film Analysis

What Lies Beneath

The opening of the film 'What Lies Beneath' begins with very creepy, and ghostly music playing, as the credits appear on the screen. There is a foggy black background with the credits appearing and then fading away. This gives the effect of them floating in the water, especially with the title of the film. Gradually after the title has appeared we see a sudden change, as the music starts to fade then speeds up. We then see a close up of a woman with her head under water in the bath. It makes it seem as if she is drowning or attemping to drown herself. The woman is paniking as if she can't breathe, it then cuts straight to a long shot of her in the bath catching her breathe. Whilst the camera slowly zooms in towards her, to give the effect of something creeping up on her. This represents the woman as if she is having some problems, or going through some issues, as it seems like she was trying to drown herself. We see a close up of her hand as she reaches to turn the hair dryer on, and jumps as she is electricuted by it. This is effective as just before this the hair dryer stopped working. So the shock of being electricuted will suprise the audience as it is built up with tension and is unexpected. We then see a pan of the woman blowdrying the steam off the mirror, which leads to a mid shot of her reflection in the mirror. This is effective, as it could be relating to the title of the film 'What Lies Beneath' as the steam is fading away and you start to see her appear.