Modern thriller openings

Opening of thrillers

History of violence

The thriller starts with a long shot of a house/hotel. It is a nice, warm, sunny day and nothing looks suspicious. Two men coming out of the house/ hotel. Even though they do not look suspicious at the opening scene, we still know who the killer is from the short beginning of the movie as later on we see dead bodies lying after their visit to the office. The beginning of this movie has a very clear cliffhanger as the audience is left without knowing why these kind of things are happening, and why the killers kill.

Zodiac

The opening sequence starts with a birds eye view shot of a city on a 4th of July evening. Its dark, however the street lights are on and the streets are full of life. The camera shows a tracking shot from a car window,showing people having fun. As a female driver meets her male friend they decides to go some place to eat, however they does not want to be in a crowd and changes their mind, goes to a back-block where is dark and quiet. It seems like a good idea for a couple and obviously for a killer too.






Brick

This film starts with quite long shots of a teenage boy looking at a dead girl laying in a water. The environment is dark, the weather looks cold. The boy looks nervous, however he does not help the girl which could mean that he did something to her himself. There is no way the audience could tell what has happened and that what pulls toward watching the film.

No country for old men

Long shot of horizont, sunrise. Shots of nature, desert, a man talking in the background, telling a story. The audience is to see a police car and policeman taking a man to his car, putting his unusual weapon on a front seat. They drives away to a police station. While thepoliceman is reporting the situation, the arrested man stands up and chocks the policeman. The killer takes handcuffs off and washes blood from his hands, then takes his weapon and leaves with a police car. Until then, he does not say a word which makes the audience feel an interest in him, however, the weapon he uses is even more interesting. The killer stops an old man and asks him to step out of the car, then with a help of his unusual weapon he shoots the man. The audience is kept in suspense and questioning who is the man and what is the weapon that he uses to kill.