Analysis of Thriller Openings

Zodiac

The opening of this thriller is very wonderful. After watching and analyzing I found myself gaining goosebumps most of which were due to the openings ability to create suspense and tension within me. I will be explaining in a few paragraphs in which parts of the thriller were most affecting to me and how and why they made it that way. First of all when the thriller begins it opens with a helicopter shot establishing the landscape at night. During this shot we see fireworks and hear the music playing from behind from this we can tell that people are celebrating this makes the audience relaxed as it displays normal life. The next shot used in their opening is a POV shot inside the car looking out the window tracking houses and front lawns of random people celebrating using fireworks. After the previous shot the teenage girl and boy is introduced and they make their way to Mr Ed's Burger and Fries.

During the first few shots I realized that they were underexposed. This is evident due to the lights creating a gloomy contrast with the darkness, making most of the scenes in the opening dark and muddy. After the boy and girl reach Mr Ed's Burger and Fries the girl and boy are shot having a conversation with the both of them within frame using a static camera within the car. During this scene we appear to see uneasiness within the girl which she represents through her facial and body language as well as her dialog saying "it's too crowded" appearing to be in use to avoid something. This makes the male character cautious and as a bonus also made the audience feel tension and suspense begin to arise. The girls is acting suspicious and seems desperate in wanting to go to a ore private area so she influences the boy and ends up parking in an area with less light and less people.

When they reach the area and settle down the boy goes and ask the girl "are you alright?" him asking this tells the audience that something is wrong and so tension begins to rise even higher and before the guy gets to answer the girls later question about being cold on the forth of July the random teenage group of guys prank theme using loud cracking fireworks. This sounded very close to gunshots and is not expected which results in the audience becoming frightened and however upon realizing that there was no reason to be afraid that instant caused the characters and the audience watching to be on their toes and aware of everything happening. Later on the girl Darlene notices a car which they saw parked at Mr Ed's it stops near their vehicle and the engine turns off. This is rather suspicious as it seems as though someone is stalking them. The boy Michael asks Darlene who that was but she reacts and prevents him from knowing by avoiding his question and saying nothing. This builds suspense as it shows that Darlene might know the person in the mysterious vehicle however they do nothing to keep themselves safe.

When the car returns the guys Michael says to get their wallets, he reacted this way as he believed that the person who got out the car was probably a police which he would assume due to the flash light. However as the audience the flashlight and the angle of the camera is used purposely so that we can not see the person and so when the camera switches back to Michael acting relieved we see him get suddenly shot but we don't know by who. This reflects how they have effectively used the props such as cars, flashlights and vehicles in their disposal as the attack was again unforeseen as caught the audience off guard. In conclusion Zodiac's opening was very effective as it provided the audience with a need to know of who killed them and why and I believe this was effectively done because of their use of a red herring which were the cracking fireworks which left the audience off guard to any other surprise. 

No Country for Old Men

The opening of this thriller is rather frightening, it clearly depicts the villains and the good people as soon as the opening begins after the guy narrates whilst their are shots establishing the landscape and environment whereby the opening is being set in. After this it shows the policeman detaining a criminal wearing a dark costume and having villain like hair this clearly displays danger to the audience and keeps the audience on edge immediately as they already get to see a threat. Later on in one of the scenes there is a head on shot on the policemen on the phone saying he has got everything under control however in the background we begin to see the villain attempting to place his cuffs in a more dangerous position and we later see him drawing close to the policeman who is still on the phone. Here we begin to see tension rise rapidly as we see the villain getting closer and by the time the policeman is done gloating to the person on the other side of the phone the villain catches him off guard and strangles him by his neck. We have still yet to know who this villain is yet already he seems very powerful and has already taken his first victim with no mercy. The villain is depicted as a strong character and this is shown by his use of his hand cuffs which are supposed to leave him weak but yet he is the opposite. 

During the scene where the police is on the phone as soon as the Villain makes his move the music begins to become more tense and ends up creating suspense as to whether the police will turn around before getting attacked. In other words you could consider the background music tension music to be a countdown as it helps to fill the audience with suspense and hope as to the police escaping from the danger he has yet to see. Various shots are used in the opening of this film all of which cut to the props used and already seen such as the gas tank and the vehicles. After the scene where the police dies the Villain then pulls over an unsuspecting victim. The victim knows nothing of what is to happen yet he stays still as the villain tells him and in a moments notice alarming music is played as soon as the mysterious looking gas tank goes into frame as a POV of what the old clueless man is thinking. After he stays still the villain puts the end of the gas tank close to the mans head and in a blink of an eye blood comes pouring down from the mans head and the next thing the audience would realize is that he was dead. However before this seen we see hints of discomfort from the man and this is shown by his worrying dialog and his fearing body and facial expressions. 

On the other hand the next scene which is cut to after the old man's death is a tough looking guy who seems and looks like a hunter holding a rifle and aiming down scopes towards innocent and unaware deer. This is quiet ironic as the previous seen was quiet similar due to the fact that the villain killed and hunted down it's victims like a hunter hunting down an animal. This clearly creates a metaphor whereby which the one ate the top of the food chain is the one who is victorious and survives. However in the hunters scene he fails to kill his targeted dear and moves on. He later sees a trail of blood which is clearly shown to us by a POV of a what he is looking at in the ground he walks close to. He tracks it and sees a wounded dog from afar. This leaves the audience curios as they wonder who or what might have done it.

Later on closer to the end of the opening we see the hunter come across 2 abandoned vehicles and a group of men and one dog of the same breed as the wounded one dead in the same vicinity. This puts the audience on edge as all that can be seen are damaged vehicles and bloody dead and cold corpses. However during all the key sections of danger in this opening we see that most  are complimented with great use of sound effects which are edited and placed in great and effective positions. In conclusion I believe that this opening has become effective because of it's great use to fit the music and sound with the shot and footage shown on the screen. I think that this opening is successful as a result because it does great in creating suspense.