Opening Sequence Analysis

What Lies Beneath, Robert Zemeckis, 2000

What Lies Beneath is a supernatural thriller film which stars Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer as the lead actor and actress.

The soundtrack and backing noise in this sequence is made to sound creepy and eerie. This gives us an idea of the genre being supernatural. The soft drum beat at the start overlapping the music depicts a heartbeat making us feel that maybe at some point in the film there is loss of life.

We see Michelle Pfeiffer’s character emerge from the back tub seemingly gasping for air like she had been held under the water, next we see her pick up the hairdryer and it doesn’t work and when she switches it on at the plug it explodes this shows that the character is going to have the main event in the film happen to her, it also shows the characters lack of control.

Hopefully we can be influenced by the soundtrack in this piece when we come to put together our opening sequence, something spooky and eerie and so we can establish the genre of the sequence. We also want to create the feeling that the audience hasn’t got a clear idea of what’s going on much like this opening sequence. We want it so vague ideas are given to us about what’s going on but not give it away completely. We want to keep it surreal.