Opening 8 (my Genre) Dead Snow

Information: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1278340/?ref_=nv_sr_2

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R19KagZyU40

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dead_snow/?search=dead%20snow

Rating: 6.4/10 IMDB 67% Rotten Tomatoes

Release Date: 9 January 2009 (Norway)

Genre: Comedy, Horror

Age Rating: Not Rated

Director: Tommy Wirkola

Writers: Tommy Wirkola, Stig Frode Henriksen

Stars: Jeppe Beck Laursen, Charlotte Frogner, Jenny Skavlan

Budget: $800,000

Gross: $1,937,920

Production Co: Euforia Film, Barentsfilm AS, FilmCamp, Miho Film, News on Request (NOR), Yellow Bastard Production

Synopsis: A ski vacation turns horrific for a group of medical students, as they find themselves confronted by an unimaginable menace: Nazi zombies.
Intro Length: 2:50

Idents:

Euforia – Normal

Text:

In this movie there are no actors names in the start of the movie and no title sequence. The titles that pop up are:

YELLOW BASTARD PRODUCTION NEWS ON REQUEST & EUFORIA FILM – white bold text.

PRESENTERER EN MIHO FILM PRODUCTION - The Miho Film is red and bold while the rest is white and bold.

EN TOMMY WIRKOLA FILM – The Tommy Wirkola is bold and red while the rest is bold and white.

That’s the only text that appears. The movie starts of with a camera tilting down to the snowy mountains at night. 2 min and 46 seconds in the main title appears, DEAD SNOW. The color used is red but not full red as some parts are darker red and some lighter this clearly identify the bloody gore genre. The background that the text is on is the full moon in a dark blue sky.

Editing:

The only editing used in the intro is cuts. The pace of the cuts increase as the music gets more intense. The text on screen fades away, instead of cuts away.

Sound:

Throughout the opening sequence the music that is played is Edvard Grieg “In the hall of the mountain king”, this is fitting seeing as Edvard Greig is Norwegian and so is the movie. The music is contrapuntal as you wouldn’t expect to classical music in a sequence with zombies. The music is paused for a while when the woman is looking in to the forest. When the shot reverse shot is used all you hear is diegetic off-screen birds, until the zombie jump scar happens then the music starts playing again.

Evaluation:
The jump scare really builds tension as the camera focuses at something in the dark shadowy forest. It cuts back and forth to the actor and the establishing long shot of the forest. The reason for this is because the target audience expect to see zombies but nothing is happening so it rapidly builds tension and supports the horror genre. The fact that all you see in the opening is shadows running through a snowy forest also supports the genre and keeps the TA engaged.