9 frame analysis of a thriller opening

Orphan

00:53

The first person you see at the very beginning of the movie is this women, so from the start the audience knows who the main focus of the film will be on.

01:12

The strange blurred affect on all the people around the focus either has been used to make the other people seem insignificant or has been used to signify a dream sequence.

02:05

its at this point were the dream sequence is made more obvious by adding in this rather disturbing scene that the orderly doesn't take notice of. 

02:26

every now and the all the lights in the room blur, this is used to signify that our focused character (the women) keeps slipping in and out of consciousness. its also at this point were the dream sequence is more of a nightmare.

02:52

the fact that her husband is still filming her even though she is having a "still birth", shows she is the only one in pain a distress as everyone else in the room is treating it as a perfectly normal situation.

03:14

the nurse still presents her baby to her, even though it is covered in blood, its at this point were she has reached the climax of her nightmare. the way the nightmare sequence switches from a women in a normal labour scenario, to this hellish birth making her re-live a this already traumatic moment of her life, but somehow is made even more twisted. these first few scenes make the beginning of the film so bizarre, the audience has no idea whats to come and what can change.

03:18

even though so far the movie has been hinting "its all a dream", its at this point that its made absolutely clear that it was a dream. the audience has learnt so far that the focused character has a extremely traumatic past.

03:51

our focus character has now revealed to the audience the "literal" scar of her torment all those years ago.  its quite symbolic as it not only physically scarred her but mentally and emotionally as well, proven by the twisted dream she just had.

04:12

after all of this, the audience now knows that the focus character is a broken women, tormented in her dreams by her past affecting her physically and emotionally.