The Possession Deconstruction

The Possession Deconstruction

 The opening begins with the production company logos of Lionsgate and Ghost House.  These are typical for a horror film as ghost house is a company which specifies is horror film production.  The use of a large company and smaller company is typical in all films and the use of dark colours in the logos are genre appropriate.

The title of the film is displayed on a black background with a simple white font which resembles old style type machine lettering.  Underneath the title there is a Spanish subtitle meaning "the origin of evil".  This relates to the traditional Catholic church which is conventional for extremist exorcisms and so is made more realistic.  The typewriter style lettering looks quite official so again makes it look more realistic.  

 After the titles there is a crane, establishing shot of a normal, everyday house.  This makes the film seem realistic as though it could happen to anyone which makes it more scary for the audience.  Non-diegetic, soft piano music accompanies the shot which has a slightly creepy feel to it as it is contrapuntal to the horror genre.

 A panning shot shows a wall full of framed photographs which look quite old fashioned, something commonly used in horror.  Diegetic sound is layered with the piano music of a woman whispering in a foreign language, it sounds like chanting a spell or prayer which denotes the religious aspects.

A close up shot of an old woman looking very upset and scared raises the tension as the audience wonder what could have caused her this much distress.  This is followed by a close up of an old wooden box which appears to be the source of the strange whispering.

A long shot of the woman leaning to touch the box
increases the tension and suspence as the audience
wonder what the box is and why human sounds
are coming out of it.  But as she gets close to the box, a diegetic sound of knocking wood makes the audience jump and ends the piano music, causing silence.  Silence is used in horror films commonly to increase the tension considerably.

A close up shot of the woman turning on a music tape accompanies the start of diegetic jazz style music, which is contrapuntal to the scene.  The music is used by the woman to drown out the sound of the box, implying she is scared by it.  A close up shot of her pulling out a clump of hair connotes her stress and anxiety at the situation, causing the box to be of worry to the audience.  The woman then picks up a

hammer and a close up shot of her strained hand
around it also connotes her stress and fear of the box.  Straight cuts between the woman approaching and the zooming in frame of the box increases the suspense as the audience wonder how the box will react to the impending destruction.


As the woman goes to strike the box, there is diegetic sound of the same whispering but increased in volume to represent the box's anger at the woman.  Straight cuts up until now have been slow with long shots but now they begin to speed up in parallel to
the speeding up tension.  As the whispers get more angry there is a  non-diegetic, high pitched screeching, often used in horror films to make the scene more scary and tension filled.  There are close-up shots of the woman's face as it begins to deform and start to shake.  This is a typical start to an possession as she begins to lose control over her body. Diegetic sound of her skin deforming also adds a auditory aid to the visual shot.

  A mid-shot framing the woman falling over backwards shows her body contorting into strange positions, often as possessed people do in horror films.  Quick straight cuts jump between her being thrown across the room as she is possessed.  Building up deep bass and high pitched non-diegetic sounds build the tension as she gets closer to her death.  Diegetic sounds of her gasping and screaming and the sounds of her bones snapping and furniture being hit increases the terror factors in the scene as it becomes more realistic and gruesome.          

 Straight cuts switch between the main action and the woman's son on the doorstep, obviously confused at the noises from inside.  Long shots and close ups show his concerned facial expressions and efforts to get inside.  These provide a contrast to the normal world and the supernatural inside the house.            

A mixture of long, mid and close-up shots show the woman being possesed.  They are meant to scare and shock the audience as there are strange body contortions, screaming facial expressions and blood.  A build up of orchestral non-diegetic music increases the tension until the crescendo just as she dies.          

   Only diegetic sound remains of the tape playing and the son entering the house, which creates a sharp contrast to what has happened and a normal day. A long shot is used as you hear off screen diegetic sounds of the man shouting as he finds his dead mother.  The use of the scene happening off screen is very effective because it puts the audience in someone else's position so they can sympathies with the man.