Thriller Openings- Hannah

The Exorcist

• Title sequence- Red writing on top of black background, the edit is also slow which creates a suspense, this highlights conventions of a thriller genre.
• Sun rises from Black and White to Colour. highlighting danger coming. 
• The brightness of the scene does not fit with the usual stereotype of a thriller.
• Birds eye view - typical thriller - enhances the idea of someone watching over the scene.

Sound

• Strings
• Eary
• Chanting in the background which fits in with the background music.

Silence of the lambs

• The tracking shot of the woman running is typical of thriller genre, the shot creates suspense and idea of someone  following her.
• The lighting  of the scene is very dull, the use of smoke when the woman is running highlights mystery.
• The setting- woods - danger
• Long shot of woman running- creates uncertainty and makes the woman look venerable.
  The woman s clothing is very casual, hair up and sweat on her jumper.

Sound

•  The steady background music continues throughout the opening to create suspense
• when there is a long shot of the woman the music suddenly changes and stops when a character appears suddenly. This also reinforces the fear of the character.
• Diegetic sound from the woman and man dialogue.

 
 

Seven

• The lighting of the opening scene of Seven uses a lot of shadow, this is a common convention of a thriller as it creates a mystery.
• Fast passed edits
• Narrative-Antagonist view
• overlapping edit of pen shows time going past
• red colour used to show connotations of blood, pain or danger
• shadow of the hand creates suspense
• close up of words within the book is very effective in this opening as it outlines certain danger that might occur within the movie for example: sexual has been highlighted in the book twice to enhance the danger and allows the viewer to study why they are highlighting certain words.

Drive

• Birds eye view of city
• Overlapping edit of the city and the male character in the car, gives a smoother edit
• Over the shoulder edit of male character reinforces someone watching, creates suspense.
• Point of view shot of man driving
• The lighting of the scene where the man is walking to the hotel is very dark but has one high light which is the lift.
• When the man is in the hotel his shadow is very obvious, the definite shadow of the character creates suspense, the use of shadow in thriller films.

 

All four thriller openings have similarities, the way they create the sense of suspense reinforces the genre of thriller. The opening for the thriller film Drive is very dark and mysterious, the shadow created has reinforced the sense of 'mystery' this is very similar to the shadow used in Seven, both films use light and shadow to indicate that something is about to take place or distinguish characters for example: in Drive they have used the main character (Ryan Gosling) in a dark light, this to a viewer portrays the character as evil. Dark lighting has also been used in Silence of the Lambs, the dark lighting has created a thrilling atmosphere as the woman runs through the forest on her own, the dull dark smoke in the scene also reinforces the look of hazard appearing. Unlike normal thriller openings The Exorcist is very different, the lighting is very high light and shows a contrast from the opening credits (black and red) to the warm orange colours of the sun rise.