SE7EN

Analysis of Thriller opening sequences

SE7EN

Psycho

Splice

The opening sequence of Se7en uses a montage of clues to the themes of the film. The first picture (top left hand corner) features a book. The eerie angle of the book and the dark lighting gives a sense of mystery and disorientation. It also connotes that knowledge and literature will play a key part in the plot. Moving on to the second image, similarly it is low key lighting and features two hands on a paper, however the hands seem to have been severed and are no longer a part of the body. This also links to the way the antagonist plays out his murders. The third image is an extreme close up of the skin on somebody's finger tips being sliced/ shaved off. This is an uncomfortable image, giving us a small insight into the things which take place throughout Se7en. These images all create tension and mystery, which is a convention of a typical Thriller opening title sequence. The images create enigma, and the simple hand written type font adds to the hand craft feel, and the simplicity allows us to focus on the images without the attention being taken away from the text.

The opening of Psycho is stripped back and simple. There is a reoccurring theme throughout the opening sequence, and that is vertical and horizontal cuts which cut through the title and credits. The cuts remind me of a knife slashing through a sheet and connotes brutal violence and gives you an insight into what will happen throughout the film. Similar to the other two opening title sequences I have analysed, Psycho gives very little away and entices the audience through enigma. The slashes also look like violin strings- this links to the famous screeching violin music played throughout Psycho.

The opening sequence of Splice features a montage of uncomfortable images which all have a green/blue tint which is similar to the colour of veins. The typography in the title sequence is a spidery font like tree roots or again, similar to the colour, the writing branches out like veins. The centre image (above) looks very similar to a scan photograph- this may be a clue as to what is to come later on. The opening sequence does not give much away which creates enigma and mystery which communicates to the audience that it is of the Thriller genre. The third image along but one down features a blurry image which looks like a night vision camera and hides the identity of the person- creating more questions and mystery. The title sequence definitely focuses on veins which we can assume will have a key part in the Thriller, but the proximity of the veins is disorientating for us as we are not comfortable with seeing veins so close up, it almost feels intimate,