displays images of darkness, blood, pain,
witchcraft, and filth, which all conform to the genre horror as it sets the scene
and devises a frightening atmosphere.
Images of the
‘Innocent’ girl turning
into a demonic being.