2. This is the only female character in the whole
opening sequence so her portrayal of females is
very important. She is a white, and young
adolescent with blonde hair. Blondes in thriller films
are usually stereotyped for their innocence, such as
in Along Came a Spider, Megan who is kidnapped, is
blonde, and wears no makeup, which could be
argued as showing her purity and vulnerability.
There are some stereotypes of our protagonist, as
she has bright pink nails. This is due to the fact
that she’s stereotyped as a very “girly
girl”, because she is also wearing a considerable
amount of makeup. There are also stereotyped as a
typical teenager, as she flicks casually through a
magazine and is also watching the television, and
also seems very laid back due to her posture being
very slouched. This to the audience, would seem
quite alarming, as to why somebody would want to
kidnap her, because as of yet the audience have
not been given any reason why she would be the
target of a kidnap.
We chose to use a female of this age because
thriller and horror films tend to use young girls as
the “princess” in them.

3. Portraying gender of males in our opening sequence was
very different because our male’s face, as the villain isn’t
shown. This, along with the fact lighting is very dark adds
a very sinister feel to this character. We understand he is
a male, due to the fact that the audience will be under an
assumption the stalker of a teenage girl is more than likely
to be male, plus, the car the male is pictured in, it would
be assumed to be driven by a man. The male is pictured in
a dark hooded coat, black typically having negative
connotations such as danger, death.
The stereotype we have created for this male makes him
seem quite creepy, and having an unstable state of
mind, due to the fact he is sitting in his car with lots of
pictures of this female, and watching her on his computer.
Plus, in the car we can see bottle of alcohol, tablets, and
a lighter, so we can understand the sort of life he leads.
The likes of Jack Torrance in The Shining is also seen as
alcohol dependent, and whilst this isn’t explicitly indicated
in the opening sequence, we can understand through the
fact he carries it around such vices are very prominent in
his life.

4. Age in our opening sequence
The age of the male
is important because the
character is unknown to the
protagonist, Heather, is the
audience, because due to the
same age as our target
suspicious nature of the
audience, of 15-24 year
character we have tried to
olds, so she fits into this
conveyed, his age is not seen.
demographic. Heather’s age
We understand that the male
is indicated through her
is white, and of a slim
clothing, a lose jumper and
build, and due to his quick
jeans, she is not dressed in
actions when grabbing
a school uniform which gives
Heather this indicates he is
the audience that she
young rather than older.
either 16 years or older.