Task 2.1: Horror Film Intro Analysis - 28 Days Later

In the introduction for the film '28 Days Later', the first thing the audience sees are riots on the streets being recorded on a hand held camera. In this shot, there are diegetic sounds of people screaming, this is a very iconic sound in horror films as it makes the audience scared and they wonder what's going on. It is also filmed on a handheld camera which allows the audience to feel like they are there in all the chaos, making them feel stressed out.

After this, it cuts to a dark room with apes inside of it. The lighting in this shot is dark as it aims to creep out the audience - similar to other horror films. Not only is it dark, but there is a diegetic sound of apes screaming and shouting. This, again, sounds like people screaming in a prison as they are all in cages. The shot also pans around the room and we can see an ape who is dissected, showing its rib cage and blood - this makes it look like a zombie.
We see a man walk in with a white lab coat on. From this, we can connote that he is a scientist and he is keeping the apes locked up. Mad scientists are often characters used in horror films and they help create the theme of zombies.

In this dark room, there are quite a few red lights scattered around. The colour red can connote themes of violence and danger which will happen - it's almost like a foreshadow. Soon, some people in dark, black costumes enter the room in order to save the apes, but this makes them look mysterious and dangerous and makes the audience wonder who they are.

Soon, the apes are let out and they start infected the people in the room, turning them into zombies. When the first woman turns into a zombie, the camera does an extreme close up on her red eyes in order to make in look scary. As this happens, non-diegetic music plays and it builds up in a creepy way in order to intensify the situation. This is done in a lot of horror films as music has a big effect on the actual horror at hand.