Textual Analysis: The Conjuring

The Conjuring begins with a black screen which enforces the idea that most horror films begin like that to hint what the genre is. Dialogue is heard whilst the screen is black, making the voice a mystery as it is unknown to the audience.

There is use of foley of  what sounds like a camera flash or a light switch as the first shot appears. It is an extreme close up of a broken doll which is used to capture the small details such as the cuts and broken eye along with the dirtiness. The doll looks quite sinister which sets the tone of the film instantly. There is evidently use of the rule of thirds to determine the composition to the doll, in which, only half of it's face is shown to evoke curiosity. The use of dark makeup on the doll exemplifies the suggested demonic presence.

The camera begins to zoom out slowly to draw out the suspense of what the doll actually looks like whilst in shallow focus, so the attention is drawn to the face. During the zooming out of the camera, there is dialogue of a female voice explaining how the doll has been moving by itself. This gives of a chilling atmosphere, possibly foreshadowing the strange things that might happen.

The camera then cuts to a mid-shot where three people (two females and one male) are sitting on a sofa. The man is looking down and quite distressed which emphasises the situation and the tone of the film. The mise en scene of the room is quite dull and pale which is of a cold colour palette. This was intentional to make the atmosphere seem scary and dark. The characters clothing are colours of yellow and red which are typically bright colours. However, the lighting makes it appear dull which can convey a sense of sadness within the characters. There is a date at the bottom saying 1968 besides 'Annabelle Case' which demonstrates that there will be another event happening later on, linking with the doll. It is written in bright yellow which strongly contrasts the background so it stand out.

As the camera zooms out, it reveals that there are two people sitting in front of them, which indicates that they were the ones asking the questions. The scene then shows several close up shot which are angled at the side of their faces in which the shadows are hiding their faces. This creates an eerie atmosphere and emphasises on their worried feelings.

The camera then cuts to a mid-shot showing the doll, placed in the centre. This is the first shot where the audience is shown the whole doll where it is sitting on a chair. It is wearing what seems to be very old clothing from the Victorian era. This indicates the lifetime of the doll and convey that it is, in a way, indestructible.

During the mid-shot of the doll, the blonde woman says that they are nurses and like to help people. this conforms to the stereotypical idea that women are kind and caring. The shot then transitions back to the close-up shot from the side as the other woman says 'and then things got worse'. This ques the non-diegetic music of high pitched violins to make the audience on edge.

The camera then cut to a medium shot of a hallway with a door. The corridor is dark so the audience can assume that it is set at night. This conforms to the codes and conventions of horror where most are set in the evening. As the door opens, there is dialogue of two women laughing as they enter the corridor. Their laughter stops abruptly as the spot a note on the floor written in red crayons. The note was shown using a close up shot. The colour red was used because it signifies danger and is commonly associated with demonic beings.

There is an eye-line match shot which shows the doll leaning on a door frame within the room. An the same time, a non-diegetic sound begins which is low pitch and sustained to forebode the coming events. This is then followed by shot reverse shot between the two women and the doll. Followed by that, there is a tracking shot and a POV shot to engage the audience as if they were in that situation.

A woman's voice continues to narrate the action. Another POV shot shows the doll closer up. There is a use of an insert to draw the attention to the red crayons in the dolls hand. This embodies that it was possible that the doll had written it.

As the women enter the room, there is a diegetic sound of the door creaking which is a typical sound effect in horror films. During this, there is a crescendo of the non diegetic background music to indicate that the climax of events is about to happen. A low angle shot illustrates that the woman is on the left side which reveals the white wall next to her which is covered with red scribbles.

A montage of shots show several pictures of the two women which are scratched and damaged. Accompanied with each photo, there is a unpleasant clash of piano notes to emphasise the danger that they are in. A POV shot reveals the room to be damaged and messy with crayon marks all over it. The two women are positioned in the middle of the room and there is an eye-line match shot to show that they are looking at the ceiling which says 'miss me?'. It then cuts back to the two women who looks down to hear the sound of a rolling crayon. The crayon is shown rolling across the ground, the camera at ground level, to show that something has caused it to move. There is silence to emphasise the rolling crayon, which is a representative to forebode that something bad is going to happen.

After, there is a long shot of the corridor, where one of the women picks up the doll and the camera follows them out the door. The rest of the corridor has low lighting and the details on the protagonists can not be seen. They are seen as overshadowed which can represent how they are not safe. The blonde woman says ' Debbie, wait' which voices her concern which is shown in her tone of voice and reflects on the audience's feelings. This also links with the traditional sterotypes of gender where women are seen to be quite dependant on others.The non-diegetic music reaches a loud volume and marks the action beginning to reach a faster pace.

Furthermore, there is use of an aerial shot, portraying the woman throwing the doll away in a dumpster outside. They are positioned on the left side of the screen, so the audience are aware of the surroundings. The camera then zooms in so the action can be seen more clearly. The opening ends with a diegetic loud bang of the dumpster lid closing to create a dramatic ending of the scene.