The opening title sequence of "Cabin in the Woods" uses imagery and music to set a ominous and suspenseful tone. Images of blood and hieroglyphs are accompanied by ambient music that builds dramatic tension. A change to a mundane office setting provides momentary comic relief for the audience. The title appears alongside a scream, embracing horror film tropes. Subsequent shots introduce common horror film elements - an isolated cabin, young people embarking on a trip, and stereotypical characters - signaling the movie will incorporate and subvert genre expectations.

1. 9 Frame Analysis
“CABIN IN THE WOODS”

2. The film opens with a shot of blood running that reveals an imagine hidden
within it. Ambient music accompanies the scene and creates an atmosphere
that is chilling and suspenseful. The image moves along revealing more pools
of blood with other images within them. The images show Egyptian
hieroglyphs that look like they are about a ritual. This sets the theme for the
rest of the movie and delivers a sense of foreshadowing to the audience.

3. This shot shows us a new type of imagery being incorporated into the
opening sequence; a fire texture is added to the image to maybe foreshadow
some sort of apocalyptic catastrophe. The music is enhanced and more
strings and brass instruments are added to the mix to make the feel of the
movie more dramatic. The director’s name (Drew Goddard) appears in the
bottom right of the screen, telling us who has made the film. The score of the
film is raised into a minor scale before quickly shifting into the next shot.

4. A cutaway takes us to a poster stating ‘Enjoy a Cup of Fresh Coffee’. This
technique in Horror films is used as comic relief to give the audience a break
usually from the action that is going on. The music also stops and instead is
replaced with asynchronous diegetic sound of people making coffee and
working in an office. The director of the film, when asked if the title sequence
is almost a parody of the traditional Horror movie opening, replied with
“That’s sort of the spirit of the film itself” further enhancing the prominence
of this sudden change in scenery.

5. This scene shows us the environment that the previous shot was taken in. We
can see just from this image that this is an everyday image that is
accompanied by basic dull colours of white and black, shown in a two-shot.
This is an unusual setting for a Horror movie and stands out more than a
conventional setting (old dark house, woods, suburban town). The posture of
the characters shows them deep in conversation and makes the work that
they are doing look boring, without us knowing next-to-nothing about the
characters themselves.

6. This tracking shot shows us the two men going to their offices and talking
amongst each other. The expression on the men’s faces shows us how they
are feeling ad probably the environment at where they work at. There is no
accompanying music, just the diegetic sounds of people in the background
and the conversation of the two men; their audio is enhanced so the
audience can listen to what they are talking about.

7. Here we see the title itself appear, it is presented to us in old vintage style
that is a nod (possibly) to the old 70s era of Horror films; the classic era. The
title takes us most of the screen and stands out us to the colour scheme of
the red against the dull whites and greys of the office building. When the title
appears a loud scream is heard and a loud thump noise accompanies it, this
too is a typical soundtrack to a Horror movie which incorporates the use of
the character of ‘Scream Queen’.

8. This image shows us a typical shot that is common around Horror movies.
Women are usually included in Horror movies dressed in almost little to
nothing to attract a male audience; males are usually the most common
audience that go to Horror movies. This is a long shot of the woman
dressing, this camera shot is used so that we can get a clear and full view of
the woman in her house. Titles showing the actors names also appear to the
sides of the images.

9. This shot includes most of the characters in one setting, which speeds up the
process of introducing them. The stereotypical suburban neighborhood is
shown in this shot, this is a common location for Horror movies and we can
see just from the introduction of the female characters and now her
accomplices that this is shot in a very stereotypical fashion which lures in the
audience, challenging their expectations of the film.

10. The final shot of the opening tells us the director’s name and shows us a
camper van with a motorbike parked next to it. We can tell from this shot that
another stereotypical action is being played out in this film; the student
holiday. The location has already been established by the audience from the
title ‘The Cabin In The Woods’, this as well as the suburbia grove shows us
how much this film plays on the stereotypes of other Horror movies.