Film Openings: Insidious (2010)

Genre: Horror/ Thriller

Box Office (gross): $97, 009, 150 (worldwide)

Distributor: Film District 

Studio: Alliance Films, IM Global, Stage 6 Films

Critical Acclaim: Won Best Horror Film & Best Supporting Actress (Lin Shaye) at the Fright Meter Awards

Success & reception: It was the most profitable film of 2011

Mike Hail from The New York Times described the film as having "the strongest analogue for the second half of Insidious is one that the filmmakers probably weren't trying for."

Christy Lemire of Associated Press acclaimed that "Insidious is the kind of movie you could watch with your eyes closed and still feel engrossed by it...it'll grab you with some disturbing, raspy whispers on a baby monitor, a few melancholy piano plunkings and the panicky bleating of an alarm as a front door is mysteriously flung open in the middle of the night."

Narrative

The film begins with credits of which fade in and out where non-diegetic music simmers in the background. As the idents appear we are shown a high angle long shot of a boy sleeping in a bed. It seems that the camera is a crane shot of which moves across the room and travels to a corridor within the house. Immediately a long shot of the corridor shows the viewer a shadow of a woman, heightening the senses as the non-diegetic sound motif kicks in. The crane shot turns into another room to show a middle shot of a ghostly woman holding a candle which then zooms into a close up. The shot fades out to which the music stops (lasting for 2 seconds). The title appears and the non-diegetic sound motif immediately plays. As soon as the shot fades to black, a series of shots of the house appear having been presented with a black & white filter whilst the credits play. The opening scene ends with a the camera zooming out of a close up shot of a woman sleeping. The filter is removed and the scene begins.

The story-line is established within this minute narrative with the way we are already given an ominous atmosphere. We can establish that it is a horror by the way the female character has been captured to which is also enhanced by the music.