Analysis of Thriller Openings

On this post i will be analysing the opening of thrillers.

A History of Violence
I thought the the opening to A History of Violence was rather effective in the way it was set in a very remote and random location, this makes the audience begin to think on how they ended up in a motel in the middle of nowhere. There are some elements thast make tell the audience that its set in a baron location, these are the sounds which are crickets in the background and the rare sound of a truck going past on the road. Another point that makes the opening good is the part when one of the men has to go inside the motel to retreve something and the shock of the dead bodies and the killing of the little girl brings across a suprising twist. This creats thought as to what their doing killing these people and what have they done to act like they are on the run.

Memento
I thought the opening to Memento was very effective, mainly because of the scene with the the polaroid picture and execution in reverse. I found this very effective as it creates a confusing moment with the photo fade back to being blank, but only until he places the blank picture back into the camera it is then clear that that it is set in reverse. The clip with the photo could represent the direction of the story of how it goes backwards.

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock was the master of suspence who's films came to be the benchmark for'psycological' thrillers. He was born in Leytonstone, London on the 13th of August 1899, his famous films would consist of Psycho - (1960), North By Northwest - (1995) and Vertigo - (1958).

Alfreds Hitchcocks famous quotes:

• "The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them." 
• "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it."
• "If its a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience will still have a perfectly clear idea of whats going on."
• "Always make the audience suffer as much as possible."
• "Im a typed director, if i made cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach."

Two examples on Hitchcock's uses of suspence:

•  Rope (1948) - Rope is a thriller which is about two men who live together, and they plan to murder one of their friends in an attempt to see wether or not they could get away with it. Hitchcock uses suspence in the scene wehere the two men throw a party and the body of the man is in a chest which is in the middle of the room, the suspence is built from the anticipation of the body being descovered by the guests. And to emphasise this shots which focus on the chest are put into play to build the tension even more.

• Sabotage (1936) - Sabotage is a thriller which is about a foreign terrorist who plans to set off a bomb in london. The use of suspence is used when the terrorist gets a child to transport the bomb across london to the location he wants to destroy for a specific time. In the scene as the child wastes time the emphasis on the time increases, this is emphasised by shots of clocks the child passes them. The steady increase of music which resembles a clock ticking also addes to the whole suspence.