Opening sequence

In the opening credits you see short clips of John Doe and his work that he does in preparation to the movie and his conquest to murder seven people guilty of the seven deadly sins.

The image with the razor shows John Doe cutting off the skin on his fingers which later links to the film.

The image of writing shows John Doe writing in a diary which he keeps allowing the detectives to find him.

The fact that we are given clues at the beginning of the film is a typical convention to a thriller as it allows us (the audience) to unravel his intentions as the film progresses. This is disorientating to the audience however the audience feels a sense of accomplishment when they figure out exactly what is going on.

The sound is an introduction to the film which is very disorientating at first and may be mistaken for the sound on blurred out screams (from women in particular) this conforms to typical conventions of a thriller as we are left not knowing exactly what is going on and guessing what could happen next. It ties in well with the visual elements of the opening sequence as the opening shows us a character which we are completely unaware of until approx. three quarters of the way through the film where he atypically hands himself in to the police. Also at the ‘end’ of the opening sequence the first words are spoken saying, ‘you’ve got me closer to god’ which also depicts about the intentions of John Doe and how he feels that he is serving god by killing people guilty of one of the seven deadly sins (as explained later in the movie when he is in the car with the detectives).