Title sequences within the horror genre

These title sequences fit in with the genre that our group has chosen to analyse, which is horror with a massive focus on femininity, as the lead role is a female murderer.

Seven

Seven’s title sequence, made by Kyle Cooper for David Fincher is considered a game changer in the world of title sequences. The artistic novelty of the books makes it a very visually pleasing one to watch, as John Doe takes such care in the order of how his books look. The grey scale, dirty film tells you that this film will not have a happy ending, and is quite grim. The also complete contrast with white and black within some scenes makes it easy to see what exactly is going on, even if it is gruesome and twisted and audience members want to turn their heads. We can tell that he is likely to be the antagonist as we cannot exactly see what he is doing, which displays a level of secrecy villains need to have to ensure their plans do not get spoiled.  The hand written typography shows that there is degree of care this villain shows as it is very neat, but selfish as he is alone (we only see one pair of hands) and keeps to himself.

The glitching of the film signifies chaos, and that the film will have a lot of wrong doings happen. John Doe is a ‘glitch’ in the system of humans as he is a bad person. All of the close up shots on his hands and books keep his face hidden, and do not allow the viewer to guess who the villain is within the first few minutes of the film. Nine Inch Nails ‘Closer’ plays in the background with scratching and screaming, making the viewer uncomfortable with the noises and dystopian music Nine Inch Nails produces.

American Pyscho

American psycho has a very minimalistic style, with many of it relating to small items of food, and how they are presented on the page. The food such as the raspberry sauce could also be inferred as blood, tricking the eye and perhaps confusing the viewer, but intriguing them further. It also has quite light and easy listening style music, which is the opposite style of music when we see the word ‘psycho’. The title sequence leads into the film neatly, which makes the audience member feel like they are now part of the story, especially since there is a place made for the camera at the table.

Goodfellas

Goodfella’s title sequence is very text and sound heavy, with some parts of the film being taken out of context leaving the audience with enigmas. With the simple black background and contrast with white/red text makes it easy to distinguish. Also, the movement of the text parallel with the cars passing by sets the setting very early on that the film is set in an urbanized area. How the text moves also imitates the way that cars move, making it interesting to watch entrance/exit the scene.