Genre conventions of ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ Opening Scene

The opening two minutes show landscape shots, this could be of any genre. However, around the time 2:15 the sun goes down and the mise-en-scene gets darker as the sinister music begins. In addition to this, there is a loud beat within the music which resembles a heartbeat. This symbolises tension and enigma.

We then see a character alone sitting on the edge of a cliff with nobody else around, this is accompanied by the sinister music. This could foreshadow ‘death could be upon him’. The weather is also very dull and slightly misty (pathetic fallacy to reflect the horror genre).

The scene then cuts to a normal equilibrium of celebrating the 4th of July.

The celebratory music juxtaposes the sinister music earlier which makes the viewer more apprehensive. The viewer is made apprehensive because within the horror genre, we know that the equilibrium does not last long.