Typography used in a thriller

'The Silence Of The Lambs' opening:

The font used in this opening sequence is San-serif font. All of the letters are capitalised - this makes the letters stand out as they look bolder. The black indicates that there is something dark and eery to come; the white outline around the letter highlight the this for example; death; gore; violence. The white outline also makes the black writing more readable, it makes sure that the black writing doesn't blend in with the background.

'Se7en' opening:

This opening also uses the San-serif font- this font appears to be rougher though, it looks as if someone has tried to shred the writing; it makes the opening look more violent and hints to the audience that the film is probably viscous and violent also - this again creates the idea that something dark and evil could be happening. The placement of the title on the screen seems to be random; it does not have a certain place on the screen and it seems to appear at different sizes during different parts in the film - this adds a sense of mystery.

'Shutter Island' opening:

San-serif font has been used yet again for another thriller opening, this shows that it is a popular font to try and get the message of a thriller across. Although the font is rather basic for this film; it doesn't have any added extras for example it doesn't look as if the words have been tampered with as they did in the 'Se7en' opening; this is strange as it doesn't appear to make the film seem mysterious yet the film is (this can be shown through the music). However the colour of the font is red; red is often linked with blood and gore; this indicates that there may be something within the film that is dark and evil.  It also represents the idea of danger. This opening sequence also uses a 'fade to black' o present the opening title.

Overall I have learnt that there are common traits used in thriller openings and repetition of a lot of techniques when making thriller opening sequences.The use of the San-serif font in all three of these opening sequences suggests the idea of darkness and creates a surreal effect and can create the ideas of having a psychological factor within the films. The colours used are often similar, it usually changes from black to red - this could be because both colours are associated with darkness and evilness, adding this to the opening sequence of the films, adds the idea of violence and tragedies to the thriller genre.