A01 The Ward - Thriller Opening Analysis

The music for this opening sequence is very eerie and creepy, and I think that this is perfect or the name and genre of the film. For 'The Ward,' you would expect to hear some screams or moans, thuds and bangs as you get a chilling feeling as you think of the conventions of a ward. This opening sequence features violins, various percussion instruments, what sounds like a xylophone and vocals. The vocals in this sequence sound very uncomfortable which is probably how the film is going to be. By having this uncomfortable, you know that something creepy and scary is going to happen throughout the film. In the first 10 seconds you have the non-diagetic sound of thunder rumbling and striking. These sounds start off quiet and then gradually get louder building up to the title of the film. There is also the sound of what could be a very fast heart beat or someone running down the corridor of this ward. This is a very faint sounds that you have to listen very closely for. This could be foreshadowing sounds and events that come up later in the film. Claps of thunder appear on the next few seconds of the sequence when new visuals come up, after this the sounds of a girl comes in and you hear glass smashing. The glass smashing goes along with the visuals as glass is smashing over the top of old images from mental institutions. The music at the end then fades out into the next visuals where the film begins. The music keeps at the same tempo throughout the piece, but it only gets louder for dramatic effect, again keeping the music at the same tempo lets you know that something massive is going to happen later on in the film.

The start of this opening sequence begins straight away, there is no fade in, t just gets straight to the point, the first 10 seconds almost look like the beginning of an American TV drama. The first frame was shot on a dolly that was moving backwards. Moving backwards instead of forwards creates the feeling that something is going to come on the screen as its moving back, but your watching the sequence feeling that something is going to come up in the staircase at the back, as this is the brightest part of the frame. The lighting in this frame is very very dark, which sets the mood for the film.

The title of this film is written in a serif font with the name of the director (John Carpenter) written in a sans serif font. Both fonts are very similar. The text is written on a black background which is effective as it doesn't take away from the suspense that has just been built up.

The remainder of the sequence features sepia images of patients that used to be in the mental institution, and 'methods,' hat were used to try and 'cure,' them. The images take you through a timeline of different methods used in the institution. At first you see people being stretched and then towards the end there are   people in straightjackets. The colour of the images changes which also shows the change in time and how long the time period was. These images are then 'covered,' in a sheet of glass and every sheet of glass gets smashed. The glass is smashed in slow motion which builds up tension rather than having it shoot off everywhere. You hear the sound of the glass smashing but the sound smashes quicker than the visual. The text in this part of the opening sequence is sans serif, just like the director's name. It seems that the title of the film is the only thing that is in serif. The final part of the sequence shows a piece of glass coming towards the screen in slow motion and then in that piece of glass you see the first frame of the first chapter of the film.