Moonrise (Frank Borzage, 1948) Opening Scene

Using the opening scenes of the film, I am starting to get a better knowledge of how to create a successful opening to a horror film. What makes this successful is the music, it sets the tone alongside with the darkness of the shots. In the scene the men are walking slow, immediately this creates a suspense. The pathetic fallacy also gives us a clear indication of what the film is going to be about. The baby crying in the opening scenes also tells us perhaps he can sense something, like naturally if a dog barks we know somethings up. These are somethings I can think about when starting to plan my film. The use of shadows in the film are very effective, there is always somethings scary about shadows, they are dark, mysterious. Sometimes in life if we see a shadow, we might skip a heart beat this I also will take into consideration when making my film. In the 1:53rd minute of the film, the happy upbeat music juxtaposes the scary music played just before, this heightens the mood set. I believe this is a very successful opening. (NOTES ON THE FIRST TWO MINUTES OF THIS CLIP).