The clip begins with silence, just watching the dog, from a long shot. This is a good way to observe the dog’s seemingly natural behaviour. It sets a serene and calm atmosphere within the scene, allowing the audience a moment to relax, yet building suspense within them, anticipating what might happen next. It is a key element of the whole film, and done here very well.
The still camera continues this long shot for a very long time, watching the dog’s twitches, suggesting something may be a little amiss, but there is nothing obvious, so suspense and tension is continued to be created.
There is a cut away to the living room, again a long shot, where the camera focuses on the opening of a door. All of this is done in silence to build the tension and fear within the scene.
Cutting to the bedroom and the living room alternately, showing the dog getting more and more worried at what appears to be nothing, will strike more fear into the audience. Dogs are supposedly better at sensing things than humans, so the fact a dog has sensed something worthy of leaving the room to investigate will make the audience fearful since they have no idea what to anticipate. They will fear the unknown.
The dog’s barking shows it is in distress. Even though this is done off camera, the off-screen diagetic sound scares the audience, making them wonder what on earth it could be that the dog is so fearful of.
The handheld camera held by the girl is unsteady to show it as a home-movie. Also, the girl’s trembling voice is another off-screen diagetic sound. These things show panic within the character as she has no explanation as to what happened, just like the audience, who can also be scared by not knowing what’s gone on.
There is a long scene, again a long shot, with the girl on the stairs, she is obviously distressed and the lack of anything around her suggests she is lonely and feels weak and small, as she appears to be on screen.
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