Modern Thriller Openings

This is a blog post focusing on the different openings to modern thriller films.

History of Violence

History of violence starts out with an ambient, obnoxious sound that is diagetic. There is dialogue between the two men present in frame, they talk calmly despite the things they have done in the previous place. They are casually dressed and their outfits seem to be colour coded to inform us on what the characters are like. The guy that does the killing is dressed all in black showing us that he is a bad character, where as the other guy wears a white t-shirt with black trousers, from which I understood that the guy may not necessarily be bad or maybe he is torn between good and bad. This creates a contrast between the two main characters we are presented with.

When one of the guys gets into the car the ambient music seems to stop and is then replaced with country music.When the car stops the sound of music cuts and you can hear a car driving past. When the guy goes into the house, He moves the trolley to reveal dead bodies. A little girl comes out of her room looking terrified, he tells her to stay quiet and shoots her. The shot then switches to a different girl screaming in bed.

Zodiac

Fireworks
We hear non diagetic background music
See houses people celebrating
girl picks up the guy from his house
Two people in car
Theres some sort of party
4th of july
The girl drives off with the guy
We see the girl flirting
They are somewhere away from people but you can hear diagetic music
A car drives up behind them but no one gets out
the car drives off after they are uneasy girl looks worried
The car tires screech off the screen
the car comes back behind them
someone we cant see gets out
Shines light on the guy with the girl and shoots him
The music gets louder
she gets shotmany times
the guy walks back to his car

Brick
There is music playing
showing the guys feet
Then his face
crouching in a mouth of the tunnel in front of his dead ex girlfriend
there is a graphic match of the girls hand with bracelets on it, that goes from the dead body to the same girls hand in the corridor
lighting was dim and blue which can be interpreted as cold just like the girl laying on the ground is now frozen
No country for old men

non diagetic- narration
Showing shots of the dessert
Peaceful but deadly looking places
Police man arresting a guy whos face is not seen as he turns the other way
In the car his face is hidden by shadows
in the police station the guy walks up to the oblivious police officer and attacks him,
they are shown struggling on the ground
there is a lot of blood on the ground
The police officer dies
He washes his hands we see scars and blood down the sink
He then steals the police car and kills a man on the road