Research - Film opening 3 - The Woman in Black

Woman in black was originally made in 1989, however I will be analysing the 2012 version. When this new film was released on the opening weekend it made $20,874,072 in the USA. The budget was $17,000,000, meaning that there was monetary success in the way that there was $3,874,072 profit within just the first weekend. The overall gross was $54,322,273 resulting in a massive profit. However the critical acclaim was not very good for the film, with the film getting a slashing from critics that the effects weren’t realistic and Radcliffe’s acting was not up to scratch. The director was James Watkins and the film was set and filmed in Sussex, as well as other parts of the UK.

The opening of this film takes you straight into the story of the film. There are three girls all sat in a play room quite happily having a tea party with their dolls and toys. Then suddenly the girls drop everything and all walk towards the window, which is divided into three, one for each of them. Whilst they are walking to the window they tread on their crockery, which then smashes into pieces. This then shows that they are possessed, jumping out of the window to a scream from the mother saying “My baby.”

There are only the three girls in this opening scene. They are represented to be very affluent. This is shown in the connotation of them wearing ankle length clean pastel dresses. As well as the dresses, they’re wearing clean crisp white aprons. This gives the denotation that they’re innocent and only children.