Horror Opening Title Analysis - Evil Dead

Horror opening title analysis

When analysing the opening scene of a horror we think about the following questions:

• How does the title sequence establish genre, character and narrative?
• How does the title sequence attract an audience's interest? 
• What do you consider to be the target audience of the film and why? 
• Who has produced the film and how is that evident in the title sequence?

The Evil Dead

The Evil Dead is a horror film produced by Rob Tapert, Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell. This is shown clearly in the film opening when their names appear on the screen in a bold, red font which is used throughout the titles. By using this colour it makes the titles stand out. 

In the opening of the Evil Dead we can establish the horror genre through the bold, red writing displaying 'EVIL DEAD'.  To add to this, the font used in the titles is a sans serif font the features of the font are used to make it more symbolic of the horror genre. The colour red can infer to violence and danger so therefore is used in the evil dead because it is a horror film and the stereotypical view towards horror is violence and danger. When looking at the title scenes we cannot see any characters but we can infer what the characters are like just by the producers and the bloody effect that is used. By using this effect i can infer that one of the characters is a violent character who is the danger throughout the whole film. Furthermore i can say that there is possibly a few characters who are vulnerable to this dangerous character.

Then as it begins to delve further into the opening scene we can see that blood appears to be dripping down the stairs. By using this effect it intrigues the audience into the film as they may want to find out what the cause of the dripping blood was. Furthermore the title scenes only use a mix of red and black colours, by using these colours the audience can feel tension and sense that there is only danger to come in the film. Finally the music used in the title scenes can build up more tension as there is an opera signing over dramatic, deep music.

In my opinion of the film, i feel that the target audience is those who are very keen on the horror genre and those who have a great sense of anticipation. This is because in the opening of the film tension and anticipation is built up by the blood coming down the stairs therefore this foreshadows what could happen further on in the film. The Evil Dead is rated as an '18' and i believe that this is the suitable target audience for this film because of the violence that is foreshadowed in the film. I believe that a film like the 'Evil Dead' is targeted more towards the younger generation rather than the older because it may appeal more to the younger generation of over 18 as it is a relatively new idea of horror to them and they tend to feel more anticipation with horror films compared to the older generation who may have watched many of these kind of films before therefore feeling less excitement and anticipation.