1) The opening scene uses atmospheric shots of a creepy old manor house in black and white to set up a feeling of fear and suspense. 2) Inside the house, a woman is shown protecting her son from an unseen threat, while strange noises are heard. She is then thrown against a wall by an invisible force. 3) The children try to escape but the sister is dragged away screaming while the brother hides in a cabinet. A hand suddenly grabs the boy, ending the scene on a frightening note as he screams.

1. The Messengers Opening Scene

2. The opening scene of the messengers is all about using the setting to create an atmosphere of suspense and
fear. The film openings with various shots of a manor covered in roots. The affect on the image is in black
and white and is also softened, giving off a type of old fashioned and creepy feel to the atmosphere as
everything is dark. The non diegetic sound brings a feel of fear, but also a supernatural presents as the
sound of wind, strings and low choir voices play. At this point the camera moves at different angles of the
house in a kind of way as if it were a bird flying, this then links to another part of the scene where we see
crows perched at the top of the house and as we know crows can symbolise an omen, and like a raven can
be associated with death and darkness. Between each transition of the shots of the house we have the
titles of the companies that produced and distributed the film, here the background fades from the shot of
the house into black and the white writing then back out to another shot of the house, also giving a feel of
darkness, but also the moving of shadows.
Low angle shot of the manor and the crows perched on the top. Here the non diegetic music is suddenly stopped with the
sound of a bass drum and we hear the sound of the crows.

3. From this scene we cut to inside the house and the music gets louder. The first thing
we see is a door, and a woman holding a young boy in worry. Straight away the
audience is left asking the question, why is she so afraid. We then cut to a low
angle shot of the stairs and the music becomes more aggressive, the way we see it
the audience is left thinking that the camera represents a person, maybe that’s
who the women is running from. We then keep cutting back and forth between
the scene with the worried woman and her son, and the camera moving up the
stairs, giving the sequence suspense as the threat draws closer.
As the door slowly opens everything is silent and all you can hear is the creaking of the door. This is building
suspense as the audience is left waiting for something to happen. But when it’s opened pretty far we don’t
see anyone, making it seem supernatural.

4. Suddenly we hear a scream and the woman is thrown against the wall. When this
happens we don’t see who pushes her, and the sound the wind as she is thrown back
sounds quite supernatural. We then move to a close up of the young boy under the
bed crying in fear as he witnesses his mother being thrown, making the audience fear
for his safety.
We then have a shot of the blood on the wall where his mother is thrown, showing that her injury is bad, and
she might be dead. This creates even more fear for the young boy as the person who is protecting him is now
incapable of protecting him.

5. The next shot is once again of the boy crying under the bed, but he then turns his head to the direction of
where his mother was thrown from. We then see a shot of the door and a tall dark shadow of what looks
like a cloaked figure moving across it, giving the audience a feeling of a supernatural presence or a powerful
threat.
The boy then runs into the hall way where he bumps into his sister, and straight away we see the fear that
they both share, as the boy screams in fear and his sister is worrying about where her mother has gone.
We then have a close up of his sister’s face, as she looks past the boy looking frightened. This makes the audience think that
there is something behind him that might jump out of the screen. As she looks past him we hear a lot of unearthly
movement, similar to wind but more supernatural, and we then cut to a shot of the shadow in the previous room moving
closer to where they are.

6. They then run down the stairs, but the camera focuses on the boy, who runs and hides
under a table. We then hear a scream from his sister, and as we can’t see her, we think
she has been caught by whatever is after them.
This is until we cut to a long shot of his sister being falling over the banister of the stair case. The way in
which she is thrown over and the movement of the banister shows another supernatural force interfering, as
no one else can be seen and no one can push the banister that hard to make it move like how it does.

7. The girl then crawls over to her brother, although obviously in pain from
the fall and tells him to “run”, showing that there is an obvious threat in
the house that is after all of them.
The girl is then dragged back into a dark room and we see her claw the floor trying to escape. As she is
dragged she screams in fear and the music becomes a lot more aggressive than previously. We then fear not
just for the safety of the boy, but also the girl because we don’t know what’s going to happen to her or why
she’s being dragged into dark room. At this point while she is being dragged we still cannot see the person or
thing that is doing it, hinting at a supernatural being present.

8. The boy then runs into the kitchen, and into a cabinet where in the background you
can still hear the sound of his sister screaming. When he shuts the door of the cabinets
the music stops. This creates an atmosphere of suspense as everything is silent and he
is in a dark enclosed place. The camera then moves close to the cupboard where the
boy is as if someone is approaching it.
When in the cupboard we have a close up of the boys face and a line of light on it where one of
his eyes is. With this show we are able to see the boys face and see that he still very afraid. We
can also hear the sound of supernatural movement and voices speaking, showing that someone
is outside the cupboard.

9. The cupboard then slowly opens just like the door did previous, and we can’t see anyone. We then have a
shot of the boy from an on looking point of view who by the light is obviously being exposed. At this
time, the door is opening very slowly and we can only see the boy looking down crying. He then lifts his
head and looks out of the cupboard, but nothing happens, this here is building tension because we are
waiting to see what is going to happen, and who is doing this.
Everything is silent, and suddenly we hear allowed banging sound, and the camera cuts to a shot of a dark human hand
reach quickly into the cupboard, obviously to grab the boy. This unexpected event is used to leave the audience
frightened, and to jump out of their seats as it was sp sudden. The scene the ends with a shot of the boy screaming and
the sound of the boy scream, as he has been caught finally, we then finally see another shot of the house, and the crows
flying away from it, this could symbolise that the presents of the crows has caused this, as they are known to symbolise
death and darkness.

10. The title of the film is shown at the end of the sequence, the previous shot
of the house fades into black going inwards until we are left of a shot of
the window of the house (picture above) and the title of the film then
comes on the scream.