The opening scene of "The Women in Black" involves three little girls playing with a doll and tea set. Given the historical context, the doll set would be china dolls. The girls pretend to pour tea and giving them to the dolls. The effect created through editing by the use of shot, reverse shot, usually used between two characters. In this instance, they use the dolls, cutting from one doll to two more to give the impression they are facing each other.

This edit gives the impression of humanizing the dolls the same way the girls are while playing with them. This gives a small amount of horrific effect, but the horror is further made when they use the same shot, reverse shot for the three girls. The fact that the girls are smiling also adds to the horror, the inflection from the dolls beforehand makes the seemingly innocent and happy smiles creepy and sinister.  If the shot, reverse shot was seen out of context to the dolls shot, reverse shot, the same horrific effect would not be made, the smiles would look fine and unimportant.

After the less than cheerful tea party, the girls turn to the camera and jump out the window, stepping on the tea pot and dolls as they do so. After the personification of the dolls, the fact that they are destroyed with such a blank, indifferent face that the edits make sure you've seen before the dolls demise, makes it all the more bone-chilling. As we now consciously or subconsciously see the dolls as more human and alive, their destruction seems more like death, foreshadowing the immediate demise of the girls.

After the girls jump, you can hear a women scream, presumably their mother. The shot then cuts to another, more detailed and human-like doll. The blank look of the dolls face is reminiscent of the girls as they walked to the window. After the remorseless air about the girls as their dolls "Died", the same impression is made by the doll, now indifferent to the death of her owners.