What do directors seek to establish in the openings of thrillers?

The opening of a thriller is undoubtably one of the most crutial parts of a thriller, a good opening will completely hook an audience by setting up good enigma's which quickly maike the audience question why? Why is this happening? Who is this character? Yet the opening will also establish certain aspects of the film, such as lead characters or atleast the lead character, not only this but themes, moods and locations are usually hinted at which should draw the audience in.

An example of a very good enigmatic thriller opening, is the opening of 'Se7en' when inspector Summerset is introduced to the audience.

Why is the opening of 'Se7en' so effective? on Prezi

If you purely observe costume in this shot, that is one way in which the two characters are established uniquely and as an overall contrast. Inspector Summerset's black old fashioned hat is an implication that he is quite an old-fashioned, classy character yet there is a mystery behind him and possibly a slight moral ambiguity (due to hats always casting a shadow across a characters face). The prop use of a torch in this shot is very effective, Summerset's direct light source pouring out at the audience is an implication that the character will bring brightness and light into a dark plot and story. The trenchcoat adds to the representation of Summerset as our old fashioned, yet enigmatic protagonist. Brad Pitt's character is however established as a more current quite possibly weaker detective. Firstly this is due to costume, the up-to-date jacket and relaxed shirt with no sign of a hat, suggests a more relaxed and youthful character. The body language hints at the power relationship between the characters, Brad's character being further back, more towards the door as if he's just entered the room implies that he just entered the world of policing. Therefore he has less experience so takes a 'back seat' to this investiagtion, letting Summerset lead the way.  

 

Whereas alternatively the opening of a 'Whitechapel' opening that we looked at, the focus seems to be on establishing themes and moods. The titles begin the opening and these titles are very explicit of the themes and likely moods of the episode. This is one of the first shots, primarily the hugely visible 'police' text stands out to the audience and therefore the theme of crime and possibly danger is put across to the audience very obviously. The blood over a what would be neat police file, suggests corruption - a dirtying of the police department. The slight shadow behind the paper clip is an implication that there will be mystery and secrets, hidden, within the plot. The precise spots of blood dotted across the page implies that there will be very deliberate violence featured within the storyline. Yet this shot is very, very enigmatic; the audience are left wondering what this means - why is there blood on the file? What is the file?

The font used, contrasts with the background, the whiteness should add purity and peace. Yet the transparency leads to an almost contridiction of this - as if where there was innocence, it has been taken away. This reflection on the theme of danger is so enigmatic that it draws the audience in, a fan of thrillers would automatically recongise the connotations, the mystery behind the opening here is established to catch the attention of the audience.   

A shot which follows is this one of one of the lead characters, firstly his body language is explicit of shocking contents of the plot. The hand over the mouth suggests that whatever he has seen has made him feel sick and he does not know how to cope with it, since the audience are not able to see whatever he is looking at, there is further development of the theme of mystery. The setting is also explicit of themes, the white background filled with windows suggests many trap paths and transparencies of characters, things are not what they seem perhaps. Also the two characters with their backs to each other is an implication that there will be some sort of confrontation, though it's not completely obvious yet again the theme of underlined secrets. 

The director also established the setting within the opening sequence by this shot of the sky scrapers of London. The extremely claustrophobic location (due to the numerous buildings) is alike to the claustrophobic feel of the setting in 'The Third Man', when the sewer is used to create an eeriness of tension and danger. It also displays to the audience the importance of the characters - high up in a huge London sky scraper suggests importance and  excitement, the setting of a city is an implication that something is always happening and therefore the plot will be exciting. The director may of also included the setting into the opening to possibly build excitement around knowing very little about the protragonist and main characters, it builds up an enigma from introducing and establishing other aspects of the film priorly to build up that question behind the characters.