Slasher EG5: Bride Of Chucky (1998)

Bride Of Chucky

Ronny Yu (1998)

BBFC 15, MPAA R

Film Opening Length: 

Budget: $25m
UK/US/World Box Office: ?, $32.3m, $50.6m

Production Companies: Midwinter Production Inc., Universal Pictures
Distributors: Universal Pictures

LINKS:
IMDB, RottenTomatoes (Tomatometer 44%, Audience 46%), BoxOfficeMojo, Wiki

Trailer for 'Bride Of Chucky':
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COMPANIES/IDENTS
There is only one film ident shown in this film opening, which is for 'Universal Studios', one of the 'big six' conglomerates. This is common for the slasher genre to only have one film ident shown. 

OPENING SHOT
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The opening shot is a tracking LS/ELS of what you can denote as a traditional bricked building with the American flag attached to the roof of an archway. This denotes the setting to the audience as the US and connotes that the setting is quite traditional, formal and patriotic. You can denote from this shot that rain is pouring, that there is thunder and lightning (from the flashing effects on the shot) and that it is night time. 
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TITLES
There is a lot of titles shown in this film opening. Before the opening shot, there are two intertitles shown, in this order:
1. Universal Pictures presents
2. A David Kirschner production
3. A Ronny Yu film

After these three titles, the first scene of the film takes place. There are no more titles until this scene has ended (when the bride of Chucky walks off with the pieces of the doll Chucky, that the policeman had stolen from the 'Lockport Police Dept. Evidence Depository'. Here is the order of titles after this scene has ended:

1. 4 Main actors
2. Main Title: Bride Of Chucky
3. 3 Actors including the voice of chucky
4. Co-Producer
5. Casting by
6. Costume Designer
7. Opening Title Song Performed by 
8. Music Supervisors
9. Music by
10. Chucky and tiffany dolls created by
11. Based on characters created by
12. Chucky and tiffany puppet effects created by
13. Edited by
14. Production designer
15. Director of Photography
16. Executive Producers
17. Produced by
18. Written by
19. Directed by

IDENTIFYING ANY PROTAGONISTS
The first character shown is a policeman. It is stereotypical that the first character to be shown in a slasher horror film is the scream queen/scream king (person who gets killed by the killer). Proving this point to be correct, this policeman character in this film is killed by the killer (the bride of Chucky). The bride of Chucky is slowly introduced through close up shots of her feet and legs, to create a sense of narrative enigma (Barthes) for the audience of who this character is. You don't see her face until after she has killed the policeman character.   

SOUND/GENRE SIGNIFICATION
At the very start of the film opening there is a lot of use of diegetic sounds to create impact on the audience, these sounds are thunder and rain. 

SHOT VARIETY
NARRATIVE
MISE-EN-SCENE FOR EXPOSITION
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EG1: Cherry Falls (2000)

Cherry Falls

Geoffrey Wright (2000)

BBFC 18, MPAA R

Film Opening Length: 

Budget: $14m
UK/US/World Box Office: $3.1m, ?, $91.3m
Theatrical Distribution in 

Production Companies: Rogue Pictures, Good Machine, Industry Entertainment
Distributors: USA Films, October Films

LINKS:
IMDB, RottenTomatoes (Tomatometer 50%, Audience 31%), BoxOfficeMojo, Wiki

Trailer for 'Cherry Falls':
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Slasher EG3: Scream (1996)

Scream

Wes Craven (1996)

BBFC 18, MPAA R

Film Opening Length: 

Budget: $14m
UK/US/World Box Office: ?, $103m, $173m
Theatrical Distribution in 16 countries

Production Companies: Woods Entertainment
Distributors: Dimension Films

LINKS:
IMDB, RottenTomatoes (Tomatometer 79%, Audience 79%), BoxOfficeMojo, Wiki

Trailer for 'Scream':
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POSSIBLE INFLUENCE

I really like the main title sequence in this film opening (in this case there is just one title, the main title). I would like to make my main title sequence a lot like this, by making the main title stretch out upwards then stretch inwards. Also, I would like to include the diegetic sounds that are in this main title sequence such as the telephone sounds, the screams and the slams of when the words stretch back inwards sharply/harshly.

TITLES
The title size goes from big to small in bold on a black background, twice once in the colour red then in the colour white. This suggests that the word scream has great significance within the film suggesting that there will be a lot of screaming going on from the characters but also from the audience. Also the colour of which it is being displayed in also connotes bad atmospheres where red can be seen to connate danger and white can be seen to connate ghosts. Within the opening of Scream it is only the films name which is shown which may express how low there budget was in terms of not having a company presenting the film. However it could express how quickly they want to get straight to the action.This is an interesting example of a sans serif font, almost a bubble font, with some elements of the font itself (not just colouring/animation) carrying horror connotations that we'd usually expect from a serif font.  

OPENING SHOT

The opening shot is a close up of a telephone ringing, connoting that this telephone is a major signifier of what the film is about and is going to be an object continuously used throughout the film. The fact that it is not a wireless telephone and that it is quite retro connotes the setting also, that it is set in the 1990's.





IDENTIFYING ANY PROTAGONISTS

The first character is shown in the second shot here, Normally the first character shown would be the main protagonist but in slasher films, the first character shown is usually the 'scream queen/scream king'. Also the fact that she is blonde, is wearing make up and is attractive further connotes that this character is the scream queen.

This shot is an extreme long shot of the house this girl is in. This shot has been used to show that someone had just been sitting on the swing because it is swinging slowly. This creates/builds suspense for the audience.




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This shot is constantly referred back to during the film opening because every time, the popcorn packet seems to be rising even higher. The fact that this shot is referred back to a lot makes the audience feel slowly more tense and scared each time there is a shot of it getting bigger. The rising popcorn foreshadows and connotes how Casey (female character) is feeling as the killer keeps calling her.



SHOT VARIETY

Throughout this film opening there are a variety of shots used such as extreme long shots, close ups, medium close ups, long shots, medium shots and extreme close ups. 
few shots later, the audience sees a close up of the same popcorn cooking but at a dutch angle. The popcorn packet has also expanded a lot more from the shot before of the popcorn. This dutch angle close up shot has been used to create and build even more suspense than the first shot of the popcorn; this is due to the fact that the shots have been getting closer on the popcorn, making the audience even more scared. This shot also makes the audience feel uncomfortable and uneasy as if something really bad is going to happen next.

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