Analysis Of The Amityville Horror

I have chosen to analyse the remake of the Amityville horror. The first scene we see is a black screen with the date “ November 13th, 1974” in the bottom left hand corner. The black screen then fades out to a close up of a face in very shallow focus, and is only just recognisable. We then hear a bang, which could be a gunshot or lightening, and we have a cut to a shot of a house during the night in a storm. We then cut back to a shot of the mans face but clearer this time and his eyes are open with a light blue colour to his eyes. After this we have a shot of a TV with a diagram, which is very abstract and what appears to be a Red Indian. A cut zoom towards the TV shows the Indian a lot clearer which is possibly to add an enigma. We then have a close up of the alarm clock moving from 3:14 to 3:15 and then shot reverse shot to a sinister looking man turning to see the alarm cock and we then go back to the clock. During this clip we hear the alarm clock changing time above all other sounds. This use of sound perspective adds significance to the time. We then have a cut zoom out to the bedside table where we see an ashtray and a book which title reads “Evil, Proof, God”. We then have a medium shot behind the man sitting on the bed watching the TV as he picks up a rifle. Match on action then shows him from the front, loading the rifle still watching the TV. All of these elements add to an ever-growing enigma. We then have a cut to a photo of the man in graduate robes, which is lit up by the lightening storm outside. This shows us that the man with the gun hasn’t always been sinister as the image we see is in juxtaposition to what we see him doing. We then jump back to the same shot behind the man sat on the bed, when he stands up he leaves the room rifle in hand.
The lighting throughout this scene is low-key and what we see is frequently lit up by the lightening storm outside. We see the man walking up a flight of stairs a then staring out of a window, once again the shot is lit up by a flash of lightening and it shows his face with a very determined and evil. Throughout this whole clip low strings are being played in order to add tension and a sense of unease. He then walks up more stairs. He then walks into a room and we see a low angle shot of him in the door way aiming the weapon at the people in bed. We then cut to an over the shoulder shot of him shooting them, this happens two more times following the same pattern until he enters the last room. In the last room a little girl is awake and we have a close up of the murders eyes and he sheds a tear before shooting her too. This takes us to the end of the sequence.