Analyzing Openings of Thrillers

When looking at the beginnings of thrillers you can see that there are some common similarities between the techniques they use. However there are also some extremely different approaches that are used to create and maintain a certain atmosphere for the audience to convey what type of thriller the film in question is. Today we looked at the beginning of a few thrillers and were asked to analyse different techniques used.

The first thriller opening- No country for old men.

The opening of "No country for old men" starts off using non-diegetic sound, a voice over of a man with a thick southern accent which immediately lets the audience know  puts the viewer on guard as stereotypically an accent from the deep south is accompanied by crazy. They are either a cowboy, have extremely creationist views or are just unhinged. This creates a feeling of foreboding for the viewer that something isn't quite right and that what they are about to see will probably be disturbing. The imagery at the beginning is a series of dark landscape scenes of native american land filled with shadows which adds a sinister feel to all of the natural scenery like mother nature has turned bad. As things start to light up as day begins it gives the impression that something big is about to start. After there is a scene where two guys are fighting on the floor, on trying to kill the other. In this scene diegetic sound is used. There is no voice over, no music- nothing but the squeaking of the mans shoes on the floor. This absence of sound cause the audience to feel uncomfortable as there is no distraction from the fact that he is being murdered, making it all very real. During this sequence there is a close up on the villains hands allowing us to see just how physically violent it is. 

The second thriller opening- Brick.

The opening of "Brick" starts with non-diegetic western music, which feels a bit weird. The sound is almost trickled into the film but the transition feels unnatural and a little off putting. This is followed by a pan to a close up of shoes which again is a little bit of an odd way to start, it gives the audience very little information about what is going on  and makes the audience question why they are being shown shoes. This then transitions to a close up of a face which then cuts to the view of a tunnel where we can see that the face and the shoes belong to a boy and the boy is crouched looking over at the dead body of a woman. He appears to be quite mesmerized by the dead body which is really creepy. This is then emphasized by the western music that is still playing in the background. However the fact that the boy is looking at the woman in this way, and the way that he is positioned on the other side of the tunnel crouched makes the audience curious as to whether he killed this person or if he is just a weirdo with a fixation on dead things. Either way it makes the audience curious while also adding a feeling of discomfort. This continues to be emphasized when the scene cuts back and forth between shots of the boys face and parts of the dead woman body. By doing this it makes it seem that the boy is taking in every little detail of her like he wants to remember it all. Also the back and forth between them both gives them a connection which increases the audiences curiosity concerning what this boy has to do with this dead person making them want to watch on to find out.

The third thriller opening- Zodiac

Zodiac is based on a true story so right from the start it puts the audience on edge because they know all of the events that unfold are real, there is no longer the comfort that it's just a film. The audience feel more sympathy for the characters and more repulsed by anything horrible that happens as they know it's all real.

As the film starts non-diegetic music can be heard over a panning crane shot of the city all lit up at night. The incorporation of the whole city shows that the murders in this movie are carried out on quite a large scale. Also the fact that it is night adds to the danger and sinister feel of the event. The images of fireworks add to this feel of danger as fireworks can be a safety hazard and you have to constantly be on guard around them just incase things go wrong which feels like metaphorical foreshadowing  of events that will occur through out the movie. However as it cuts to a tracking shot of a car driving through a neighbour hood, with fire works going off in the background the audience are lulled into a false sense of security. It's the fourth of July and everyone is celebrating nothing bad could possibly happen when everything is so cheerful.

The car then pulls up at a house and a boy runs up to the car and starts talking to the girl driving the car. It's a just regular conversation that doesn't really mean anything and eventually the boy gets in the car and they drive off. They drive to a car-park but they both agree it is to crowded and that they should go somewhere quite. Which leads them to pull up in a remote car park in the middle of nowhere, the scene is dark and all you can really see is the car. Due this the audience know they are alone which is unnerving as being isolated in the middle of no where means that anything could happen and there is no one around to know about it. Thats when a the sound of a car pulling up is heard which causes the audience to become nervous about who it is and what they intend to do. This is made worse when the car can be seen turning off it's headlights like it wants to go unnoticed. The boy starts to make comments about the car getting worried which confirms the audiences suspicions that there is something to be worried about. The out of no where the car leaves, although this does not get rid of the feeling that something is going to happen in fact it make it worse. As the diegetic sound of the tiers screech away and the girls face is shown to be worried we know that is not the last we will be seeing of the car.

At this point we start to learn that the female is quite typical to one found in these types of movies: she's blond, she's the one getting them into trouble as she had the idea to go somewhere remote, we find out that she's married yet out in the middle of no where with a guy and she keeps acting shifty all of which automatically causes mistrust as the audience begins to suspect that she has something to do with car that we just saw. We hear the tiers screech again and we know that things are about to get bad. This car is returning for no reason making it anxious to think about what this person might do. It takes a long time for the car to pull up allowing the people in the car to panic not knowing what is going on. This makes the audience sympathise with them as we know that they are about to be killed. The guy gets out of the car goes over and just starts shooting over and over and when he runs out of bullets he gets more and just continues shooting like it's no big deal this is extremely chilling as everything just seems so mundane to him and he's just taking his time which means that he has not concern over killing them he doesn't even bat an eyelid. He then casually walks away and it fades to black leaving the audience feeling uneasy and questioning what will happen next.