Planning and research – The Ward (psychological horror) deconstruction

In the first two minutes, the companies that the film is produced and sponsored by are shown.  The editing that is used for them is fade in and out. The credits are then shown also using fade in and fade out editing with a non-diegetic quiet but high pitched classical piano sound. The scene is introduced with a non-diegetic swoosh sound and the edit is a slow wipe from the bottom of the screen. The mise-en-scène of the establishing shot is very dark and gloomy with only a few street lamps around. The location seems to be a big white building, at this moment it is ambiguous of what it is. It is long shot of the building. Then using a straight cut to a brown sign board the place is identified to be a psychiatric hospital. The next scene seems to look like the maintenance area; there is a diegetic sound of mechanics and is a long shot. We then straight cut to a low shot of tube light with diegetic lighting and electricity sounds. The mise-en-scène of the next scene is dark and has shadows. It uses a straight cut and is a long shot of a corridor. We then cutaway to the same corridor but from a different angle but it is much lighter in this area. We straight cut to the next scene which seems to look like an experiment room, in the mise-en-scène there are quite a few white objects which stand out against the background colour. The sound is diegetic of a monster laughing and the non-diegetic music is foreboding. The next mid shot is of 2 white doors and then we see a close up of hospital apparatus used during operations. We jump cut into the next scene with a diegetic lightening flash sound. The shot is a dolly shot and the mise-en-scène is light and dark and the off screen sound and light of lightening shines in. we can also her off screen footsteps. We start the next scene with a bird’s eye view of a young looking girl sitting on a bed in cell like room. The girl starts to get scared as she can hear approaching footsteps. We then go back to the corridor scene and there is a close up of a chalk board with ‘Tammy’ written. There is a close up a wired window, the shot is of someone looking into the girl and her emotions show that she is terrified. The thundery and suspense building music remains the same. The next scene begins with a close up of the bottom of a door showing a shadow of footsteps. We then straight cut to the girls face which shows that she is scared and terrified, she leaves her bed and the director uses a mid-shot of her standing in the corner of her room near a window which sheds some light.  He uses repeated shots of the door window,, the bottom of the door and her face to create more suspense and to scare his audience. The girl screams as she is grabbed by the neck by an unseen figure, we just see a hand in the dark. The next scene is of her feet kicking back and forth struggling and she eventually stops kicking.