Analysis of Film Opening - 'Disturbia'

'Disturbia' 'D.J Caruso' '2007'

The Film ‘Disturbia’ is a teen-targeted thriller/horror. This is one of many horrors that are psychological. The opening sequence doesn't give away the expectations of a horror genre, but instead shows the audience a traumatic experience for the main character, Kale.
This opening is an enigma as it isn't under the horror genre but you want to find out how it ties in with the rest of the film. As the film starts there is a voice over of a mysterious man talking about whether 'He can see us?' but 'He can feel us watching him'. This is ironic for a later part in the film, but yet no characters have been introduced, connoting the mystery. The conventions of a horror are the stock characters, with one main role, Kale, who has to compete with the stock plots with a kidnapping or murder. The stock locations may include an old haunted house or woods, but this film challenges that idea and sets it in a normal everyday life of the normal everyday American teenager. Kale still strongly remembers his father and this is evident in the film when his mother agrees to go out with the next door neighbour but Kale answers at the same time with “that’s never ‘gunna’ happen” , with the typical language from a teenager.

The iconography with mise-en-Scene conveys a happy relationship between two characters, father and son. They are shown from the camera panning up with non-diegetic music with a peaceful, derelict landscape with only a river and the characters with mountains surrounding them. An ELS is used to show this. Whilst the two characters talk, there are motivated cuts where the cuts coincide with changes of speaker and so cause the audience to accept the comparison of time. The rule of thirds is also used quite a lot in the opening and throughout the film to make the audience focus on particular things first. There is also leading room and head room for the characters so they don’t look squashed into the shot. The camera changes to a close up of a fish to show a POV shot from the character to see what he is seeing. The main character appears fist with his father apart from him, but then gets closer connoting the father son 'bonding' experience.
In the car the camera is focused onto the father’s face, which means that something important will happen to him, although you can here Kale talking on the phone, because of the camera trick, you automatically focus on what the father is doing. Kale is talking to his mother which triggers a motivated shot tracking their house, still talking on the phone. Their joking with each other shows that they are a close family who get along with each other really well.
There is a close up of the wing mirror as a POV shot to see a car, with, what seems to be sound effect of a car, to make it sound louder. This connotes dangerous driving, when you hear a loud car engine. With the crash, there are many CU shots with quick changing cutting rate, which are used for deliberate interruptions to shock, surprise or emphasize. So this is used to elaborate the crash. Non-diegetic music gets played with a panning shot through the windscreen to show what condition the characters are in, and then close ups in the car to feel like you are in the action, but not upside down. Another close up of Kale's face shows shock on his face as he says 'Dad'. This also shows that something is going to happen, then cuts to another car hurling towards them. A tracking shot of the car with a Steadicam shows the personal belongings in the car boot sprawled along the road with one character struggling to get out. But no identity is shown for a bit which leads to a bit of an enigma. As Kale struggles to get out there are many sound effects like ripping clothes and broken glass which would have been added onto it in Post Production. Kale looks at his father in shock with the camera tracking into his face to emphasize the emotion. As violin music starts playing, to set that it is a sad time, the screen turns blank and the title fades in. There then is a sound break with a school bell into a school corridor at a high angle with writing along the bottom saying one year later, telling the audience that one year has passed since the car crash. As the bell finishes, the camera enters a classroom panning across the students. There is a typical clothed teen rebel reciting a Spanish essay, being the class clown, which introduces a character which seems to be popular with everyone but one girl in his class, but no main lead to whether this character is involved with the story or not. Kale is asleep in class and not concentrating, showing that he has gone off the rails after witnessing his father’s death.

The narrative is linear but with a gap between the opening sequence to the rest. The audience are positioned to camera shots from behind him and POV shots, being ‘on his side’. Kale is shown as being a normal American teenager at school, but having lost his father in a car crash, he has not been concentrating in class and he has become further apart from his mother. The tension is maintained in this film with many double bluffs from the killer and little clues with irony too. There is also silence in some films which makes the audience nervous to what is happening.

The ideological discourse in this film is reinforced that the main 'hero' in a horror is male. Also the killer stock character seems to be male too, also with a typical ‘girl next door’ who plays a part. The representations of social groups whom may be discussed in this film may be the teenagers who may have lost a parent and showing how they deal with the stress of their loss. This is very evident in this film as they used to be a close family, and now the mother and Kale seem to be further apart in terms of their relationship. The target audience would seem to be the teen age as the main role is taken up by a rising star in Hollywood at that age. This actor is important for the film as many teenagers know who he is, so would maybe like to see this film.
Tom Johnson 12Y