Horror opening sequence research

‘Saw’ (2004) 
Theme: torture, climaxes, dark, escape, madness
Plot: With a dead body lying between them, two men wake up in the secure lair of a serial killer who's been nicknamed "Jigsaw". The men must follow various rules and objectives if they wish to survive and win the deadly game set for them.
Setting: unclean, abandoned bathroom
Camera movement: POV shots are off balanced to represent how the character feels.
Characters: Vulnerable, weak.
Sound: dark, eerie and ominous- non-diegetic.
Lighting: completely pitch black until strip lighting is suddenly turned on, giving a clinical feel to the setting.
What I’ll take away from this opening: I like the idea of point of view shots to really get into the emotion and feel of the character. This is something I could try out when filming the opening sequence.
 

'The Amityville Horror' (2005)
Theme: Madness, dark, escape, spirits, suspense.
Plot: A family is terrorized by demonic forces after moving into a home that was the site of a grisly mass-murder. 
Setting: family home 
Characters: child- weak, vulnerable. Father- stable, but then turns mad
Sound: Light to begin with when the family have found their perfect home, but has fleeting tones of darkness when it is revealed crimes took place at the house. Diegetic sound of wind whipping around the trees.
Lighting: dark, shadows.
What i'll take away from this opening: The use of diegetic sound adds to the sense of eeriness. As we are using a cabin which is surrounded by trees we could include the sounds from outside like the wind, or rustling trees to add realism but also create a creepy atmosphere.   


'Buried' (2010)
Theme: confinement, attack
Plot: Paul is a U.S. truck driver working in Iraq. After an attack by a group of Iraqis he wakes to find he is buried alive inside a coffin. With only a lighter and a cell phone it's a race against time to escape this claustrophobic death trap.
Setting: coffin buried 6feet under ground 
characters: Paul- the protagonist who is buried. 
Sound: Diegetic sound of Paul breathing heavily. Diegetic sound of the lighter Paul has flicking the ignition. Non-diegetic sound of beating which is fast paced and piercing. 
Lighting: No artificial set lighting, only the yellow dim light from the lighter which flickers as the character Paul movies. 
What i'll take away from this opening: Less is more- it creates more atmosphere are the audience is centred and concentrated on a a select amount of things.