Modern thriller openings

From looking at four different thriller openings I can tell that there is something that they all have in common. One of these is death, in each clip opening there is at least one death, by doing this they are setting the scene for the rest of the film, for example. In the first film we watch "Brick" we see that there is no dialog, there is only the backing tract, which does go with the scene making it parallel. In the scene we also a boy next to dead body, its set next to a tunnel with a blue dominating colour, by using the colour blue there is the overwhelming sense of cold, possibly representing death.

In the next opening thriller clip "Zodiac" we also see a dominating colour which is black, being similar to the dark blue in "Brick". This could be again representing death, however this is a longer opening scene, by doing this they are giving the audience more of a understanding of the back story of the film. For example we see that the woman that picks up the boy in the car is having an affair, as the boy says "is that your husband". As well as this, with using a longer opening scene, which as able to give the director the ability to create suspense. By using the car that pulls up near them then goes then comes back, as a way to build suspense, it also shocks the audience as we expect the man in the car to be an officer, as he uses the torch. However this man ends up shooting the boy and the girl in the car, which i feel no one would expect.

However in the next thriller clip "No country for old men" there is no dominating dark colour, expect for the opening voice over when the sun is rising, but after this the scene is set out in the open in the daylight. After this we see the first death where the man kills the office, by doing this it defeats the idea of the mystery of who killed the person, like we have in "Brick" and "Zodiac". However, another mystery is created in the way of why does this man kill people in the way he does.

The last film we looked at was "A history of violence" this film gave a different affect, it was a slow opening to the film, there was no intense action which gives a relaxed feel to the film however, when one of the actors goes inside the house eyebrows get raised and because of the relaxed state that the viewer has been put in, there is an overwhelming sense of shock to the view when we see the little girl killed.