Analysis of a Horror   Opening Titles (4)

The fourth horror opening that I have decided to analyse is the film "The Haunting" (1963)

A clip to the opening of the Haunting is shown below:


Q.)How Does the title sequence establish genre, character and narrative?

When looking at this opening title we can see that this is a genre of horror as soon as it begins we can see that this is possible because when looking at this I can see straight the dark background with the grey clouds, with the slight image of a castle. As soon as we look at the presentation of the opening the colours that have been used within this are already seen as a dark, dull colours which maybe representing the idea of a Gothic Horror movie because of how the colours have been used to represent the genre.

Also when looking at this I kind of get the idea of the use of ghost style of writing that has been used.I can see this when the title "The Haunting" appears on the screen because it fades onto the screen and appears like a ghost is appearing onto the screen. Therefore from looking how the title appears in it looks like the style of a ghost appearance to it, with the colour of the bold white title being used this is also demonstrating the normal expected colour scheme of a ghost so already by watching this opening title we can see that it is giving a paranormal and Gothic genre to the film whilst only watching this.

Q.) How does the title sequence attract an audience's interest?
When looking at this opening sequence we can see that this would have an interest to the audience because looking at this we can see the idea of the colour showing mystery and Gothic genres within in the opening giving us the idea of what is this film about. However, to add onto this we can see that during the sequence there is narration this maybe introducing the film, however not giving really nothing away. This would appeal to the audience because they would want to know what is going to happen and why this narration has been involved with the opening title. On the other hand, when I look at this opening sequence we can see that this could cause many complications or corrections for the audience because they would know that this is for a horror however they would be deciding between the genres that they are using within the title, but to me it gives away a paranormal aspect to it because of how the title and been shown and maybe the the castle in the background may link to a haunted house showing that this is a paranormal theme that could have a dark essence to it which would by this would be an interest towards the audience.

Q.) What do you consider to be the target audience of this film and why?
I believe that the target audience for this horror film would be young teenagers who may be wanting to find out what will be happening, because we can see that haunting films or paranormal activity mostly would interact with young minds because of the danger or the fear that they want to conquer, however on the other hand many older people may want to watch this because of the generation of the film and most people enjoy a ghost horror with the many mysteries that they en hold.

Q.) Who are the producers of this film and why is it evident to the title sequence?

The film of the haunting was produced by Robert Wise. When looking at other peices of Robert's work we can see that most of the films he has produced or directed are more musical films, so this could be a horror that could of changed his aspect of the way he uses his ideas, we can see that this film is not a musical this film as been named a physiological horror. In this film by looking at his other work we can see that these are the normal opening that he makes when looking at a musical film of his called "The Sound of Music" we can see that the film starts of with the same aspect of this film however with music playing and the title boldly mixing in the starting of the film. This film has narration to it and as a slow paste to it which is showing the horror do it creating the sense of tension building., Therefore when looking at this opening sequence we can see that is has been produced by Robert Wise because of looking at other openings of his work.