Kiss Me Deadly - Opening Sequence Analysis

The title of the film:
The title of this movie is ‘Kiss Me Deadly’, and we see the title appear on the screen just after we see a female running and abruptly stopping a car in the middle of the road; causing ait to swerve and stop. After that, we have the camera within the car, and then we can see them quite personally. The title is central within the frame, but it then scrolls up the screen, making the audience seem as if it was the end of the film.

How the setting/location is revealed:
The audience gets to see a long shot of a woman running down a vacant road, we see her ‘flagging’ down cars to ask for help, and we wonder why. The road is very long, suggesting that she was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by long grass and trees. We want to know why she is on this road, and where she has come from.

Costumes/props:
When the woman first appears on the screen we see that she is quite young with very short, and what appears to be blonde hair, and the only thing that she is wearing is a lightly coloured trench coat. This female character isn’t wearing any shoes or any other form of clothing, only this long coat. This could be implying to the audience that she is running away from something, or someone yet we don’t know what or who; we want to watch on and find out who and why. Also, the man in the car looks very formal and upper class, by the coat and clothes he is wearing.

Camera work/editing:
During the opening sequence there are many different shots and angles used effectively. Firstly, the unusual usage of the mid shot works very well as it shows a woman’s legs running barefoot, and this was our main focus within the frame, so we can see the sheer panic she must be feeling. But also we could see that she must have been in a furry to go out with no shoes. This immediately will make the viewer question what has happened to her and why is she running. Also, an over the shoulder shot is used when the male and female characters are in the car, shows that we are quite close to them and we want to know why she has been running.

Title and font style:
We can see from the titles of this movie, ‘Kiss Me Deadly’, has the usual bold, simple font which again creates a big impact. It is very simplistic, but again I feel this is done to calm the viewer down for what is going to actually take place in the film. The font is in a grey/ white colour which is quite natural, therefore giving nothing away about the movie.

How the opening sets the story:
The story is set in a car of man and he has picked up the scared and worried woman who was running away from something or someone, when they come to a certain point of the journey police stop them and as if they have seen a woman. The audience find out that the woman in the car has run away from an institution, and that the man has now lied to the police to help this woman; however he was unaware of this. This works well as the viewer finds out some information about the woman but not a lot is given away, we want to know why she was there and why she had run away.

How does the movie suggest that it’s a Thriller:
The opening sequence could suggest that this film is a thriller, by the usage of the quick cuts of different shots, and this is because a Thriller could be quite fast paced, such as a murderer’s thoughts and mentality is fast paced so there is a link between the two. Also, in the opening there is a lot of shadowing making it very creepy for the viewer, but also the black and white merely adds to the eerie effect created.

The characters introduced:
The opening sequence introduces the audience to two characters. The female is first seen running away in panic from the unknown, and we want to know why she is running immediately. Secondly, we meet the male who is stopped by the woman quite unexpectedly. He helps this woman, by letting her in his car and he takes her to where she needs to go, but as the journey progresses he finds out where she has run; furthermore so do the audience.

Special effects:
Special effects was very minimalistic, I don’t feel that any were used in the movie ‘Kiss Me Deadly’, purely due to the era that this movie was created. However, the lack of special effects does the film justice, as the whole experience seems real and natural; we are able to ‘sink’ further into the film and not get sidetracked.