Opening Scene Analysis - Miss Georgiou

An opening scene is key to a good, successful film because it introduces the story and tries to engage the audience. By stating the key characters and location from the outset it allows the audience to familiarise themselves with the characters so they can relate an emotional distance and feel involved with the storyline.

How does the opening sequence from Halloween inform the audience of the codes and conventions of the thriller genre?

Narrative

The opening of this film is set on Halloween in the 1960's. The scene opens with a view of a house. The shot focuses specifically on the house and not the street, making the location unknown and adding a sense of uneasiness and eeriness to the scene because the location is never revealed to the audience. By showing nothing around her as she's in the bedroom it adds to the tension and idea of her death being inevitable since there is nowhere to escape from which also sends a panic through the audience as they don't know how she will escape. It then switches to two teenagers fooling around in  the living room however we see this through the window from the outside of the house which adds to the idea that we are seeing the scene through the villain/killer's eyes (POV) which creates an interest between the audience and the main character and adds an element of powerlessness and suspense within the audience as they watch the scene play out and they have no control over anything that is happening. The person who's point of view the camera is following then enters the house, suggesting the idea that they are coming for someone and that something is going to happen, building the audience up for a shock. You also notice that the person is familiar to the layout of the household since they walk straight through to the kitchen and retrieve a knife from the drawer without any confusion, this intrigues the audience as we can see what's happening but the murderer's identity remains a mystery and so by showing their point of view, we seem more connected to the villain than the victim in this instance as the audience feels like they and the killer are one because they can only see the situation through the killer's eyes. This also makes it harder for the audience to sympathise with the victim as they can relate to the murderer more easily. Once the girl has been killed with a knife taken from the kitchen, we see through the POV shot that the murderer makes their way outside to be greeted by returning parents of the household. The father then walks closer to the camera during that point of view shot (getting closer to the villain) and takes off the mask to reveal it to be the girl's little brother and he is standing outside the house with a bloody knife in his hand in front of his Mum & Dad.

Cinematography

A weapon is used in the form of a knife (a common convention in thriller films), this makes the scene more realistic and the audience can relate to the situation more through the clip being set in a house and the weapon that is used can be found in a typical household. As a result, the audience can relate more to the scene as it is a familiar and everyday object than other weapons i.e. a gun. A knife is also more commonly used as it creates a more gory, bloody death as multiple wounds are usually inflicted to cause death. This allows there to be more suspense as the scene can be dragged out as a death by knife is slower and more theatrical than other methods of killing in the thriller genre.
A weapon, in particular, a knife is very conventional to the thriller genre as they allow the villain and victim to have more contact during their fight scene so it adds a struggle to increase the suspense and tension in a killing scene. This means that the killer can also act silently which adds to the suspicion and tension. This also means in order for an incident/murder to occur they have to be very close together which opens a hole for a chase scene to come in and makes them more tense due to the close contact between the villain and victim.

Characters 

The victim in the opening scene is a female. This is a stereotypical convention of a thriller as a female is typically seen as the weaker sex and so by trapping a female it makes the member of the audience feel more empathy towards them, creating a bond built on fear for the victim as the female gender portrays vulnerability more effectively than a male. However more typically a blonder female is used as they manage to portray more innocence to the audience emphasising their position as the victim.
Another minor character in the scene is the girl's teenage boyfriend. Through them both being teenagers it adds to the conventional idea in a thriller as they both seem to be very naive and more innocent than an adult, however being more prone to being alone and therefor more vulnerable than children (unless they are alone), which makes them a perfect example as an age category for thriller actors and actresses. The teenagers are very stereotypical, being completely oblivious to the fact that the back door is open and they are being spied on.This allows the audience to relate to the character and can put themselves in the same situation and the audience can feel more empathetic towards them, building a stronger character-audience relationship as well the fact that everyone feels completely safe and comfortable in their own home. By seeing it through a different perspective they can now see that the feeling of automatically being safe when in the company of others and this makes you question that sense of security. 

Editing

There is very limited edititng used in this film as through following the point of view of the villain, the audience is forced to follow his journey and entrance into the house making the shot stay continuous. However, although a lack of editing is used, a mixture of timing of shots are used. At the beginning all the movements and editing was at a slow pace as the villain was outside creeping about which allowed him to seem as though he was trying to remain undetected and lurk in the shadows. This shows the audience that the murderer has planned it out because their actions seem persistent and cautious which gives the audience the impression that the murderer is making sure everything inj the lead up to the murder is executed perfectly so he can do what was intended and get away. However, in contrast to this as soon as the murder has taken place the timing of shots become more fast paced which gives the audience the impression that the murderer has panicked and the killing didn't go exactly to plan. This fear and panicy get away makes the villain have an inferior persona which makes them seem naive and not as cunning as we first made out. The fast shots interlink qith the rushed exit made by the killer, making the audience anticipate the killer being caught because typically villains in thriller films always walk towards their victims with a sense of arrogance and confidence but the panicking from the killer makes us believe that maybe the murderer wasn't as calculated as we first thought.