A Nightmare
on elm street (1984)
A nightmare on Elm Street is an American slasher horror that was originally released on the 16th of November 1984. The film was extremely successful with a total of 10 films being carried on as a sequence following the popularity of the original. The total box office for the film was $26,505,000, which for its time was a hug amount, especially with the film having just a budget of $1,800,000. The movie was written and directed by highly acclaimed horror film director, Wes Craven. The film was also produced by ‘new line cinema’.
The
narrative of the opening follows the antagonist of the film and the appearance
of an innocent character. The antagonist is seen creating some form of weapon
in an unknown location. Shortly after, we are presented with an innocent woman
who is viably scared. The main narrative follows the pair around as the
antagonist grows increasing close to the girl while she runs and screams for
her life around the location that is acting like a maze. It isn’t until the end
of the sequence that we are shown that the whole scene was in fact a nightmare
from the girl, but to represent how realistic the nightmare was, the girl grabs
the cross off her wall and holds it tight.
The way
the characters are presented are on of the main codes and conventions of the
horror genre. The antagonist is dressed in dark clothes, with appeared
bloodstains on them, while the innocent on the other hand was dressed in a
spotless, pale, long flowing dress. This helps for the audience to establish
who is who between the characters, and by having a contrast between the dark
and light costumes, it made it easier, which is another notable code and
convention of the horror genre in the way that the characters are dressed.
The next conventional
element that can be seen in the scene will be the lighting in the location and
the location in general. In this case, the lighting is very low key with an
appeared red filter over the top. This is noticeable amongst many horrors as
the red can give a connotation of blood and help carry on the dark mise en
scene that is regularly seen in horror opening. The location in this opening is
mysterious as we are never presented with an establishing shot, but instead
tracking shots following the two characters around. This is effective in the
way that it gets the audience gripped as they are left wondering what the
location was, and will the film ever return to the same location later on?
In the
opening for a nightmare on elm street, many sound, both diegetic and
non-diegetic were incorporated. For example, the diegetic sounds from the
location were incorporated, these being sounds such as gas piping through tubes
and the sound of metal banging. But also non- diegetic sounds were also added.
An example of this would be the very heavy breathing that can be heard at the
beginning of the opening. This is conventional of the genre as the though of
hearing the antagonists’ heavy breathing can create tension as they’re growing
in intimidation which increases fear for both the character in the film, and
the audience watching at home. Another one of the most obvious code and
convention that is used in almost every single horror will be the dramatic
non-diegetic soundtrack added as soon as something is going to happen, as the
soundtrack help to create a tension with the audience, as they know something
is going to happen, they just have the anticipation of not knowing when.
Many props
can be seen throughout the opening, which are to help with the general mise en
scene of the film. The general conventional mise en scene of a horror would
simply be danger. Examples in this opening representing the danger aspect would
be things like the knives that the antagonist can be seen hammering into at the
beginning, as well as the location with it appearing not safe and high up,
implying the sense of danger to the viewer.
Finally,
there was a range of camera shots implemented into the opening, with the changing
from fixed shots to tracking shots, and from extreme close ups to long shots. The
pace of the transitions were high which helped with the crating of the atmosphere
as it gave it a more tense dramatic sense to the actions of the antagonist, as
well as inducing more fear while the girl is being chased.
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