The scene starts with a girl getting into the shower, in a normal way that people do everyday; during the process we see a wide variety of camera angles, shots and compositions. Once the girl is in the shower we get a close up of the shower head, from the girls’ perspective. The head is depicted in the center of the shot. By using the rule of thirds we see that our focus is drawn towards the water droplets coming out of the shower head. This may draw our attention to how important the water is in this murder scene. The shot of the shower head is very unusual because it’s an establishing shot, but also acts as a cut away, also this cut away is used 2 or 3 times in the murder scene maybe to remind the audience it’s in the shower but more probably to remind the audience of how important the water is in the scene. Also the fact that the shot is from the victims’ perspective shows her arrogance towards her ever impending doom.
The next shot shows a the girl (victim) in the bottom right corner of the screen, with her back turned to the shower curtain and minding her own
business, this shot also shows her arrogance cause we start to anticipate what is going to happen to her as the scene goes on creating a sense of ‘Dramatic Irony’ but it not the same because it makes the audience tense and the anticipation grows. During this shot we see the door open and a figure starts walking towards the shower curtain, but the sound of the door opening and the figures steps are masked by the sound of the water droplets hitting the girl and the floor, therefore making the water a more a part of the murder because the water makes the girl unaware of the figure moving towards her, to seal her ever impending doom. But also the fact that the shower curtain is translucent is also hiding the figures identity and therefore adding to the tension and anticipation. As the figure moves closer to the shower curtain the camera pans slightly to the left and zooms in slowly to make the audience aware that there is actually someone there and that they’re going to be important in this murder scene, cause it the murderer.
As the person gets closer the camera keeps zooming in then as soon as the
murderer is at the curtain, she pulls the curtain back (we never see the pulling back of the curtain) but it goes to a straight jump cut the a close up of the killers blacked out face. The mise-en-scene of this shot depicts a person with a blacked out face which is also further masked by the water, which also reinforces the earlier point on how important the water is in the killing. Also the mise-en-scene of the knife being held, poised to kill, and that the knife is lit up, shows that the knife is something to be feared and it is the murderers tool of choice. Also the door is open wide shows that the murder isn’t a sneaky murder, but also shows the girls arrogance because she never saw the door open up wide. So she was unaware of the person wanting to murder her. Also the fact that the murder is about to take place in the shower, makes the viewer aware of the familiar, this convention adds to the Thriller genre because it takes an everyday situation and makes us scared and worried about it. Also the bathroom/shower room is normally a bright, white room, which is unusual for a murder scene cause most murders take place in a dark scary place, like an ally way, but by using a bathroom makes for a great place to show the blood and the effects of the murder also adding to the tension. Also the killers plan must be well thought out because she knows when she’s in the shower. Also the shower is normally a place for cleansing, so by making a pure place a murder scene also makes the audience more aware of an everyday process.
After the stabbing, we see the blood and water mixture being drained away, this connotes the girls’ life going down the drain. Also the sound of the water going
down the plug hole is amplified to symbolise that her life is slowly draining away. We then have a dissolve transition to her eye, which is a graphic match to the plug hole. The camera also mimics the movement of the water as it zooms out from her eye to reveal her face on the cold wet floor, dead. As we zoom out the sound of the water distorts until we see that sees dead then it does back to the original sound of unamplified water droplets hitting the bath.
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