Amityville 2: The Possession (opening credits)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA_QDQnLDsI

When comparing the opening title credits and film sequence of Amityville 2 to my own media group's horror film opening, I noticed some similarities between the way both openings were presented. For example, the start of Amityville 2 begins with the noise of a gust of wind, a sound effect my group and I were planning to add at some point during our 2 minute video. When the setting of the scene first appears, we instantly see a sign saying 'For Sale.' It was very similar to our idea of showing a street sign with the name of our film 'Hotel Road' displayed across it and as a group we all agreed that by showing the sign, it would therefore help the audience picture the setting and immediately give them some idea of the atmosphere around. The beginning of Amityville 2 includes an eerie, non diegetic piano type sound in the background, creating tension and suspense and sound was definitely something that my group wanted to apply to our short clip, whether it be actual music or just a range of scary sound effects. The camera tends to pan across the house and forest rather slowly throughout the entire opening of Amityville 2 as well, creating some anticipation. We all decided to make our camera slowly pan across the street houses before gradually zooming in onto the house's door. I noticed how Amityville 2 also used the effect of zooming in onto a small window at the top of the house and as it did, the music suddenly became deeper and more threatening because of this. The font used for the credits was also quite similar to ours, as we also used bold, block writing that would stand out and be recognised. By watching this opening, it made me reflect on how my group and I could experiment with different techniques to create a scary atmosphere and therefore make our opening even more successful as a horror.