How does
the opening sequence of the X files attract the audience?
The episode of X
files, Squeeze, is about a mutant man who murders his victims, entering their
location by squeezing through small spaces so that he leaves no evidence at the
crime scene, which makes it harder for Mulder and Scully to try and catch the
killer and piece together the crime to solve it. He believes he must steal five
people’s livers before he can complete his hibernation for another thirty
years.
Every episode of X
files usually starts in the same way, it shows you a crime taking place or being
discovered and the audience now know to expect of it, the opening scene builds
up anticipation, and the music used also adds tension, it builds the audience’s
excitement up and then when the person has been killed or the murder has been
discovered by the investigators, the music dies down and the opening credits
roll. It also makes the viewer wonder who is going to be the killer and how the
team are going to solve the crime.
The opening shot is a
high long shot of the sunset in Baltimore, the sunset indicates that darkness
is going to be soon, and darkness means danger which makes the audience think
something bad is going to happen to the man or involve him. The next scene is a
high shot of the man leaving the building; it makes him look vulnerable as it
is filmed above him and he is singled out. As the man is walking to his car,
the image is slowed down, which makes him look like the target and that he is
under threat and defiantly in danger now. The camera zooms closer down to the
drain and then is pointed back on him as he walks, the people around him are
blurred out and the man is singled out again, this implies that the man’s
killer is connected to the drain and then when the yellow eyes appear, the
man’s skin then turns yellow which suggests that he is going to be a threat and
the yellow eyes are targeting and hitting him.
When the man enters what appears to be his
office building, a high angle shot makes him look vulnerable again when the
security camera pointed on him suggesting he is being watched by somebody or
something and that they also might be in the building with him. The camera then
makes you not able to see behind and around him, which creates tension for the
audience because the killer might be around and that then builds up suspense in
case the killer is behind him and danger is going to strike. The red light on
the elevator indicates blood and death, and the same music from the drain scene
is used with means the yellow eyed man could be in the building. The next cut
is back to the man and he is sitting in the office where he rings his wife. His
words ’’I might have to stay a while’’ could be implying he isn’t going to get
out and he killer is close.
The man then gets up
to make a cup of coffee and the sound that is used builds up tension and you
cannot see anything around him. He is being singled out. There is then a series
of cuts from when he gets up to make his coffee and as when he is returning to
his office, that keeps focusing onto the vent on the wall, on one of the final
cuts before he returns to the office the screw starts to loosen and falls out,
this makes the audience think that the killer is related to the vent and his
killing has something to do with it.
As he returns from
making his coffee and enters the room again, he is entering darkness and when he
shuts the door, there is the implication he is trapped. The man is then
attacked but you never see what is attacking the man which keeps us in
suspense. It builds up tension because the audience want to know whether it is
linked with the opening of the vent and the yellow eyes not. The attack is
filmed like this because it makes the audience wonder and they crave more to
know who assaulted him.
