Micro & Macro Features of Horror Films

28 Days Later Opening:
Micro Features
• A long shot is used when Jim is walking down the road searching for help, this helps to show that the whole of London has been trashed.
• An extreme close up is again used when he wakes up from his coma as the camera zooms into his face.
• Diagetic sound is used in the opening scene when Jim shouts “hello” around the hospital and around the city when he is searching for other people. It is also used when the zombies/monsters shuffle around inside the church.
• The camera then switches to a high angle or crane shot and hovers over the hospital bed of which Jim is lying on.
• The mise-en-scene in the opening scene includes hospital equipment such as needles, life support machines etc. all trashed in the hospital room as people have been running around inside panicking because of the infection spreading, also inside the hospital there is a vending machine which Jim bangs in his attempt to get food or drink. Other mise-en-scene used in the opening scene is overturned buses and rubbish scattered everywhere suggesting that something bad has come to town, in this case the disease.
• The film opens with an extreme close up on Jim’s eye.

Macro Features
• The genre for 28 Days Later is Horror/ Sci-Fi as Jim is the only normal human being left on earth as everyone else has become infected and become monsters, the horror element is that Jim is alone with antagonists being the zombies, however the zombies are also the sci-fi element in the film as they aren’t real.
• Iconography used in 28 days later is the red eyes of the zombies, as they are red it suggest they are evil and the protagonists as red is associated with blood and death which are related to evil.
• The theme in the opening scene of 28 Days Later is isolation. Another theme in the opening scene is abnormal vs. normal, the zombies representing the abnormal and Jim the normal.
• Three act structure looks as if it is going to be used through the film as in the opening scene the situation is introduced of the zombies taking over London.
• The only character in the opening scene is Jim, however when he enters the church there are several zombies lying on the floor however they are not main characters.
• The setting of 28 Days Later is London

Scream Opening:



Micro features
• Mis-en-scene used in the opening scene are general household things such as T.V, oven, phone etc. however the main household item is the knife as knifes are often used as a weapon for murder, this item therefore has an iconic meaning to it as it suggests that bad things are about to happen.
• Medium shots are used when she is in the phone to the man outside. This shot is also used when her boyfriend is shown strapped to the wooden chair.
• Long shots are used when she looks out to the patio and sees her boyfriend first strapped to the chair.
• When she walks out of the well lit kitchen the mood of their conversation starts to change, whilst in the kitchen the man outside is very friendly to her despite being stalker like, however when she walks through into the other room their talk becomes more scary as he says “I want to know who I’m looking at”, this creates fear for the audience as it shows them anything could be lurking in the dark including psychopaths.
• The music is parallel to the scene as when she is running music with sudden bangs in plays which could represent her heart racing with fear as well as the audiences.

Macro features
• The scene is set late at night so that it is dark, this creates an element of fear to the audience as bad things usually occur in the dark when you are unable to see everything that happens around you e.g. like in the film Scream she cannot see the man outside who is on the phone.
• The characters in the opening scene are the protagonist played by Drew Barrymore, the antagonist who wears the scream mask and the protagonists boyfriend Steve.
• The protagonist is blonde which suggests that she isn’t the smartest girl.
• The opening film is set in the middle of nowhere which means that if anything happens, which it does, she is isolated from everyone else so cannot call for help or easily escape the antagonist.

Saw II
Saw II Opening

Micro features
• The lighting is very limited as the contents of the room do not want to be revealed to the audience or characters by the Jigsaw.
• Extreme close ups are used when the man inside the trap is calling for help. This shot is also used when focusing on the trap, this is to show the audience the pain which would be felt by the trap if he does not follow the rules set.
• Crane shots are also used when he is crying for help focusing down on his face, this could be to show the power that the Jigsaw has over him as he can make him do anything.
• Medium shots are used when he gets out of the chair and looks around the room.
• Medium shots are also used to show the T.V of which the Jigsaw communicates to the man by, however the picture shown on the screen of the television is an extreme close up as it only shows the puppets face.
• The music used in Saw II’s opening scene is parallel to the scene as it is mysterious and there is questions asked as to why the man is there. This music used in the opening scene is non diagetic as the characters are unable to hear it.
• An over the shoulder shot is used when the Jigsaw is talking on the TV, this could be to show what the man in the scene see’s to make the audience feel the same as he does about what is happening.
• The editing used in the opening scene varies however a jump cut is used when Jigsaw reveals how he can save himself, this could be to show that he is not thinking clearly and panicking.
• Mis-en-scene used in the opening scene are the device around his head, the television, a knife for him to cut his eye out to reach the key and a mirror to assist him doing this.



Macro features
• The characters in the first scene are the man who is trapped inside of the device shown below and the Jigsaw, who is the man that creates all of these games to teach people lessons, however his voice is only heard in the opening scene as he uses a puppet which appears on the TV to hide his identity to the victims of his traps.
• The scene is set in a dark room which is associated with bad things as previously mentioned bad things occur in the dark.
• Saw II is a hybrid of horror/gore as it is not quite a scary film but still classed as horror but there is a lot of blood spilt throughout the film.


Michelle also posted about micro and macro features of horror films on her blog as shown below:
http://shheeellllyyyyy.blogspot.com/2010/09/what-makes-good-opening-to-film.html
http://shheeellllyyyyy.blogspot.com/2010/09/what-makes-good-opening-to-horror-film.html