My task during the holidays was to watch a thriller movie in which I chose to watch the movie "Orphan". Orphan is a 2009 psychological thriller, whereby a couple named "Kate" and "John" recently lost their baby. The couple then decide to adopt a child and choose "Esther" a 9 year old girl who is not nearly as innocent as she claims to be. While Max (Kate and John's 5 year old daughter who is deaf and unable to speak) takes an instant liking to Esther, Daniel (Kate and John's 10 year old son) on the other hand isn't fond of her. After a series of events Kate becomes suspicious of Esther, she begins researching Esther's past life, coming across "Saarne Institute", which she believes to be a previous orphanage Esther used to belong to. However, in calling Saarne Institute Kate finds out by Dr Varava, that Saarne Institute isn't a orphanage but a mental institution, and that Esther, is really a 33 year old women called "Leena Klammer" who has "Hypopituitarism", a condition that has stunted her physical growth; spending most of her life posing as a little girl. Dr Varava also warns Kate saying she must call the police immediately as Esther is dangerously violent and capable of murder, and ran away from the institution a year ago.
With Daniel at the hospital, after Esther attacked him, Kate runs home and discovers John stabbed to death and breaks down, but her concern lies with Max and her safety. Just as Esther is about to discover Max, Kate comes to her rescue and her and Max run away from the house, in hope to be aided by the police who are yet to be on their way. While Kate is comforting Max, Esther suddenly appears lunging at Kate with a knife, and are both pushed into the freezing waters. As Kate is climbing out of the water, Esther pops up and grabs onto Kate's legs, with the knife hidden behind her back. Esther begins to plead with Kate saying, "Please don't let me die, Mommy." However, Kate finally loses it and yells "I'm not your f*cking Mommy!" and kicks Esther hard, breaking her neck and killing her, making her sink back down into the freezing waters.
Within this blog, I will be analysing the first two minutes of Orphan, in terms of sound, camera and the main title sequence. Before the movie begins we are met with the production company logo of "Warner Bros. Pictures". The logo, doesn't appear to look its usual golden yellow and blue, but instead its appearance varies in ways such as the background being black, and the logo being covered in neon blue and purple. The significance of these colours are related to Esther's expressive drawings of wanting to kill in which neon colours are used, this may highlight the movie is indeed a thriller, and will contain some dark and mysterious parts. 
Soon after the production company "Dark Castle Entertainment" is shown, in which it too resembles the same neon colours, continuing the eerie atmosphere. Dark Castle Entertainment was made to honour "William Castle" a horror film maker, in which they wanted to recreate all his horror movies. After a couple of years Dark Castle Entertainment began creating their own movies and their most critically acclaimed movie was Orphan. While the first minute is playing we are able to hear a low music bed, which is considerably frightening and spooky for the audience, keeping them engaged.
After this, the movie then goes on to show the overall title name of the movie, in which the same neon colours are shown, in doing so the movie adds a huge thunderclap when the title name of the movie appears, frightening consumers as the slow low key music moves into a huge shock for the audience. Moving on, the film then goes on to show Kate and John at the hospital, where Kate is ready to have a baby. From looking at the setting, everything looks white and dream like making it predictable to the audience that Kate is having a dream. 
Although, nurses are supposed to be of help and are good people, the irony in this is that, to me she feels demented and crazy, and that she isn't going to be of much help. Even by her facial expressions she looks like she is going to do something bad. The sound in this particular scene is diegetic, in which we can hear people talking in the hospital and the movement of people as well.
During the final seconds, the scene shifts to Kate realising something is wrong with her baby, as blood is coming out from her body. The nurse carries on wheeling her wheelchair, as nothing is happening. It is highlighted here how strange the nurse is acting not assisting Kate while she is bleeding. Two minutes into the movie, the audience are shown a traumatic scene with blood oozing everywhere. In my opinion, Orphan starts considerably well captivating the audience by revealing a bit of information but not too much for them to consider the ending to the movie.
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