'Vacancy'- Opening scene analysis

What makes Vacancy successful in terms of its genre?

Vacancy is a thriller. Thrillers normally combines alot of usage of shadows and darkness- very clever with the lighting, voyeurism- the sense of being watched or followed for the audience, fear- creating the atmosphere and dramatic feel, illusions, a thick, hard hitting storyline such as kidnapping, entrapment, isolation and deception. Typical characters that are in a thriller are a victim, a detective/a hero, a bad guy/a killer and possibly the victims family. I think the opening of Vacancy covers's this typical nature of thrillers very well. As soon as it starts you feel more and more tense, and fear creeps in as seconds pass.

To start, the people included in the production of the film are used to create the opening atmosphere. The subtitles are a keep point in creating tension right at the start for this film. The music is a low bass tone and the writing represents blood with its trailing down effect. All the names move around creating confusion and drama to such a simple task. The only criticism i do have is that the subtitles task for to long! It gets boring after a while and the tension of wanting it to start is high! Above the low noise is a obvious ticking. This really gets your heart pumping, the thought of time running out, slipping away. Being on a time limit is never nice, being in a rush to do something. It creates suspense and wonder into what it could be. When the title of the film emerges there is a low thud of a noise in the background to increase the tension of the word 'VACANCY' which is in capitals. The credits go on for 2minutes 51seconds. This is far to long, even though it is quite snappy with each person. The first sight of the characters there is the sound of a cracking radio, radios that are not clear with signal are always a spooky, fearful sign i think.

I didn't find many negatives to this opening but here is the few i came up with. It is very, very dark making it hard to see and define much, although the director is very clever with the lighting usage it still is dark. After the exaggerated duration of the opening credits the car journey also lasts a long time, maybe a little to long talking about the same thing! The two characters conversation about going the wrong way makes this car journey at the start very dull, but outlines key facts.. they are lost, this is always a scary situation. There is quite a chunk of the driving that uses no speech, to create tension and an uptight atmosphere.. as if waiting for something to happen. There is a part where they use an apple as a prop, and talk about it. This has no relevance to the scene or that moment in time so this annoyed me, being pointless. Although the lady cuts here self when cutting the apple.. and bleeds. This could indicate whats going to happen in the latter part of the film, here getting killed? Badly hurt?

Many positives were taken from this opening, their ability to creat such an atmosphere in a short space of time is brilliant. They use light to direct the audience's view, onto particular things and objects, i find this very clever. The music is intimidating for the viewer, this is good when watching a thriller, you want to be scared and feel vunerable why else would you watch them? The lack of information given to us in the opening is good i think beacuase it makes us want to watch on, find out whats going on, and leaves us feeling uncertain about the forthcoming events. It makes your mind ask lots of questions and make your own idea of whats going to happen. I couldnt work out there releltionship, between the two characters. Alough the male had a wedding ring on his finger. They were argueing and very snappy. They could have been family or married, or maybe just very good friends, or even two people who dont particually want to be there with eachother but have no choice. The camera angles and way it's filmed makes us feel like we are intruding on their relletionship. Not ment to be there. Beacuase of there argueing its not normally something we get to see or witness, and not many people would want to show themselves argueing with eachother. There is a short shot of the map they are reading, we don't get a clue of where they are from this shot so that gives off a sence of isolation, in a dark forest not knowing where they are going.

I think if the directors incorporated street lamps along the road; only a few. It would make the scene a little brighter and easier to watch, and street lamps are often used in thrillers as they access dull light and look good for shadows. Over sholder shots are used quite a few times, this type of shot i always find intimidates the other character. Makeing the other seem bigger and more powerful.

The conventions i spot in this opening are, mystery, faulse starts, lights- car lights are the only form really, voyerism, water- only drinking water but its always used as something scary in thrillers, you expect punishment. Also there is one major convention, when the strange man comes to the window of the garage, beacuase the female character screams it makes the whole audience jump with intimidation.

All in all i think this opening scene is of a very high standard, incorporating many conventions and using them wisely and somewhat indiret like the water only being in a bottle. The sence of panic, isolation and rush brings together an amazing start to this film, the faulse starts mean faulse hope for the viewer, this attracts the audience as we can believe our own story lines. The intensity of the whole scene makes this very successful in the thriller genre.