Thriller Shot Analysis

The House at the End of the Street

Still 1

This shot of the opening scene of the film is a close up of a girls face although it is a close up it does not give the audience much of an idea as to what she looks like as her hair is covering half her face this creates a sense of mystery as we have no idea who she is or if she is the main character. Although we know the film is a thriller we do know that whatever she is determined for is probably going to be a bad thing as that is the typical convention of a thriller. The shot denotes that she is focused on something and determined. As we don't know her identity we as the audience are curious as to what she is focused on.

 

 

Still 2

The first still denotes a hallway in a home with stairs that lead straight to a door. The connotation of this shot is that it is mysteries because although we can clearly denote a door and someone's house we don’t know what is behind that door and as the audience we feel tension building already. The shot is a long shot however it is a point of view shot we know that the person who is in the shot is a child but we don’t know anything about the character so as the viewer we question what is she going to do and why is she going to do it. The shot also is blurred and focuses in and out of the door. The door is obviously very important to the character because through editing and camera angles it has proven to be very significant in the opening.

 

 

Still 3

In the second shot us as the audience we can denote that the character has knocked over the lamb leading to the door. In the last still you can denote that the character is focusing in and out of the door and the lamp this could suggest that the character in the shot is disorientated or suffering from something. It could also suggest that maybe the character wanted to disturb anyone who is in the house or the room, as the shot opening clearly denotes that it is during the night and the character may have wanted to wake up anyone who was sleeping and give them a fright.

 

 

 

 

 

Still 4

This denotes two adults possibly the child’s parents who have been disturbed and woken up from the chaos in the hall. This connotes that the characters in the hall way creating disturbance and tension may be set out to hurt these adults. From the facial expressions on their faces they know that something is not right and they immediately turn on the light. The bird’s eye view or high angled shot show the audience the terror they felt and their twinned immediate reaction.

 

 

Still 5

The fourth still is after the girl ran on the bed with the hammer it denotes her walking off the bed with feather from the pillows all over the floor with blood splattered on the feathers and her legs. This connotes that she has killed the man with the hammer and is not mourning after the death she is just walking away from her troubles. This suggests that she doesn’t care about the adult and she intend to kill them both. This creates suspense for the audience as we still don’t know who the adults are or who the girl is or even why she did it.

 

Still 6

The final shot for the opening still denotes the girl running out side in the rain away from the camera which could suggests she is running from the house and away from the situation completely. The shot is blurry and barely clear to the audience’s eye as she is more of a silhouette. Even though you can’t see from her face that it is the girl we know that it is her because of what she is wearing and the situation she’s is in it is obvious she would be running from it. The shot denotes rain, this could suggest pathetic fallacy and sets the mood from the scene as the weather is miserable so is the atmosphere as someone has just been murdered.