Modern Thriller Openings

Brick

The opening for Brick is a very intriguing one. It holds a blue undertone which instantly makes the whole scenario seem sad & somber, as well as cold, chilling & quite depressing. We see someone kneeling next what appears to be the dead body of a girl. This instantly draws the viewer in & makes them question many things like who the girl is, who the person kneeling next her is, are they friend, foe? Did they find her like this? Did they kill her? We don't know. The opening then cuts to a scene within a school where a girl wearing the same bangles as the dead biddy opens her school locker. Could this be the same girl just before she died? Could these just be an identical pair of bangles? Or are they the same bangles being worn by someone else? All this leads the viewer to jump to, & consider, many conclusions, not knowing which is correct, which makes them want to watch on as a result, making the title sequence a successful one as a whole.

Zodiac

Zodiac's opening scene starts off a lot less morbid than that of Bricks. We start off the film on the Fourth of July, a happy day for Americans. A woman drives up in her car & a guy gets in (the woman driving challenges gender role stereotypes) & we then sees them drive through the neighbourhood in the form of a tracking shot. This goes on for a while & nothing peculiar seems to occur, but this long period of normality is merely a lead to an inevitable jump scare. The car moves to a deserted area where the two attempt to get intimate, when all of a sudden a great bang occurs behind them. This bang, however, was a false alarm, as it was only a group of hooligans setting off fireworks to scare the two. After this we are put into a false sense of security, still recovering from the previous scare when another car passes, then turns around & approaches the car. A dark male figure steps out of the vehicle & walks towards the couple's car. He appears to be an officer, but then out of nowhere he pulls a silencer out of his pocket & shoots the two in the head. We don't see who this man is, & his unexplained homicide on two characters we barely knew anything about makes us want to watch on & find out who this man is what exactly just happened, & also, why it just happened. 

No Country for Old Men

The film opens with one & a half minutes of tracking shots focusing on the desert landscape of the Wild West. There is a man narrating the scene who we do not see, but judging from his voice the public can easily assume that he is a seasoned Wild Western man. We then see a scene of a man with a canister being escorted into a police car by some form of ranger. The opening then cuts to a scene within a police station where everything onscreen appears to be rather beige/ cream colour. We can see the warden/ranger sitting at desk, as a dark figure rises behind him. The figure is the afore mentioned man who was being packed into the police vehicle, & his dark clothing greatly contrast the light beige-like colours of the rest of the scene. This makes the man stand out from everything else onscreen & instantly draws the viewer's attention to him. His dark clothing may also represent danger or death. As the dark clad man sneaks up on the officer from behind, we get a sense of dramatic irony, as the audience can see the man approaches the officer, & knows he is in danger, but the character himself does not know, & so we are forced to sit there & watch as his inevitable demise takes place. The man then wraps his hand cuffs around the officer's neck & pulls him to ground. A rolling shot takes place focus of the killer's face as he lays on the floor, chocking the officer to death, with a rather manic & psychotic look upon his face. This rolling shot is meant to express the sheer confusion, terror & fear of the perishing officer, as well as the madness & insanity of the situation, & perhaps the slightly corrupt mental state of the killer himself. The film cuts to a scene of a seemingly innocent man being pulled over by a police office. However, this no police office, it is the murder from the police station wearing the uniform of an officer & sporting a stolen federal vehicle. He is holding the same canister as earlier & has a cord extending from the canister of which he holds up to the man's head. The canister then shoot some pressurised air out of the cord & cuts a hole straight through the head of this man, killing him instantly. The killer then gets back in his stolen vehicle & drives off. Who is this man & why is he committing sad murders? We don't know, but we want to find out, & watch on, which makes this a very successful thriller opening.

A History of Violence

The opening of A History of Violence starts fairly ordinary. two men seem to have stayed in a motel, & go about their ordinary business such as returning hotel keys & getting in the car. The older of the two then returns wiping his hands with a cloth stating that "nothing... i had a little trouble with the maid but, every things fine now" when asked why he took so long by the younger man. The older man then tells the younger man to get some ice, & that there's a cooler back in the office. The younger man then gets up & enters the building. This where the eerie, chilling music picks up. It starts off fairly quite but gradually gets louder as we see the younger man step over the dead body of an employee as he casually opens the cooler to get some water. It becomes apparent that by "[having] a little trouble with the maid" the older had to murder her, along with the other employees. A little girl then spots the younger man. He then puts his finger to his lips to silence her as he raises a gun at her. We then hear a gun shot & a scream, but we do not see whether or the girl was shot. Not knowing the fate of the girl & not knowing these men have committed such cruel acts of murder, or why they have even committed them, greatly intrigues the audience & makes them want watch on.