The opening sequence starts with a ten minutes black screen with people talking at the back. This is effective as the audience tries to carefully listen to the conversation as their attention is caught by the people talking, which is crucial to the film. After ten seconds of the dark screen when at the moment they mention the doll an extreme close up of the doll pops up, in particular, her eye which stands out. The choice to start the opening with the dolls extreme close-up makes the viewer’s aware of the importance of the doll and gives it prevalence by the audience knowing that they should fear it. Also, there is no sound when the doll appears to create a shocking effect. The slow zoom out camera movement takes place so we get to see half of the dolls face while people continue to talk at the back which makes the audience feel disturbed because through the talking we learn the doll is possessed. Also, the appearance of the doll makes the thought of the doll being possessed even worse.
The first setting in the film that we see is a dark apartment, this immediately connotes fear, as the audience cannot fully see what is happening which holds the idea of the fear of the unknown. Also, a home is a typical setting used within the horror genre as it caused it to be personal for the audience which makes the fear factor more apparent. Now,the camera goes onto showing a low lighting mid-shot of three people. Here the narrative is introduced through the conversation that the people are having because we learn that it was their doll and that they gave permission to a spirit to enter the doll not knowing what the spirit might do. Thus, this is a crucial part of the film. A close up from the left side of the three people is also shown which makes the audience aware of the confusion and fear on they are experiencing. After this, the three people are filmed from the front and the zoom out camera movement to an over the shoulder shot behind Ed and Lorraine Warren takes place while the people are still telling what have happened involving Annabelle and these two are listening to their explanations. Also, these two people in the conversation are probably experts in spirits who explain why the spirit wanted to be closer to the doll and the owners of the doll; the spirit wanted to possess the owners. This conversation disturbs the audience as now they know what the spirit will try to do now. Moreover, the female character in a position of giving advice for how to solve the problem, this makes her a ‘hero’ figure.
Then, a mid-shot of Annabelle appears and zooms in at a steady slow pace which emphasizes the tenseness that the doll causes as her blank expressions send messages of death. Wan then talks about ‘things getting worse’ when the scene cuts to a flashback of the story starting with a mid-shot of the two women returning home, coming through the door and having a loud conversation, breaking the silence which is effective because it shocks the audience by going from a quiet atmosphere to a very loud one. After entering, the women at the front finds a note on the floor that is a worn stained piece of paper. Here a point of view shot is used showing the point of view of the women behind her. This shot shows the piece of paper which reads ‘miss me?’ in red color crayon symbolizing blood. This shows the audience the genre of the film as the use of blood instead of ink is a convention of the horror movies. Also, this makes sure that the viewers are aware of it and this creates suspense.
Next, there is a long shot of the doll sitting at the end of the corridor, leaning against the wall. The two women start coming towards the doll, here the camera movement is very shaky which is very effective as it influences the audience to feel nervous as it is the shot of the point of view of the women which suggests the women feel nervous and frighten. Then a close up of Annabelle’s hands is shown, which shows her holding a red crayon, which allows the audience to make the link between the writing on the note and the doll. Also, here the audience is confused as they get lost in the thought that the doll is an inanimate object. Furthermore, red is typically a color associated with the genre horror as it connotes blood, this also implies that the audience should feel afraid and highlights the idea of danger. The low angle close up of the women with the blonde hair is shown from a spare room which is covered in red crayon lines and writings, this creates a scary effect as it suggests that the doll has damaged the room. Both the women enter the room, a strange soundtrack plays as the camera shot pan point-of-view shot takes place. The camera pans around the room showing the different aspects of chaos which has taken place, such as abrupt red letters on the wall and pictures of women smashed on the floor, done by the doll with the non-diegetic soundaccompanying the scene and making it dramatic. Writing and drawing on the wall from the red color crayon stands out as the rest of the colors used in thescene are dull and red is a color which also connotes fear, danger and blood. These sounds also scare the audience and fulfill its genre requirement. Also, this chaotic movement increases suspense and the sense of fear. However, the roof is filmed from the point of view shot which shows that the doll is alive increasing the heartbeats of the viewer.
Leaving both the women in confusion and fear, the fear continues when a floor level shot of the crayon rolling along the floor comes towards them with the music speeding up indicating that Annabelle has either rolled it along the floor or dropped it. The camera zooms fastly towards the red crayon which represents the realization of characters within the scene. This is then followed by a long shot of the hallway which zooms into one of the women carrying Annabelle out of the door. Here the tracking camera movement ,when the women run out of the hallway, makes the audience feel as if they are in the scene at the moment. The women dump the doll in the bin outside indicating she have gotten rid of it, this scene is shown by the bird’s eye view so we can see her completely. However,this a convention of horror movies as there are no such things as happy endings.
The way the opening is all black and white plain colors, which are made to lower the mood creates a lifeless and dull atmosphere. Also, the costumeworn by the characters are of an old-fashioned style, this tells the audience that it is the period in the past, which is a commonly used time period for horror films as viewers over the years have come to find it more scary than others. There is also a large amount of low-key lighting used which is something expected to be seen in horror films because quite often everything in the shot will be dark but the light that is present makes the audience focus on a specific aspect. Mostly there is a non-diegetic soundthroughout the opening. Thus, the loud noises help to build on the sense of claustrophobia and there being no escape. The film has a core targetaudience of about 15-25 years old, this is because the genre of the film is most popular amongst these age groups.