Analysis of thriller clip.

What lies beneath is a horror/super natural thriller.

The opening scene of the movie starts with a black background and very quiet, mysterious sounding music. as the music increases in sound and intensity, a blue background slowly fades into focus along with the title sequence. the quiet music and peaceful background (which looks as if it's underwater) intend to create tension in the scene as the audience don't know what will happen next or even when it will happen.


As the rather creepy music increases in volume and intensity, it looks as though the camera is traveling through the water, and as the music reaches its loudest, a rapid cut of a scary face appears, quickly moving towards the camera through the water-it looks like the face of a dead woman- it then changes to a birds eye view of the face of a normal woman (the female protagonist) which appears coming out of the water.


The woman seems scared by something; as though she has also witnessed the scary face, but she is unsure of herself. she is tense as she gets out of the bath, and this tension makes the audience also feel on edge. The steam looks quite misty around the bathroom, which is totally white; although this is usually a connotation for purity and sometimes safety, the fog around the room makes all the whiteness seem quite excessive and sinister.


The closeup of the hairdryer, as the woman uses it to clear the steam from the mirror, tells the audience that it will possibly be an important prop later on, the audience are made to feel as though something will appear on the mirror; seeing the scary face once unexpectedly has now prepared them to expect it everywhere. Premonitions are used (when the hairdryer stops working, and the woman nearly gets electrocuted) to pre-warn the audience that something bad will happen soon.