Analysis of a Student Thriller: Hunted

Student Production - Hunted from Hannah Boardman on Vimeo.

   The opening titles are black with a white glowing outline on a black background, which immediately establishes Strauss’ ideas of binary oppositions of good and evil which are appropriate for a thriller. The text looks hand written, in a slightly serif font. They are blurry and disjointed, which connotes mystery and uncertainty. The text indicates the names of the students involved, the film company ‘Noiré Productions’ fades in in ink blotches as if ink is spilling onto a page. The last title before the action is ‘Halogen Film’ which fades out and into the first scene.

   The first shot fades into an establishing medium shot showing a young girl in bed who gasps as she wakes suddenly, connoting a nightmare or a disturbance. The chiaroscuro lighting is low key, high contrast, with the main colour standing out being pink. This suggests that the girl is young and innocent, which is further emphasised by her Winnie the Pooh night dress. The shot fades to a close up of a digital alarm clock which changes from 2:29 to 2:30, showing that it is the middle of the night and she shouldn’t be awake. The fact that the clock changes suggests that a planned event could be about to happen. 

    We cut back to a medium long shot of the girl turning on her bedside lamp. The lamp produces a warm glow directed onto her bed, suggesting this is where she is warm and safe. This shot shows more of her bedroom, with cute teddy bears and pink fluffy pillows, emphasizing her young and innocent nature again and making her seem like the ‘princess’ character according to Propp’s theory. There is a match on action shot showing her getting out of bed, and the camera pans with her as she goes to the door. During this pan we see posters reinforcing her identity as a young teenager, and further establishing her girly character. This would cause the viewer to assume that there are adults in the house, but later events determine that this cannot be, otherwise they would surely have been awoken by the girl running around her house and the smashing glass. Another match on action shows her going out of her bedroom door, and ending on a medium shot of her turning on the landing light. 

    A series of ellipsis edits leads us downstairs and into a dark room where there is an emphasized diegetic sound of a light switch as she flicks it on. The camera pans following her to the sink, and we realise that she is in the kitchen. During the close up of her pouring herself a glass of water, the lighting is used to cast a shadow to be cast over her which looks very ominous and further enhances the eerie atmosphere. 

   There is a medium close up of her about to take a drink of the water, when we hear a diegetic thudding sound from upstairs as the girl suddenly looks up at the ceiling with a shocked expression. She calls out ‘Hello?’, which sounds worried but confident and indicates that she is trying not to show her fear. The camera pans and tracks down with her hand as she places her glass of water on the kitchen countertop. There is a close up of the glass suggesting that this has some significance to the events which will follow. At this moment tense, non-diegetic music begins. The music is sparse and sinister, played on a piano and has a fairly steady tempo suggesting something is about to be revealed. She leaves the kitchen, and as she walks down the hallway the light causes the bannister to create a shadow on the wall which looks like bars, signifying that she may be trapped. This is a typical thriller and Film Noire trope that we saw in one of the commercial thrillers we analysed; Sixth Sense. 

   She cautiously goes up the stairs with light footsteps so as not to alert whoever or whatever is in her house. We begin to feel more tense and on edge as she gets closer to the bathroom door. This is followed by a close up of her hand pressing down on the door handle, and an enhanced diegetic creaking sound. There is a match on action edit as she enters the room. Initially this could be seen as the point of view of the intruder, but once she is inside the room we realise she is alone. 

   At first she stands and analyses the room, and we see her react to something which we cannot yet see. She rushes over to the sink and lifts something out of it. The camera tracks with the object as she lifts it to examine it. There is a close up of her looking at the object and we see it is red lipstick, and red has denotations of blood and connotations of death and danger. On the other hand, red can have connotations of maturity and sexuality which have previously been absent in the opening. The camera pans to follow the girl’s eye line as she spots something written on the mirror in lipstick. At this point the music begins to reach a crescendo as there is a close up of the mirror with ‘You weren’t supposed to wake up x’ written on it with the lipstick. The kiss on the end mocks her innocence and juxtaposes the threat, because usually a kiss on the end of a message would be a sign of friendship, yet the intruder is teasing and frightening the girl. There is a diegetic sound of glass smashing which leads into the non-diegetic music becoming much more tense with lots of bass sounds in it and a faster ‘chase type’ tempo. The smashing links to the idea that we are looking in a mirror. There is a medium close up of her looking startled as she hears the noise, and the camera tracks as she runs out towards the noise.

   There are slight ellipsis edits leading us back downstairs. One of the shots is a close up of her legs as she rushes down the stairs. We see this from the other side of the bannister and the bars of the bannister again re-enforce the idea that she is trapped. She suddenly stops as she gets into the kitchen. The camera tracks down as she bends down to look at something on the ground; broken glass from the glass of water she had left on the side earlier. At this point we realise the significance of her leaving the water behind, which could connote her life being broken apart, and the shattering of her initial confidence. She closely analyses a piece of glass, and drops it suddenly when she notices the door is open. There is a medium long shot as the camera tracks up with her standing and running to shut the door. She quickly locks the door and the non-diegetic music stops abruptly, suggesting she is now safe. She leans her back against the door and sighs in relief, but still looks shook up by the experience and buries her face in her hands. The peace and silence is suddenly disrupted by the enhanced diegetic sound of the phone ringing. It is unusual that the phone is ringing now, as we are aware that it is the middle of the night. This means that we know this phone call is not going to be one from a friend or family member as they would most likely be in bed. This makes it more tense. 

   We cut away to a close up of the phone and then back to her hand as she reluctantly goes to pick it up, before cutting back to the close up of the phone and her hand as she picks it up. There is then a close up of her holding the phone to her ear, and it is unusual that there is no voice coming from the phone, nor is she speaking. This is when we realise the intruder most have rung the phone to get her to go into that room. We cut to a close up of the girl looks very nervous and swallows hard, showing she is frightened. Her attention is suddenly diverted towards the camera and her eyes widen. This makes it look like we are seeing from the point of view of the intruder, and allows us to fully experience her fear whilst hiding the attacker’s identity. At this point the non-diegetic music begins again with high pitched strings creating tension. The lighting is chiaroscuro with a spotlight highlighting her, bringing all our focus onto her facial expression. She backs away until she reaches the wall, showing that she can’t get away any further and she is trapped. She sinks down the wall and drops the phone, and at this point we can again make out the shadows from the banister looking like prison bars, once again signifying her imprisonment. The camera tracks down with her, creating a high angle shot which gives the intruder more power and authority. The music reaches a climax and the screen goes black with ‘Hunted’, written in the same style as the first opening credits, in the centre. 

   We cut back to the action, with a close up of the phone on the floor and the victim’s motionless hand beside it. The non-diegetic music has stopped and we can only hear the dead line sound coming from the phone. This signifies her death as the shot blurs, and leads into an ink fade transition similar to the production company name in the first set of opening credits. This particular transition could suggest the idea of death taking over the screen and taking the girl with it.  

   Overall, we thought that this student thriller opening was impressive. There was sustained tension and suspense throughout, and the end of the opening scene maintained the air of mystery making you want to watch more. There were a variety of shots and edits which were done very well, especially the match on action shots, and the choice of music (when it began) was very effective in making the atmosphere tense and ominous. It was unfortunate that there was some unwanted background noise in the first few shots, and we felt that there was a lack of non-diegetic music or intentional diegetic sound.