At the start of a film you would normally have an establishing shot, however in insidious they do the complete opposite and uses an enigma to disorientate the audience. Its starts with the The director's name in a white circle which turns 180 degrees to end shows it's a light bulb in a Child's bedroom. As we don’t know how much about where we are, this opening shot makes feel uncomfortable with our surroundings.
Coming from the light bulb, there is pan from a high angle too see the boy in his bed. This angle is used to make the child look vulnerable and small. This is conforms to conventions of the horror genre as there is usually a endangered child which cannot be helped in anyway as the problem is within them. As the child seems so innocent in bed asleep and we know that he is vulnerable that makes the audience feel worried about what is going to happen to the child and gives the effect of becoming attached to the character. The lighting in this scene is very minimal as there is a lot of shadows to create a dark scene.
The mise-en-scene is used here to emphasise his age. His bed has checkered bright colours, which is quite an immature bed pattern compared to someone who is older. He has a teddy bear in his bedroom which is related to childhood and he has a lava lamp which stereotypically children find fascinating. He has a nightlight, his main light and his lava lamp on which could imply he is scared of the dark, which is also a childish fear. These all conform to conventions of the horror genre of having an young child in an unsafe environment. This would make the audience sympathies with the character as he has quite a typical boys room.
From the lampshade there is a tracking shot used, this gives an affect on the audience that they are being lead towards someone or something which is discomforting. Tracking shots conform to conventions of the horror genre as it a lot of horrors the camera is following the action of a graphic or scary scene. discomfort is increased by the the high pitch, non-diegetic sounds. The sounds make the audience feel uneasy as they are not typical sounds you would here, they are out of the normal. This tracking shot it basically in complete darkness but we know we are going around the house, its makes the audience feel uncomfortable as we are in someone's house without them knowing making them more vulnerable. As the tracking shot continues through that house the non-diegetic sound changing into a high pitch screech of a violin, this creates a tense atmosphere.
The tracking shot has no sound of footsteps as we move through room to room, this gives the effect that there is a ghostly presence in the room. This conforms to conventions of horror genre as it is stereotypically there is an unwanted presence which makes everyone around more vulnerable.
As the tracking shot slowly approaches the figure of a deceased old woman, the music becomes louder, at a higher pitch from violin. This conforms to the conventions of horror as classic instruments and nursery rhymes are used to create a creepy atmosphere. Everything else in the scene is completely black, this is so we can focus on the face. This also conforms to the conventions of horror as there is normally minimal lighting so that we can focus on something which is meant to scare us. As we get closer we realise that the light which is lighting up the face is a candle, this give the audience the idea that the the old woman isn’t meant to be there and she is meant to be feared. Zoom is used to become closer to the action, In this case it is used to become closer to the fear, this creates the idea that the household can’t escape her. The mise-en-scene used by the way we see the women, we only get an outline of her face and can’t really see what she looks like. However we can see she has hair drooping over her face and she has a big nose. Due to us not seeing much means the audience can make up the part of the face we can’t see.
In conclusion, there are certain colours which makes the audience aware of the type of movie it is. Horrors colours are black and red. Black represent mystery, evil and death. Red represents the devil, mourning and anger. The opening part of insidious is very clever as it is all done through one tracking shot, it introduces you into the place where the horror is taking place and introduces you into the main characters.
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