Studying Film Opening Scenes

Film Openings

Se7en

Even though it is a movie I have already mentioned when discussing the mystery genre, it's a movie that I found so interesting how it was made I believe it is worth analyzing the opening further. First, it is important to explain the context of the movie, it is about two detectives who hunt a serial killer that uses the seven deadly sins as his motives, explaining the title. That is the most undetailed description of the film but it really dives deep into the investigation and manages to keep the audience with suspense and the mystery.

This is the part of the movie that will be discussed 

It starts off with a black screen and an exploding/thunder sound. I've noticed that other movies also start with a sound before visuals, for example, Whiplash. (From previous research about these types of beginnings it could mean that sound is important throughout the movie.) The intro continues to show close-ups of all different things using a "creepy" and jittering font to show the credits. It also uses the mise-en-scene to add to the creepy and mystery by having shadows and making the amount of light on the subjects very dark. It shows the title scene in the first 30 seconds and only for a short 3 seconds. It keeps the same dark vibe going with the changing shots and objects. The objects include black and white pictures, files, sharp knives or needles. All of this is used to create that sense of mystery is what is going on or what is going to happen as you keep watching. In the end, it goes completely off the "scary" part to a Monday in New York with sirens.

From watching the whole introduction you can clearly understand the genre and where the movie is headed with someone who is clearly psychotic. Many people also say it creeps them out before even watching the movie.

Overall, things I would like to take from this film's opening are the use of close-up shots of objects that a "murderer" would have/used and a creepy font. The dark lighting is definitely a must-have for a mystery/ horror movie.

Suspira

One thing most people can agree on is that horror depends on sound a lot. Without the correct creepy music, a horror movie can just look dumb, to say the least. Suspira does a good job utilizing music and sounds to convey the suspense and mystery in an introduction. That is the main thing about that introduction that I looked for to point out.

Missing

 

Missing is a kidnapping movie. What makes this movie so different and innovative is that the viewers perspective is just based off of one laptop and they manage to keep the audience engaged. However the main thing I want to talk about is how they use foreshadowing. They gave a short almost innocent clip of a family in the beginning with a twist in the end. However they managed to build so much on just that one clip and add so much background to it throughout the movie.