Levi-Strauss Binary Opposites

As i have mentioned in my evaluation about us using Levi-Strauss's binary opposites, i have decided to go into them in a bit more detail on here. Here is a list of all the different binary opposites used in our opening sequence:

• Weak vs. Strong
• Light vs. Dark
• Naïve vs. Clever
• Innocent vs. Guilty
• Good vs. Evil
• Downstairs vs. Upstairs
• Known vs. Unknown

Light vs Dark
This is done by the use of lighting in the house and how the house starts off completely in darkness but as she walks into different rooms she begins to switch on the lights to make it less scary but even the light cannot suppress the fear that she is going through.

 

Good vs Evil
This is shown by the female seeming fairly innocent, as we have not seen a reason for her to be killed. The evil would obviously be the killer as they are preying on a seemingly innocent girl and driving her crazy with fear.

 

Clever vs Naïve
There is also the element of clever against naïve as the girl seems fairly naïve, shown by her venturing outside when she hears the door slam and also going into the darkness upstairs. These are things that you would be advised not to do if you were hearing strange noises in your house but yet she does not think and instead does this. The killer is led to be the clever one as he is tricking the girl and making her know that there is someone in the house without revealing his identity. The audience get a real sense of his superiority to her as she seems to be doing all the wrong things and he seems to be keeping himself well hidden and yet still be able to torment her.

 

Known vs Unknown

Throughout the opening sequence the house stands for both the known and the unknown in the different situations she experiences. When it first begins, we see her knowing exactly where everything is and seeming fairly relaxed about everything because she has obviously done it so many times before. However when things start to occur and she starts venturing into different parts of her house, we suddenly get the impression that the known has turned into the unknown and the very surroundings she felt so safe in earlier, do not seem as safe anymore. We have emphasized the known and unknown by the use of dark and light. The element that are normal and logical are indicated by bright lighting, however elements which are scary and different are shown with darkness.