“Split” (2017) Opening Scene Film Analysis

Today I decided to look at more openings from psychological horror films. The one that I found seemed to be close to what Isabella and I want to do for our film opening so I decided to see how the director used different elements to create the tone of suspense and anxiousness. As I was watching the scene, I realized that the opening scene did have a point of view shot from the guy who kills the father. I was able to distinguish this shot because the camera was not as steady as the other shots. This unsteady movement of the camera created a sense of anxiousness because we knew that it was a point of view shot from someone walking were not able to see who was approaching the dad until after he killed him. In addition to the point of view shot, the mise en scene of the scene was very casual, the girls and parents are all seen wearing t-shirts, jeans, and ordinary pieces of clothing making the scene seem like an ordinary day, the props were nothing out of the ordinary except for the mask and gas that the guy with split personalities uses on the girls. The use of these unordinary props lets the audience know that he is not like the others which builds suspense and anxiousness because no one know what is going to happen.