9 Frame Analysis

“CABIN IN THE WOODS”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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’.

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.

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.

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.