AS Media Thriller examples

The Halfway House

This video entitled 'The Halfway House' is an example of a two and a half minute opening to a Thriller film which was made by a group of AS Media studies students posted in the year 2008. The introduction begins showing a man with a bad limp on his left leg trudging towards a house. The camera then changes to the house's basement interior in which a girl is shown tied to a chair with her mouth gagged ,while another man whose face is unseen walks around her with a long bar of wood. The camera then cuts back to the limping man entering the house through the front door and then cuts back to the tied up woman as she is being beaten to death by the man with the wood block. The camera diverts back to the limping man looking around the house's interior and then begins to explore into the house's downstairs until he comes to the room where the girl was killed. The protagonist then sees the killer from a distance kneeling over the dead girl before the killer slowly turns his head to face the protagonist. The screen then turns to black for the title sequence.

The technique that I think this Thriller used really well

• Using suspenseful music to set the tone of the this thrilling moment as well as being used in order to establish this film as a Thriller.
• Having the killers lair being very dimly lit with lots of shadows to represent his sinister character.
• Not having the camera show the killer's face until the end of this opening, I think that this was very helpful to establishing the killers character as it shows him as being very mysterious , which would also make the film's audience curious to find out who he is later on in the film.
• Having a close up shot of the bar of wood which is being held by the killer as he circles the helpless girl tied to a chair. By showing this it gives the impression to the audience that he plans to hit her with it.
• As the killer is walking around his bounded victim, an low angle over the shoulder shot is used to make the camera  look down on the victim from the killers point of view. This is effective as it represents the killer as being in power at this moment as well as the girl being helpless.
• As the protagonist is inside the house the suspenseful diegetic music calms down and then builds up again as the protagonist begins to go downwards into the house which becomes to appear more sinister and dark as he gets further down and becomes closer towards the killer which shows that he is travelling towards danger.
• As the protagonist is walking down the stairs a wide angle shot from far behind him is used in order to represent him as being watched.
• Once again the suspenseful music builds up even more as the protagonist sees the killer kneeling over the girl's corspe, which shows that he is in danger, and the killers head then slowly turns to face the protagonist, right before the opening credits begin to roll . The effect of this is that it leaves this introduction on a suspenseful cliffhanger, which would make the film's audience very curious as to what is going to happen to these two characters as their fates have been left unknown at the end of  this opening , until they are revealed later on as the film progresses.

The Grade I would give this Introduction : B