Hannah's 4 Thriller Openings

Research and analysis of thriller film openings

The Butterfly Effect

The opening to 'The Butterfly Effect' begins with a fade from black to a shot of someone opening a notebook with a pencil in their hand. The lighting is low key and all colours in the scene appear to be dark. Eerie music begins as the person begins to write in the notebook. The camera begins to shudder and jolt, unsettling the audience. Next an interesting transition is used, obscuring the middle of the book and fading the screen to black showing white credits. This creates more tension than just a typical jump cut as it adds an element of unknown to the scene, as the audience wouldn't have been expecting that transition.

The credits fade off screen and the camera flickers to show a medium shot of a bookcase from a below eye-level angle. The books on the shelf are the brightest colours to be shown in the opening so far. This could convey that the books are important and the audience should draw their attention towards them. A man is shown grabbing the books off the shelf and putting them into a bag. The camera goes blurry as the man performs this action, which creates suspense for the audience as they can't properly see him or what he's doing. The camera blurs and flickers to show a shot of a bed for a few seconds then jumps to the man putting more books into his bag. This begins to put questions into the audiences mind - who is the man? why is he doing this? 

The background music is slow and intense. It matches the genre as it works to build tension along with the other elements of the opening. The pace of the music gradually increases along with the volume as the opening progresses. 

Next the scene shows an eye level medium shot of the man lifting up his mattress. This gives the impression that he's either hiding something or looking for something. The hurried nature of the sequence puts the audience on edge and gives the opening a rushed feel to it.
The screen fades to black and shows nothing but a white butterfly with the text 'The Butterfly Effect'.
By keeping the shots and colours simple throughout the opening, the end result is an eerie sequence which leaves the audience with unanswered questions.

Kill Bill

The scene opens with a black screen and the sound of a woman heavily breathing (possibly foley). This instantly creates tension as the audience will want to know who/what/why. 

The scene then cuts to show a high angle shot of a woman's face. As only her face can be seen, this draws attention to the fact that it's covered in cuts and she appears to be heavily bleeding. A sound bridge of footsteps begins which creates enigma. Also the parallel editing aids this sound bridge, creating a connection.

The desaturation of the scene adds to the mysteriousness and the tension. It also implies that this is a past event or a flashback rather than something which is currently happening.

The tracking shot of the feet shows a little bit more of the setting which establishes the surroundings to the audience. 

The scene ends with a gunshot which is loud and abrupt compared to the rest of the sounds. This brings the tension to a climax before the screen fades to black, introducing the film.

Inception

The scene opens with a slow-motion pan of the sea with crashing waves. The heavy surf denotes that it's a dangerous situation which builds tension and puts the question in the audience's mind as to why the film has opened with this shot. The camera then pans to show a man lying face-down in the water, cuts to a shot of a child on the beach, then cuts back to the man. By opening the film with these quick cuts without any explanation of who the characters are immediately conveys the thriller genre and creates immediate suspense and tension. Also by showing a close-up of the man's face rather than a medium shot of his entire body in the water to begin with, the audience's attention is drawn to the cuts on his face and his sleep-deprived eyes. His hair appears matted which implies that this man hasn't been able to wash properly for a long time, giving the audience an insight into his character and possibly the story line. The shots of the children are shakey and from a low angle which give the idea that it's from the man's perspective. Children's laughter can be heard be the children themselves aren't shown laughing so this conveys to the audience - along with the shakey camera and quick cuts - that the children are merely a figment of the man's imagination. There is an interesting contrast of colors with the man seemingly dressed in dark clothes whilst the children are dressed in bright colours. This could again be to further establish that the children aren't really there as they don't blend in with their surroundings. 

The scene then cuts to a high angle medium shot of the upper-half of the man's body in the water with a gun being pointed at his back by someone, to which the man seems unaware of. It then cuts to a low angle shot of the person pointing the gun, who by their clothing seems to be some sort of police man or military officer. Revealing the person in a low angle shot conveys their dominance over the situation. The man with the gun's stance is very powerful compared to the man lying face down in the water, exposed and vulnerable. 

The man with the gun shouts to another man in the distance and the scene cuts to a long shot. It shows an Asian-style mansion which gives the audience more information about the setting. This shot is very bright which creates a contrast when the scene jumps next to a shot of inside the building, which has very low-key lighting to give the impression that the room is lit only by lanterns.

Overall the opening to 'Inception' was effective in building tension and suspense through the use of different camera angles and lighting.

The Shining

The opening of The Shining uses Long shots and Extreme longshots of desolated landscapes to create an isolated feel to the scene, echoing the theme of the film. The music is slow and intense which emphasises the alienation of the scene as there's nothing that the audience can see that would be causing tension. However, 50 seconds into the opening a shadow of a helicopter can be see on the hillside. This could be to give the impression that though no one appears to be around, someone is always watching; again this echos the theme of the film.

Birds eye view angle is used to give the impression that the car which the camera is tracking is in a position of weakness. 

There are no reverse cuts used in the opening sequence as no characters are filmed, however continuity editing is used.

By not showing any of the characters and instead tracking a car, the audience begins to question the reasoning behind this which would build tension - emphasised by the non-digetic music.

The credits are shown in a light blue colour which is a non-threatening colour which creates contrast to the nature of the film.