Textual Analysis - The Others

The Others

This film opens on a black screen with a woman softly speaking. She say "Are we sitting comfortably?", which would help the audience to see that someone is telling a childrens story. This also helps us identify the target audience as adults and older generations.

A candle light-like effect then flickers on to show a dark picture of the interior of an old, gothic house with childish characters dressed in old fashioned clothes. Revealing the setting of the film to be quite historic and gothic. The music is slow and classical, but has a sinister twist which could signal a horrific storyline. The credits fade in and out peacefully with the pace of the music.

The last drawn picture is of a big house in what seems to be the middle of no where and is completely secluded. The picture fades out onto an establishing long shot of the actual house. The mist has engulfed the building. Mist would be a signal for an incoming classical horror movie, it adds to the effect and certainally makes it creepy. The music seems to come to an end slowly, indicating to the next shot to arrise.

The music is suddenly cut short by a very high-pitched scream being projected from the woman on screen, destroying the calm environment around her and disrupting the atmoshphere given off by the childrens toys.  A close up of the woman's face shows her scream and terror. Slowly, the camera turns 90 degrees and zooms out into a mid-shot to establish that this character was lying in bed.This would indicate that was she just having a bad dream. This quick mash up of emotion prepares the audience for an unstable ride throughout the film, and are shaken up by this introduction.

The scene then moves to a long shot of the exterior of the house. Mist is still surrounding the house, blocking out any backgroud making is seem the house is the only thing in the area which is safe and sheltered. It also seems like the house is the only pretection from any evil that may threaten it. Three silhouttes walk across the grounds. The audience can hear distant conversation between the three. They sound cheerful as they laugh. This is a big contrast to the mood of the scene.

There is match on action into next shot as the camera closes into one of the characters proceeding towards the house. The conversation is now much more audible, but it cuts in half way through a sentence, so the clip the audience does hear is very confusing and sparks many questions about the three characters. 

At the end of the two minutes, we are re-introduced to the horrified and scared woman in an earlier shot. This ties up the connection between her and the house, as she answers the door in an over the shoulder shot to the three, mysterious characters. Only her face appears in the crack of the door; showing she may be wary about who she might be dealing with here. This also shows that the director doesn't want to reveal to much about this character right away, and therefore gets the actor to cover herself up behind the door.