Film Anaylsis for Boogeyman

Institutions: Ghost House Pictures are part of the film, much they are on 30 Days of Night, Gothika and Dreamcatcher, showing that this is film is part of the horror genre before it starts.

The establishing shot is of a suburbian house with a child's swing outside. The shot is very dark and the whole mise-en-scene gets accross the genre of horror. There is sinister music playing in the background, resembling that of a fair ground with a slowed tempo. The minor keys and slow tempo music are typical in horrors and sets the scene for the rest of the film, fitting perfectly with the set. The fact that the music is eerie, and resembling a fairground, connotes childhood. That, mixed with the setting and the swing, connotes to the audience that the theme is something to do with children, as does the title when it appears later. As we enter the house, there is wooden stair case, typical mise-en-scene for a horror film, that creeks as the camera moves up them. This makes the audience feel as though something is lurking and so puts them on edge from the beginning, as does the place of the camera behind the bushes in the establishing shot.
There is a horizontal tilt of the landing then a close up of a door. The camera then does a birds eye shot of the door handle, that zooms to a close up of it, this shot is key to creating a creeping effect - so the audience feels as though someone is trying to get in.
As the camera focuses on a young boy in bed, there are shots around his entire room. They show his window, which is open and his curtains being blown about by the wind, they also show his wardrobe. These shots are key to the plot, as they are later used to demonstrate characters whereabouts.
The young boy is trying to sleep but cannot and so i tossing and turning, it shows his nightstand, where he has figurines and a lamp. Within the first minute, the first character is introduced and the audience is already scared, and the mise-en-scene connotes that something bad is about to happen. As the camera travels back to the child, we see shots of his room from his perspective. It shows a bird hanging from his ceiling, that is flying around in the wind. There is then a close p of the figurine on his night stand. After a few seconds of the child urgently looking around, we see a hooded shadow sitting in a chair. The child panics and switches his lamp on. After he turns it off, the figure starts to walk towards him, so he turns his light on again and it falls to the floor. This time, he picks the robe up and puts it in a drawer, then returning to bed puts the light off. Now the bird starts to move and make noises and the figurine starts to scare the boy so he outs that in a drawer and hides under his duvey. The shot is from the kids persepective to show how affraid he is.
Eerie music is played in the background as a figure walks towards the bed and lifts the sheet. This shot is part of the creeping theme, so the audience is filled with tension as they await what will happen next. The tension is releaved as we see it is the childs dad. They talk about the 'Boogeyman' and the dad tells his son that he isnt real and so goes to check around the room to prove it. As he checks under the bed and around we can hear the enhanced sound of the child breathing, which rebuilds the tension. The father walks intot he cupboard and turns to face his son, to re-assure him. His speech is cut off as he is dragged backwards into the cupboard and the door slams shut behind him. This shot is done from the boys perspective to show the trauma he is facing. There is a quick shot of the boy to show his horrified reaction, then its back to the door as it flings open and his dad reappears on the floor, his face covered in blood. The mise-en-scene here is to show the audience that something bad is happening to the man, although it is not shown - its an ellipsis. There are multiple shots of the dad being pulled back through the door, and grabbing onto the door frame. These shots are key to the horror genre and adds to the audiences reaction of fear. The dad is screaming and being twisted around and lifted up and down in the door frame, a different series of shots are shown of this - which was really different, but worked really well to demonstrate to the audience the fear and horror of the scene.
As the door closes, there is a breif close up of the boy's face to show the fear in his eyes, and his eye colour is enhanced to furthur produce pathos for him from the audience.The camera then cuts to '15 years later'.
This is the opening 3 minutes of the film, which straight away connotes horror through the mise-en-scene and character reactions.

The target audience is over 15s, due to its certificate, yet is not for a much older audience as it is quite intence for violence and horror. It connotes the genre horror really well, through its characters, mise-en-scene, and the camera angles, although different, are key to creating a tense audience.