This film is one that follows the conventions of a typical horror film, however, some of the conventions have been missed out and turned around to fit the plot of the film.
In the exposition of the clip, all we can hear is the diegetic sounds of the weather. Automatically, this makes us, as the audience, aware that it is a horror film and that something bad is going to happen which will be followed by more horrible things. The fact that the camera is zooming in on the girl in the clip as well, adds to the eerie feeling that we already have because of the weather noises.
The screenshot above is important in this clip, because this is the part where we begin to notice that something is wrong if we didn't already gather that from the few sound effects and the weather noises in the background. After this clip, the sound effects properly start. The ones used in this film are the typical horror sound effects used in most horror films. It is often that you will find a film with the same plot as another, which is why they use the same sound effects to get the same reaction out of the audience. When the little girl goes outside of her room to find her parents, we still hear the weather noises outside and we also hear the stereotypical horror movie music that is added to make a movie seem more terrifying than it actually is.
When the little girl says "mommy? daddy?", it is quiet in comparison to the thunder outside. However, as the plot thickens and the camera starts to zoom in on the girl coming down the stairs, her voice gets louder and louder. This shot starts off with a long shot, which is one of the reasons why her voice is so quiet. This long shot could represent the fact that the girl does not yet understand what is going to happen and does not yet know that anything is wrong. Then the girl starts to walk down the stairs and the camera starts to zoom in on her creating a medium shot. Using a child as the character at the beginning of the film, where things aren't going as smoothly as they should, creates the hook that reals the audience in from he beginning so that they continue to watch to find out what is going to happen to the girl.
The next part that foreshadows horror is the clip of the room that the girl goes into where all of her father's haunted objects are, including the Annabelle doll that is of the haunting events that happen in the film. Here, we see the medium/close up shot of the Annabelle doll case that is empty. This is the biggest sign that something terrible is about to happen or will happen in the film at some point. While this is going on, we can still hear the weather outside which is still adding to the eerie feeling we have from the beginning. After this, the lights start to fade and the weather noises are completely drowned out until later on.
This is also where the sound effects properly come into play. These non-diegetic sounds add to the feeling we get while watching the film.
The lighting here starts to fade dramatically and we can tell here that there is something supernatural going on here and this thing is powerful enough to make all the lights fade. The editing in this clip is very powerful to the audience, especially the two clips that have been edited together to make it look like the darkness is dragging the girl backwards. If you look closely enough, we know that this is not the case, she is in fact just moving backwards to get away from whatever horrid thing is happening in her house at that moment.
The above screenshot shows the girl with her back towards the camera. When watching this part of the film, there is constant banging noises that seem to be coming from the opposite side of the door. It is obvious here that the supernatural being is trying to get through the door, but does not possess enough energy to go through the door or open the door just yet.
However, if we carry on watching, we see the Annabelle doll on a chair with a woman whose breathing sounds she is dead. The doll is the main thing that the girl needs to fear at this point. However, adding the woman to the clip as well tells us that this is the point where things start to go worse. Through the jump shots in the next few scenes, we see this as there is a lot of film captured into a short space of time just because of the jump shots. The moving chair in the clip, whether that be it just rocking by itself after the woman and the doll leave, or the chair moving when the door finally gets opened, makes the audience hooked even more and we are left wondering what is happening here.
The clip goes outside to the parent's car after the Nan tries to open the door for the girl. The noise of the weather comes back and the mother states that she knows something is wrong. This is a powerful line in the short clip of the opening of the film because it gives us an insight to what the mother is like. The movie speeds up now, every clip is edited together to make it look like there is more going on in the film than there actually is. Doing this can be confusing at times but this is a conventional editing technique used by most directors and producers in horror films. The establishing shot of the house shows that the house isn't the most important setting in the clip. This is shown through the fact that instead of being at the beginning, it is in the middle of the clip. It represents the fact that setting is not important in this film because this doll follows you wherever you go and brings all of her haunting events with her.
We know that this film follows some of the typical horror movie conventions because of the supernatural aspect and the eeriness that the film brings with it. However, it doesn't follow all of the typical conventions as most horror films do not have much action until the last twenty minutes whereas this film has action throughout. Overall, this film follows the stereotypical horror movie rules, although it is far different from Bram Stoker's horror film Dracula.
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