Thriller Film Openings

Gothika (2003): Starring Halle Berry and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz.





The opening to this thriller is three minutes long and it's quite tense and dramatic. It starts with dark, chilling music and a dark background with the names of people starring in it and then the title of the film fading into the background, almost as if they are running away, trying to escape.
Then you hear whispering by a woman with a foreign accent, its a very hoarse whisper and makes you wonder what she looks like, then throughout you hear beats in the back ground that sound like heartbeats. The woman's face appears from the darkness and you see that she is messy and untidy, no make-up on, hair not neat, red splotchy face as though she has been crying and dark circles under her eyes which are watering. From that close up it then switches to a mid shot of Halle Berry, the other woman, and shows her very prim,  proper, neat and calm.
The camera then pans around the room and through the grills of the room, it makes you feel like you are not supposed to be there and prying into someone elses business, it's all very suspicious. The darkness of the room and shadows gives it quite a claustrophobic feeling, and all through the scene there is music that sounds slightly like wind.
A majority of the sound in the clip is non-diegetic apart from the crashes and bangs when she is being controlled by the security guards.







The Book Of Eli (2009): Starring Denzel Washington  and directed by  Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes





This film opens with ash falling and the wind gently blowing it around making you think where is the ash coming from? what caused the fire to make the ash? Haunting bass music is paying in the background to add depth and tension. The trees are shadowed and makes it look like a silhouette
which is very creepy and they almost look like  a cage so makes you feel trapped in them. The camera pans around the whole scene allowing you, the viewer, to take everything in, then it shows a gun laying on the floor and next to it a man, mostly covered in ash. Perhaps suicide as his hand was close to the gun? By why? A sphinx cat soon comes into the shot looking around carefully and meowing, then walking cautiously towards him. Again the camera pans around the forest and up to a bunker which I looked at for a few seconds before realizing there is a person sitting in it in armour so there face is hidden from view. You then see a point of view from the cat, eyes darting around because it has sensed something.  Strange non-diegetic noises can be heard while viewing the person and then you hear their heavy breathing (diegetic sound).
The figure releases a arrow from a cross bow and you see a close up of the cats face and eyes wide looking straight on. The camera then focus' on the arrow as it glides past in slow motion and you can see every little detail of it, and you can hear the sound of it flying past, then it speeds up again, hits the cat, and it goes flying and yelps.





Brick (2005): Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and directed by Rian Johnson




Brick begins withs chimes playing in the background, soon a persons feet come in to view as the camera pans across an ally. Next her face is shown to the audience, she's wearing glasses and behind her is dark tunnel and you can see no light at the end of it so this can show that there is no escape from what has happened, and death. Next to the dead girl laying on the floor is some running water in a gutter, her hand is laying outstretched in it and you see several blue bracelets on her wrist. Then a male character is introduced to the film, he is sitting a little way from the girl with his knees up near his chest and looking distressed.
It then switches to the past and you see a girl with blue bracelets on her wrist putting a note into a locker at school. We know who put it in but the person who's locker it is has no idea which adds drama. There is no music playing and it is all diegetic sounds. The male from earlier is always on his own so this can show loneliness and isolation from people. He then walks along an empty road and encounters a ringing phone box which is quite mysterious. There is heavy breathing down the phone which adds suspence and builds up tension. He pans the area and the camera switches to a point of view. Throughout the whole introduction there is hardly any talking going on which gives it an eeiry feeling and there are only two people you see throughout.