Analysis of 3 title sequences of chosen genre

The Exorcist (1973)

The sequence beings with a regular shot of an ident, and then proceeds to continue to a still of the same exact ident, but in black and white. The use of the sudden change to a monochrome colour scheme, implies that the films themes may be somewhat dark. The main plot isn't explicitly introduced in this film's opening sequence, as we aren't given any overtly obvious indications or clues as to whom the main characters may be. We are only shown a number of locations which hint at where the film may take place. The sequence consists of simplistic editing that incorporates shots of locations and black screens (with the credits) fading in and fading out into the next shot. The first camera shot sees a panning overview of what appears to be a fairly large, suburban house, on a quiet street at night. This gives an indication that the plot may surround a character(s) who seems to be fairly wealthy and belongs to the middle class. The shot after that depicts what looks like a statue of the Virgin Mary in different location, which leads the audience to believe, that the plot also concerns matters of religion. This theme is revisited a couple seconds later on in the sequence as we a shot of the sun rising in a location that appears to have a warm climate, all the while we hear a Qur'an verse being recited in Arabic, hinting again at strong theme of religion.

(title credits in order)

A William Friedkin film
William Peter Blatty's
(TITLE)

Insidious (2010)

This title sequence, unlike that of "The Exorcist", is one that incorporates strictly still images. This is aside from the first minute or so of the sequence, in which a small segment of the film's potential plot is revealed, as we see (what we can assume to be) two key characters make their first appearance. This is done using a panning, wide shot of the of a potential key location (a little boy's room), followed by a brief camera focus on our first character (the little boy). As the camera trails off our first character, it then unpredictably zooms into a seemingly random spot in the corner of the room, slowly and eerily revealing our second character; a dark, vague, entity figure, and of course, the genre of the film becomes abundantly clear (also helped by the unnervingly creepy instrumental, which consists of a sequence of utterly random, uncomfortably high and low notes) This is followed up by a simply-edited string of  monochrome still images, (much like the "The Exorcist", fading in and out of each other) further giving an insight into important locations and props (we can understand its set in a average looking American household), alongside the title credits, no notably interesting camera shots are used. The title font is a "vampy" style font, in a blood-red hue, further adding to the creepy, spine-chilling themes of the film.

(title credits in order)

Stage 6 films 

Alliance films 

IM Global

Haunted Movies

a James Wan film

(TITLE)

Patrick Wilson

Rose Byrne

Lin Shaye

Ty Simpkins

Barbara Hershey

Leigh Wannell

Angus Sampson

Andrew Astor

Joseph Bishara

(casting by) Annie McCarthy

Kellie Gesell

(costume design) Kristin M. Burke

(music by) Joseph Bishara

(edited by) James Wan

Kirk Morri

(production designer) Aaron sims

(director of photography) John R.Leonetti

David M. Brewer

Halloween (1978)

Contrasting to the first two, "Halloween", features a strictly "titles on a black screen" style of editing for its opening sequence, accompanied by a simple, single moving image of a Jack-O-Lantern alongside the credits. The colour palette of the title sequence just as simply, consists of only two shades; black and orange - tying in with the title of the movie, as these two hues, are those most associated with the topic that the film evidently surrounds - so they work effectively in the title sequence at giving away the film's genre, as well as hitting at the film's context. With it being a simply edited title sequence, the most motion that occurs is that of the enlarging jack-o-lantern that grows bigger and takes up more space on the black screen as the title credits change, futher implying that themes of horror are present. All the while, an infamously suspenseful and chilling instrumental is playing, undoubtably one of the most well recognised horror movie instrumentals of all time.

(title credits in order)

IDENT

IDENT

Donald Pleasence

(director) John Carpenter

Debra Hill

Jamie Lee Curtis

Nancy Loomis

P J Soles

Charles Cyphers

Kyle Richards

Brian Andrews

(director of photography) Dean Cundey

(film editors) Tommy Wallace

Charles Bornstein

(music by) John Carpenter

(associate producer) Kool Lusby

(production manager) Don Behrns

The sub-genre varies in all of these films, and the same goes for thier title sequences, so it is crucial that the codes and conventions of their sub-genre are somewhat portrayed through their title sequence, so the audience at least gets some idea as to what they're about to watch.