The Grudge – Opening Sequence

The horror movie opens with the non-diegetic sound of choir singing, but is slightly off which unsettles the audience. Sentences come up on screen and certain words get highlighted red, which has connotations of blood and evil. The scene opens to an empty street, and pans upwards to a busier road. The sky is grey and dull, which along with the road juxtaposes to the pure and naive white colours that are seen inside, the colours of the woman’s clothes and the duvet on the bed. The man is standing on the balcony, which is outside in his grey clothes, creating an enigma code for the audience, they are not sure what is going to happen to him but they know something bad will do, and start feeling afraid for the man’s sake. When he falls off the balcony, it is shown in first person (point of view) and followed by the diegetic sound of the crunch to put the audience right into the action, making it seem very real to them in terms of the scared emotions they feel. Music comes back, in the form of an eerie piano tune which shows the audience that this was not the man’s doing, and that there is something more sinister going on. The credits come on in red water and hair floating in it, which connotes the act of drowning as well as an evil creature.