Detailed analysis of Thriller Clip- What Lies Beneath

As a class we looked at five different opening clips for Thriller films. Momento, He Loves Me He Loves Me Not, What Lies Beneath, Deja Vu and Enemy of the State. Each clip had a different hybrid and the mise en scense, camera, editing and sound seemed to make them distictive to eachother.

The Sub-Genre for the Movie 'What Lies Beneath' is a Supernatural Thriller.  

The sound in this short clip are very engaging and adds a lot of suspense, it’s as if howling noises where being enclosed and creepy weird sounds helped to add a bit of tension and suspense. While we reach to the actual scene the character begins to breathe heavily after she had been suffocating herself in the bath tub for an unknown reason. Her reaction does seem however as if she were having a nightmare. The editing of this scene is very slow and steady. At the beginning we have a wide shot of the bathroom and the woman in the centre of the frame. This can show that she is the main character and is primarily the target for the plot. As we get further into the bathroom; this makes us aware and shows that something typical is going to happen. The scene just continues to emphasise how something is probably going to appear suddenly while she’s blow-drying her hair.

The different titles are shown at the beginning while the music plays. It moves like waves and the background of the opening clip is actually supposed to be water. This is further reinforced when a face is slightly discovered very faintly and then and then it becomes clear as it is the face of the female in the bathroom. At the end of the scene the Hair Dryer becomes the main mise en scene and adds the most suspense to the whole clip. We are first introduced as she attempts to dry her hair but it cuts out, as she tries to turn it off but the socket she gets an electric shock which in my eyes startles the audience. As it begins to work after she gradually dries the condensed water on the mirror. The camera movement slowly zooms in. Unfortunately the clip ends there and in turn creates many questions being asked by the audience.