Opening Sequence Analysis

Secret Window opening scene analysis

It begins with the repetitive noise of the windscreen wipers then a non- digetic voice of Johnny Depp is heard which sounds as if it is coming from the back seats, the shot throughout the first few seconds of the edit and opening is a close up of Depps face suggesting the voice is inside his head giving the audience the impression that it may be a psychological thriller. There is a long edit when the car reverses to the motel which has a sign coloured bright red suggesting blood or other features to a horror the camera follows Depp into a room and watches him through a window suggesting more evidence of a physiological thriller. As he runs into the hotel room the camera is left in the car watching as if someone was in the back seat. As Depp runs into the room and screams at his cheating wife in bed with another man, or so the audience assume, there is an eerie non-digetic noise as he screams at the rooms. This strange scene introduces the assumption that it is about him wrestling his own mind and conscience instead of typically fighting the man he finds he screams at him, which is faded out as a sound effect, the camera pans out and that is the end of that scene.

The next shot is all in one take, or appears so, it starts as the camera glides over a lake towards a log cabin as titles and credits zoom in and out, the camera, still in one shot, pans into the house through the top window and pans past a computer and a stack of papers on his desk giving the influence that the inhabitant (Johnny Depp) is a writer or journalist. The music thorough the whole shot is of a strings ensemble, with a low menacing cello and minor violins playing as the camera moves. The camera continues to pan through the house into a mirror containing the reflection of Depp, the camera zooms into the mirror and continues zooming and in one special effect is zooming in on Depps reflection but it is actually him, as if the mirror was a window or enchanted. This scene shows that it may be a psychological thriller, influenced by the special effect of the mirror and camera, and the fact Depps clothing is casual, ripped and over-worn. The fact that the camera panned through the mirror as if it were a window suggests the films title ‘Secret window’.