Zodiac
This film is based on a true story immediately increasing the films tension to the audience as all the events that happen in the film are based on fact telling the audience that there is no comfort that this story is just a film. The audience will also feel more sympathetic or more repulsed towards characters depending on their actions as everything happening has some truth to it.
The film opens with non-diegetic music accompanying a panning crane shot of a city lit up at night. By including the whole city in this shot tells the audience that the murders and crimes committed in this film will be large-scale crimes. The decision to have the setting be at night time adds a dangerous and more sinister feel to the film. The fireworks then shown add an image of danger as fireworks are a safety hazard and people are always constantly on guard around them in fear that something will go wrong with them. This feels like metaphorical foreshadowing of future events in this film. The next cut to a tracking shot of a car making it's way through the neighbourhood and the fireworks are going off in the background, giving the audience a false sense of security as it's the 4th of July which is a time of celebration and so there is no danger when everyone is so cheerful.
Then a car pulls up to a house and a man runs towards the car and starts to talk with the girl. The conversation is normal with little real meaning and the man eventually gets into the car and it starts to drive off. They drive to the car-park and agree it is too crowded and decide to leave to go somewhere else. This leads them to pulling up into a remote car park in the middle of nowhere, the scene is dark and the only thing really visible is the car. The audience are then unnerved as the characters are now alone and isolated in nowhere so anything could happen with no one to witness it. Then the sound of a car pulling can be heard making the audience more nervous about who it is and what they intend to do. The tension is increased when the cars headlights are turned off giving the impression that it wants to go unnoticed. The man makes comment about his worry about the car confirming the audiences suspicion that there is a reason to be worried. Out of nowhere the car then leaves but instead of decreasing the audiences concern it happens to increase it. As the diegetic sound of the tiers screeching away and the showing of the girls worried expression the audience knows that this is not the last time we'll be seeing this car.
At this point we can see that the woman is conventional to the ones found in the thriller genre: she is a blonde who causes the trouble (it was her idea to go somewhere remote, we find that she is already married yet out in the middle of no where with a guy and she keeps acting shifty all of which automatically causes mistrust as the audience begins to suspect that she has something to do with car that we just saw. We hear the tiers screech again and we know that things are about to get bad. This car is returning for no reason making it anxious to think about what this person might do. It takes a long time for the car to pull up allowing the people in the car to panic not knowing what is going on. This makes the audience sympathise with them as we know that they are about to be killed. The guy gets out of the car goes over and just starts shooting over and over and when he runs out of bullets he gets more and just continues shooting like it's no big deal this is extremely chilling as everything just seems so mundane to him and he's just taking his time which means that he has not concern over killing them he doesn't even bat an eyelid. He then casually walks away and it fades to black leaving the audience feeling uneasy and questioning what will happen next.
Brick
Brick opens with a non-diegetic western music, which is unusual. The sound is almost trickled into the film but the transition feels unnatural and a little off putting. There is then a pan to a close up of shoes, increasing the unusual feeling of the opening and gives the audience very little information, making them question the importance of showing the shoes. There is then a transition to a close up of a face and then transitions to a tunnel where we can see that the face and the shoes belong to a man and the man is crouched looking over at the dead body of a woman. His expression is one of mesmerisation of the dead body increasing the unsettling, creepy feel of the film then emphasised by the western music still playing in the background. However since this man is looking over the dead body in that way and the way he is positioned, crouched on the other side of the tunnel makes the audience question whether he is responsible for this death or is he just creepily fixated by this kind of thing. Whichever the scenario it makes the audience curious while also adding a feeling of discomfort. This is then emphasised with the scene cutting back and forth of shots of the mans face and the woman's dead body, this makes the audience think that the man is trying to mesmerise every detail of the body. Also the back and forth between them both gives them a connection which increases the audiences curiosity concerning what this man has to do with this dead person making them want to watch on to find out.
No Country For Old Men
No Country For Old Men opens with a non-diegetic sound of a voice over of a man with a thick southern accent immediately puts the viewer on guard as stereotypically an accent from the deep south is a character that is either a cowboy, have extremely creationist views or just crazy. This creates the feeling that something bad will happen by the audience and that what they are about to see will probably be disturbing. The imagery at the beginning is a series of dark landscape scenes of native american land filled with shadows which adds a sinister feel to all of the natural scenery like mother nature has turned bad. As things start to light up as day begins it gives the impression that something big is about to start. Then there is a scene where two guys are fighting on the floor, one trying to kill the other. In this scene diegetic sound is used. There is no voice over, no music- nothing but the squeaking of the mans shoes on the floor. The absence of sound causes the audience to feel uncomfortable as there is no distraction from the fact that he is being murdered, making it all very real. During this sequence there is a close up on the villains hands allowing us to see just how physically violent it is.
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