Structures of thriller openings

Looking at different openings i noticed that different films used different openings to introduce the audience into the start of the film.

'The shining' used narrative opening 

A narrative opening allows the location, settings then characters to be immediately introduced and in occasions the key enigma

The Shining used this type of opening to introduce the location, which creates tension from the beginning as it allows the audience to see a car driving to an isolated place

Seven used a discrete title opening

A discrete title opening is a separately edited sequences that stand apart from the film opening. They are stylised and heavily edited with alot of close up shots, and they support nearly all of the opening credits and film title.

Donnie Darko used a blank screen

A blank screen film opening begins with the titles rolling over it, often with sound effects or a sound track before any images are introduced. The titles also continue once the images are shown. 

Donnie Darko followed the technique and started its opening in darkness with the titles over it then slowly began to get lighter as the sun rose followed the introduction a character

The Taking Of Pelham 123 used a stylised opening

Stylised openings use a lot of editing to make the whole this more dramatic and exciting to have the audience at hooked from the very start.

This film opening stood out the most for me not only because Denzel Washington stars in it, but the amount of editing used throughout the first couple minutes. I would LOVE my thriller opening to be as stylised as this but this would take an immense about of time editing. Hopefully my group is able to film out shots quickly to enable us to use a lot of editing to make out thriller opening that more exciting.

Fingers Crossed !