Thriller film openings

In terms of the credits for thriller films there aren't many conventions that are needed to be followed, as directors are always introducing new ways to show the credits, and make them unique from any other. This varies from not showing any credits at the start of the film (like The Dark Knight), having text over the opening scene in Silence of the lambs or the use of font on blank screen (in The Sixth Sense).

However in terms of things such as mise en scene, there are some conventions that appear in the majority of thriller films. The lighting for example is normally fairly dark. There is always some sort of light whether it be natural, and obstructed by trees for example, or artificial light form a lamp or something. As mentioned previously, there is normally some form of weapon in thriller films, and is sometimes shown in the opening scene, to make the audience feel uneasy. The setting of thriller films, are almost always set in a run down isolated place. This may be in an apartment for example. This adds the suspense of the film and makes the audience feel out of place, they aren't comfortable watching it.

Thriller openings also have a convention of including extreme close ups in the title sequence, as shown in Se7en and Momento. This is very effective as means it doesn't show the actual identity of somebody, which creates a sense of mystery. It also shows close ups of objects within the room. This is more visible to the audience, however they still don't know the use of them, for example the razor in Se7en or the glasses in Momento.

The title sequence will sometimes introduce you to a character, this could be the main character, the bad guy, or the victim, different films introduce different characters at different points in the film. This again could be used effectively through the use of a non-chronological film, where the character is introduced at the start of the film, however it is showing them at the end of the story. They will then go back and show how it got to this stage. The introduction to character, is the first 2 minutes is a very good way to introduce the character, as it makes the audience aware of their presence from the very beginning.

A lot of the time openings to thriller films, will straight away make the audience uncomfortable. This may be just a very subtle way or something more obvious. A very discrete way of doing this would be the slow zoom at the very beginning of The Dark Knight. This may make the american audience uneasy as it may give connotations towards the 9/11 terrorist attack. This isn't an obvious case, however, psychologically it does have an impact on the audience. This can be done more obviously, and have a setting such as in the middle of a forest, and isolated from anything else. Both of these have a psychological effect on the audience and will start the film off with a sense of unease. Another way that the opening can make the audience uncomfortable is having a murder at the very beginning of the film. An example of this would be a film like JAWS, where the first thing you see is someone being eaten to the shark. This catches the audience by surprise, and isn't what the audience expect, in the first scene.

However as said previously, in terms of the credits there are various effective ways of showing the opening credits.