Thrilling Discoveries

  After some thinking, I've decided that I want my genre to be a thriller. Specifically, one that involves a monster (or in my specific case, a really vicious animal) that the characters must survive and defeat. When working in such a specific genre, I naturally did some research on these types of movies to gather ideas for how I want to approach my film opening.

Deep Blue Sea

Yesterday, I watched a movie called Deep Blue Sea, which is one that I feel is somewhat similar to what I want to do. The opening features a common feature in these types of movies, which is a set of characters who only exist to be victims of the central threat, in this case, sharks. There are POV shots from the perspective of a shark swimming underwater, which build anticipation before it's grand reveal as it breaks through the bottom of the boat. There's also the visual of the boat rocking, an element of motion which also builds anticipation in the audience in relation to the shark's size. This technique of hiding the creature from the viewer is one that I want to use, both for the purpose of building suspense and for practical reasons. One thing I like about this opening is how it subverts expectations by having the shark hit with a harpoon before it's able to kill anyone, which goes against what the audience would expect.

Life

Life is a film that I found during my research, and from what I can gather is a thriller about the crew of a spaceship who discovers a lifeform from Mars. The opening scene is done primarily as a long take, showing a team of astronauts recovering the lifeform from a capsule. It builds mystery, as we don't know exactly what's in the capsule for a majority of the scene. The suspenseful nature of the spacewalk one character goes on to retrieve it establishes the tone for the majority of the film. One common thread I'm noticing in these movies is the theme of science. Although it's not shown in the opening, Deep Blue Sea is set on an aquatic research base doing experiments with genetic modification, and Life is about astronauts conducting research in space. The idea here is that the film's monsters are the results of science gone too far, which is an idea that I find fascinating and would like to incorporate into my project.

Malignant

So in all honesty, Malignant is a movie that I don't really like, but I do have to admit the opening scene is excellent, so after it popped up in search results I rewatched that scene for my research. The main element of this opening that I love is the chaos. The way that the viewer is immediately dropped into the action, and the way the camera frames the action in off-kilter angles with frantic cuts puts the viewer on edge as soon as the film starts. It also establishes the mystery of "Gabriel", as the audience knows that he's dangerous even though they don't know what he is. Like the other films, this one continues the trend of science and medicine gone wrong, which seems to be very important to these kind of monster thrillers. It also contains the trend of minor characters who exist as initial victims. I've come to the conclusion that these are both elements that I want to include in my opening for a thriller movie.