Analysis of Thriller Openings

Zodiac (2007) 

The opening of the film Zodiac presents all of the aspects needed to show that it is a thriller film. Over a short period of time in the film, the audience's emotions change a lot. You can go from being very calm watching the film, to be on the edge of your seat in suspense wanting to know what is going to happen next. At the start of this film, it shows a shot overlooking the town celebrating the 4th of July. There are fireworks being shot in the sky showing this. The next shot is out of a car window as the car is driving down the road. The view from the car is of everyone celebrating in the front gardens of their houses. The beginning of the film is showing a calm town celebrating. This gives the audience a relaxed feeling about the film. 

The beginning of the film is very dark, this is showing that the town is not as normal as it seems. It s a gloomy night and there is something about to happen. When the two characters get in the car, they go to a secluded, dark location. As they park up they get firecrackers thrown at their car by teenagers as they drive past. The firecrackers make a noise sounding like gunshots. This is foreshadowing what is going to happen next. The tensions stars to get high as the firecrackers are thrown as it shows that the young characters are vulnerable on their own. 

Just after the firecrackers are thrown, a black car pulls up behind them, stops, then turns it's lights off. after sitting there for a moment, the car pulls away again. The boy then asks the girl about the car but she doesn't seem to want to talk about it. This makes the audience suspicious of the girl as it seems that she knows abut the car but does not want too talk about it. The car that pulled up was very dark. It was a black car with black tinted windows so that you could not see inside. The background was also black and the lights of the car were switched off. Once the car has drove off, it comes back once again and parks directly behind the character's car. This makes the audience think that it is a police car pulling up. The man who gets out has a torch and the boy tells the girl to get out her wallet. All of this supports the fact that the audience thinks it is a police officer. 

As the man walks up to the car, the camera is focused on the boy's face as he speaks to the man. As he speaks, you see the gun being shot and then the boy's blood spreading across the car ad all over the girl next to him. As this happens there is loud thriller music being played in the background and the scene is in slow motion. This creates tension for the viewers as they are seeing two young innocent people being murdered. As the boy is being shot, the girl curls up into a ball in the corner of her seat. This shows her vulnerability in the situation. 

No Country for Old Men

The beginning of this film is very calm. It starts of by showing clips of the countryside with someone talking about being a chief of police. This shows that the person talking is clearly on of the good guys in the film as he also shares  family story of why he joined the police force. It then shows a police officer arresting a criminal and putting him in the back of the police car and also taking a weapon from him. The villain is dressed in black clothing showing that he is a threat. After this scene, the police officer is back at the police station on the phone to the chief of police with the man in the background who he has just arrested. The police officer states that he has everything under control but as he says this, the villain starts to get up behind him and put is handcuffs in front of his body. Just as the police officer puts the phone done, the villain strangles him with the cuffs. As the police officer is being strangled, there is fast music being played in the background to rise the tension. As it is only the beginning of the film, we don't really know who this villain is but we know that he is strong as he has used a piece of equipment that is supposed to make him weak to his benefit. 

In the next scene, the villain has stolen a police car and has pulled over an innocent man on the road. He then makes him get out of the car and as he does so he shoots him in the head. As the man gets out of the car, worrying music starts to play, representing the emotion of the victim in the car. 

In the next scene, a man is showed hunting deer. He is looking over them with a sniper rifle as they are completely unaware that he is there. He fires at one of the deer but misses. This is similar to the previous scene, as the man who was shot in the head was also unaware of what was happening and why. However, he was killed, unlike the deer. As the man goes down to where the deer were, he sees a trail of blood on the floor, which is clearly presented with a POV shot. He then follows the trail with his eyes and sees a black dog limping away. He then followed the trail in the opposite direction to see where the dog had came from. This leaves the audience curious of what is happening and why. 

The next scene shows what the trail of blood leads to. It leads to 4 abandoned trucks which are surrounded by dead bodies and a dead dog of the same breed as the wounded one he just saw. Seeing this puts the audience on edge as there is clearly a sign of danger in this area. Anyone could jump out at any time with a gun and kill the man.