Research Into Similar Media Texts

The Haunting in Connecticut 

• This film also starts of with the production companies which also suggests it's a high budget film.
• The opening is of old pictures from the past of people looking very serious and there are cuts in between this of what looks like operating equipment, and we also see something dripping this creates enigma as we don't what it is but we assume it may be something from the past. From this we know that the film is horror as things from the past almost connote evil. 
• A bit in to the opening we realise the pictures are of people at a funeral and they are next to the body. Jump cuts have been used to do a close up of the dead body, this jumps the audience so straight away it unsettles the audience. We also see in between the images someone doing an operation which involves blood, however we don't fully see it which add mysteriousness.
• Also by intercutting the images and the operation utensils is implies that they are somehow linked.
• The music is a piano playing which makes it seem odd as it doesn't sound that sad but it does sound creepy and also sounds like diegetic sound making the audience believe it is happening now. However we also start to hear someone screaming as if they are in pain, this adds confusion to the audience as we have clues leading up to what may actually happen.
• They have used techniques such as flickering to show the pictures which indicates horror genre, this may also suggest ghosts and add to the title 'haunting'.
• The music fades out and we hear a dripping sound and see extreme close ups of the blood but we still don't know what it is from (we can only guess).
• The screen goes black and the title fades out and in again straight away. Then a sentence saying "Based on a true story" appears and stays for a few seconds, this is done to make the audience more scared but intrigued to watch the film. 
• This opening sequence is effective as it leaves the audience guessing and we assume that are questions will be answered later on in the film. 
• By using no dialogue it makes the film seem more creepy.