Analyse how the film’s opening establishes genre conventions and reaches target audiences through technical codes, narrative and characterisation.

Candyman

Candyman is a Horror that was released around 1992 and 1993; the film was directed by Bernard Rose and written by Clive Barker and Bernard Rose. The film is about a university student named Helen Lyle who learns about the myth of the Candyman and then decides to write a thesis about him. The Candyman is a murderer who has a hook for a hand and he only appears when you say his name five times into a mirror, Helen didn’t believe the myth but when she starts to investigate random murders take place and questions are being asked.

The film had an estimated budget of $8,000,000 and has grossed over $25,000,000 in the USA alone. The film was a success and was the start of the trilogy with Candyman 2- Farewell to the flesh and Candyman 3- Day of the dead being created and released after the first film making the trilogy.       

I will be looking at how the opening of the Candyman fits the genre of the film and how you know what the film is, the film starts with a birds eye view of a busy motorway and the camera is panning  to the left, while this is happening the title appear and music begins to play. The music that is playing creates feeling and tension the music makes you feel uneasy and it sets the scene for what the film is about and how it is going to make you feel, the music suits the genre of horror and gets you in the mood for the rest of the film, the music is mainly made up of organs and a choir, both relate to a church and churches relate to death and funerals which suits the theme of the film because death happens a lot in the film and many people fear death which makes the film more scary. The road that you can see is busy and it looks like the time is rush hour, all the people ion the cars are probably going to work which means they do this every day and they are used to it, they don’t know what is about to hit them and they have probably never heard of the Candyman, they are just carrying on with their normal every day lives. The bird’s eye view shot is also an establishing shot because it shows you that the film is going to be based in a busy city where there are lots of people but it also shows that everything is normal and fine, nothing is different yet. The titles that are playing are bold and big and when the Candyman comes on in the titles it is different to the rest, it stands out more and the text is bigger bolder and the points are sharp which suggest that whoever the candyman is, in a way is like the title, bigger than everyone else he stands out and doesn’t fit in with everything and everyone, he is also sharp, this can be referring to his hook that he has for a hand and that he uses for a weapon.

After the titles finish it goes onto the first scene, the first scene is of lots and lots of wasps and there is a voice over, the voice is the Candyman’s voice and you instantly think what has wasps got to do with the Candyman and it could mean that he is in a way like wasps, a lot of people fear them and they can be very dangerous just like him they are also unwanted and disliked just like him. Their is then a shot of millions of wasps that fly and cover the whole city and they are trapped, this could mean that the candyman is going to do the same, he is going to trap the city and make them all scared and make sure no one can escape. Once this has happened the voice over says “I came for you” the scene then changes to a women who must be the one who the Candyman came for.

The next scene is when you are firstly introduced to the Candyman and what he does, a woman is telling Helen the main character a story about the Candyman and what he does, the story tells you about how the Candyman comes and also a description of what he looks like and what he does to his victims. When the Candyman kills he does it in the dark and when you see him first kill you only get a quick second to have a look at him and see what he looks like you cant actually see him, this makes him more scary and makes you feel uneasy because you don’t know what he looks like and because he comes in the dark you suddenly think that the dark is scary because of what is associated with it e.g. the Candyman. The Candyman is a traditional serial killer in a horror, there is one main killer (The Candyman) and he is unknown, no one knows of him and how to stop him you don’t know when he is going to strike and he is dangerous and scary. People fear the dark already and when put together with a killer it becomes even scarier and more people will the dark with death and fear.

In many horrors there is one main victim that the killer plans to kill and in the Candyman it is Helen. In most horrors the main victim is also a woman this is because they are seen to be weaker and more vulnerable towards killers. Helen is a young woman which makes her more suiting for a victim because she is young and pretty and young and pretty women are also a target for killers, they are learning about things and they are still learning how to look after themselves which is why killers go after them because they are easy targets.

Overall I would say that the soundtrack in the opening of the film is the very effective when showing the genre of the film, this is because the soundtrack makes you instantly feel uncomfortable and makes the film eerie. The sound suits the genre of the film and you know from now on what the film is going to be like. The soundtrack has organs in which are related to church’s and some people when thinking of church’s instantly think of death and funerals which is related to the films genre.