I have seen a resent remake of a film called The Stepfather, the film overall was not very good, but the opening was very effective to add a sense of mystery. The original film stars Terry O'Quinn, which recently was part of the cast of US TV series 'LOST' as John Locke. The remake stars Nip-Tuck protagonist Dylan Walsh, the name of the character is different to the original, with a more common name and surname.
The original film was made in 1987 and the opening scene is similar to the remake, the main character Jerry Blake is cleaning his self and trimming his hair to change his identity because of something he did. The opening shot starts in a normal suburban neighborhood with a paperboy delivering the newspapers. The shot has some movement downwards, and as the paper boy gets closer to the camera the cameras pans showing a 'Normal' looking house and closes to the house to an upstairs window. The scene then switches to the inside of the house in the toilet as a man with medium length hair and a Beard. Every seams kind of normal until the camera closes on the man's hands and face as the have blood on them, the man cleans himself then starts cutting his hair and shaves his beard looking at the mirror. The shots are effective as they are close to the parts of the mans body he changes to look different, the man then smiles at himself when he is changed making the audience feel that them man is weird.
The sound in this particular scene is important as it sets the mood of the film from the start, without the sound the film could be any genre. Up to the point where he is cleaning blood off his body, I felt as something was not right about the setting, I was curious about the setting by just the sounds.
The opening scene is effective as drags the audience into the film like you are part of the film. The sequence also shows credits within the shot in corners, that is a requirement for the thriller task, they are red that could have been chosen for a reason because of the theme of the film.
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