Analysis of 'Essex Boys'

Director: Terry Windsor

Filmed: 2000

Essex Boys is a dark thriller inspired by a single true event.

The opening starts with diagetic sound with a door opening. There is a use of chiaroscuro lighting and this is generic to dark thrillers so it immediately establishes the genre of the film.

The garage is confined, unglamorous and dusty. The audience sees this through the boy’s eyes. The car in the garage is old and obviously hasn’t been used for a long while as it is covered in cobwebs. Once the car has been started and the window wipers move across the screen to clear the grime the audience can see there is a man standing in the garage doorway waiting for the car. You cannot tell who the man is or whether he is good or bad. There is lots of zoom used to create emphasis on certain things. Also, the non-diagetic speech (voice over/narrative) gives the scene a sense of solidarity and loneliness even though there are two men in the scene.

As the car is travelling through the tunnel you get a first glimpse of the setting of the film. Its monochrome in colour and the streets are wet. The point of view shot places the audience in the scene and shows a barrel of gin lying in the tunnel. The vertical lights on the window screen when the car is travelling through the tunnel are like prison bars. This could indicate a hidden past of one of the men in the car. The “Welcome to Essex” sign is bleak and doesn’t set a good tone for the area.

Once out on the marsh, behind the white van, the director has used vanishing points to create a sense of isolation. The location is bleak and featureless. This reflects the helplessness of the man who has been abducted and left out on the marsh.

This is the opening scene from Essex Boys.