FILMS SIMILAR TO OUR OPENING SEQUENCE

I decided to research into two films which are similar to our opening sequence:
1) When a stranger calls
2) Scream

The opening sequence to these films use styles and techniques which i wish to incorpicate in our opening sequence. Furthermore the storylines are coinciding due to those film's opening sequence and ours including a young female character home alone, allowing her to appear vulnerable and is therefore an easy target for the killer. Moreover 'When a stranger calls' and 'Scream' follows the journey of a death in the opening sequence, which is something we have required in our opening sequence. This victim is known as the 'first girl' and is a stereotypical character in a horror film, therefore a necessity in our opening sequence.

When a stranger calls

The opening sequence of the film 'When a stranger calls' is very similar to the opening of our thriller '666'. The film's opening sequence begins with a young woman talking on the phone and repeating the word 'hello' suggesting that there is no one replying on the other end of the phone. This is similar to our thriller opening '666' because our victim (a young woman in her teenage years) will be answering a phone, where no one else is replying on the other end. Moreover, in this film opening the woman receives multiple strange phone calls with no one replying. This again is similar to our thriller '666', whereby our victim will retrieve numerous mysterious phone calls. Additionally, the women in this opening appears to be anxious as she begs the stranger "please stop calling me", which is similar to our thriller '666' as the victim will be distressed and agitated as she begins to hear floor boards creaking and doors slamming from inside her house. However, in this opening sequence, the audience does not see the young woman on screen at all, whereas in 666, the opening sequence will follow our young woman walking towards her death as she decides to 'investigate' the weird noises and walk upstairs towards the 'stranger' in her house. Therefore we want to include a stereotypical vulnerable and innocent first girl in our film so that the audience will immediately be able to identify this film as being in the horror genre. Furthermore, the murder in this opening sequence is not located in a isolated area, however in our thriller 666 opening, we want the murder to be conducted in a isolated location in order to emphasis the vulnerability of the first girl, because there is no where for her to escape too, making our thriller more suspenseful and tense.

In 'When a stranger calls' the title sequence has been removed and instead the opening credits appear on screen as the action in the opening sequence begins to unfold, which is called 'straight into the film title sequence'.  This technique is typically used in horror films. My group and I also chose to use this technique and type of opening sequence because we believe that it makes the film appear more interesting as it enhances the tension in the film from the get go making it more exciting.

Scream

The opening sequence of the film 'Scream' is very similar to the opening sequence of our thriller '666'. The opening begins with a telephone ring, which immediately suggests to the audience that this is an important aspect of this scene and is ultimately what the film is surrounded about. This is similar to the opening sequence of our thriller 666, because our film is also about the aspect of a stranger calling. However, in Scream the stranger is actually stalking the woman whereby in our film the stranger is constantly harassing the young woman by calling her phone anonymously multiple times and saying nothing to her, leaving the woman feeling distressed. However, the concept is similar that a mystery caller pesters a women and eventually murders her. Furthermore, the woman in Scream is a vulnerable young blonde woman, representing a stereotypical first girl. Although in our thriller we are including a stereotypical first girl, our young woman will be in her teens as appose to her early twenties, but again the concept is similar between our thriller film 666 and the thriller Scream.

Scream also uses the technique of removing the title sequence and jumping straight into the action by using the 'straight into the film title sequence', whereby the opening credits appear on screen as the action begins to unfold. This reiterates our motifs of using this technique and validates using the straight into the film title sequence in order to create an exciting opening sequence to our thriller.