'Alone In The Dark', Uwe Boll, 2005

‘Alone In The Dark’ was directed by Uwe Boll and made in 2005. It falls into three genres: horror, thriller and action. I will be focusing on the first two: horror/thriller. Typical conventions of a horror/thriller are murder, fast pace action, supernatural or paranormal activities and suspense. Stock locations are normally dark isolated places which tend to be abandoned. There tends to be shots in forests, abandoned houses or remote locations. The characters tend to include evil people, victims, heroes, psychotic people, mentally deranged people and some form of controller. The films tend to have parts in black and white or in a blue wash. The music and sound effects tend to be spooky or fast pace and in chase scenes you tend to have the sounds of footsteps and panting. The audiences generic expectations are fulfilled in this opening sequence as nearly all of these conventions appear. The text conforms to the characteristics of the genre as it conforms to the typical stock locations, characters, plots and themes. This helps the audience understand the plot and gets them gripped.

In the opening sequence, Boll uses various techniques to create suspense and an enigma. He uses the rule of thirds frequently which draws your eyes to different things. This can also give the audience clues to the plot. He uses a range of shot sizes to create different effects and perspectives. An example of this is when he uses a LS and an ELS of a boy running out of the darkness in a forest. These are both key conventions of a horror/thriller and help to create a scary and dangerous environment. He also does shots from behind things such as a tree or a bush to create a sense of mystery. At one point there is a shot from behind a bush at night with a search party in the background. This makes the audience think that what they are searching for is hiding behind the bush or they are being watched by something/someone.

The shots are in between the title credits and last for around a couple of seconds each time. This helps to create suspense and makes it fast pace. Also, there are only two subjects that are being shot, a young boy in pyjamas running through a forest and a search party looking for him. The shots are cut from shot to title very quickly without any fading to make it flow smoothly. This builds up suspense and connotes danger and fast pace action. Boll quickly jump cuts from shot to shot and uses various shot sizes to create different meanings. The sequence of jump cuts shows a boy running through a forest in his pyjamas; some titles appear; people searching in a forest, who we assume are searching for the boy; titles; the boy running through some hedges and bushes with sounds of panting and rustling; a close-up of the people searching; the boy running; titles; the searchers and then the boy running into darkness. At this point you hear a strange sound which you assume belongs to an evil creature and then the film title comes up. The titles are in black and white (black background and white text) and the text is in capital letters. The text fades in and out horizontally which connotes the blinking motion of eyes. Also, the boy is in pyjamas which connotes that he has escaped or is running away from home. It also makes him seem vulnerable.

At the start of the film, there is a passage of text which appears in the capital letters, white text on a black background. It is read by a man with a deep voice. He has an English accent and says it very clearly. The passage helps to create an enigma and tells the audience a bit about the plot. He talks about a gate between a world of light and a world of darkness opening and something evil slipping though. There is apparently terrifying creatures that thrive in the darkness waiting for the gate to open again. This is a typical horror/thriller plot as it conforms to the generic conventions as it talks about supernatural activities and paranormal creatures. It also talks about savage experiments that were conducted by an archaeologist in an attempt to merge man with creature. These features comply to the typical conventions of a horror//thriller as it appears that the archaeologist must have some kind of evil nature. It says how his victims survived as “sleepers” – lost souls waiting for their calling. The use of the world ‘victim’ is very important as it connotes that these people did not choose to be experimented on and that they might have been captured.

The narrative is structured in a linear order with an introduction to the film in the past and jump juts which appear to skip out parts of the search. The audience is told about the history behind the plot but is left wondering what happens next by the end of the opening sequence. This makes the audience want to watch the rest of the film. The major theme that appears from the narrative is the idea of twisted minds and experiments taking place to find out what lives in the darkness. Tension is created and maintained in the opening sequence when you get the jump cuts from text to film and vice versa.

The social groups that are represented in this sequence are young boys and the community. The young boy is represented as running away which is normally seen as being a very bad thing to do whereas the community is represented as being caring and very aware of what goes on. The values and beliefs are that the community cares for each other and are organised in searching for people.

The target audience for this film is anyone from the age of around 15 upwards however some younger people may also watch it. The audience reads the text as a horror/thriller film with typical plots and themes. As a female teenager I read the text to be a typical horror/thriller with many conventions but probably find it scarier than a male of the same age.