'An American Werewolf in London' and '28 Days Later'

Using your notes, write a comparison of the different ways in which the two openings define themselves as horror films.

An American Werewolf in London (1981) directed by John Landis

Opening credits:

Deserted landscape until a car drives down the road. You meet the two main characters, they are young American men. They walk the rest of the way and enter 'The Slaughtered Lamb' pub where it then goes quiet. The villagers at the pub warn the two men to 'stay on the path' and 'beware the moon'. The dialogue here adds to the horror genre of the film. The Americans ignore their warnings and walk through fields instead, the notice its a a full moon and it starts raining.

 

28 Days Later (2002) directed by Danny Boyle

 

Opening credits: .

Jump cuts move through the setting. A panning shot informs us the scene is set in a Primary Research Centre Lab in Cambridge, England.The audience see violent images on TV screens, you notice monkeys in cages and one tied to a table forced to watch the images on the screens. The dark setting adds to the horror genre. 3 English animal protesters enter shocked by what they see. They dialogue, full of swearing also adds to the film genre. A lab scientist notices the 3 protesters and attempts to ring the alarm. One of the 3 violently stops the scientist and warns him not to make a move. They intend to free the monkeys from the lab but are informed that the animals are infected with rage. They don't listen to him and the women character begins to open a cage, she is jumped on by an infected monkey and is pushed to the floor. As the others attempt to help her, blood splatters on the floor and walls. The blood, violence and disease theme are all conventions of the horror film genre.

Comparison:

Both opening credits can relate to the horror genre as they both include blood, warnings through dialogue and victims from animals. They are both set in England but in different places and are set in different times. 28 Days Later is more modern, this is because of the language and also the mise-en-scene (research lab).
In the first 5 minutes, both films open with at least one person being victimised by an animal. But in 28 Days Later, the first victim is a women, in An American Werewolf in London, the first victim is a man.