Seven Psychopaths begins with a seemingly random murder. It feels like it comes out of nowhere, but in fact, the opposite is true. The killer spends the film’s first few minutes just walking up to his victims from behind, and there is no doubt that something violent is about to happen. And yet, this violence still feels unexpected, hence my love of this sequence. Just as we think we know where the story is going, the film swerves. This is because the film is aware of its audience, and our expectations around its genre. By presenting a few familiar tropes, and then killing them off, the film creates an uncertain environment.
We are introduced to two men near the Hollywood sign. We learn that they are waiting to shoot a woman in the eyes. They introduce this idea, and it seems like that is where the scene is headed. It is the only outcome given to us as both the dialogue and staging create this expectation. We already know these gangsters because they are based on familiar tropes. It is as though they were taken right out of a Tarantino film, and as a result, we recognize what these men are capable of and assume they are about to do something hyper violent.
The shot composition also lends to this, as the men are facing towards the foreground at something we cannot see. This implies that there is a person behind us, one who will eventually move into view or be killed off-camera. We also expect this because the scene includes only one stream of movement. We see people walking from the foreground and into the background, but not the other way.
This expectation abruptly changes when the gangsters nearly shoot the wrong person. This leads to the first cut in the film, one which interrupts the conversation between the two men. After this moment, we move into two closer shots of the gangsters and then return to a slightly adjusted medium shot.
Everything is the same, except a new figure is moving from the background into the foreground. This reverses the scene’s initial set up, as now we can see something which the gangsters cannot.
Psychopath #1’s exaggerated entrance changes the rhythm of the scene and destroys our previous expectations of how it should perform. Killing the gangsters signals to the audience that the real movie is ready to begin. Whatever trope filled action film we were prepared for has just been killed off. It is only then that the music kicks in and we move to a different, seemingly unrelated, narrative. By rendering these characters irrelevant, the film violently readjusts our focus.
This opening scene introduces a complicated relationship between viewer, genre, and expectation. The film continues this pattern by referring to a genre, building towards a genre trope, and then refusing to go in that direction. It’s a trend throughout the film, and one which creates much of its humour. This practice implies that neither our expectations nor the character’s are guaranteed, and that anything can happen. This sequence is so effective because it establishes the film’s tone and this broader pattern, which is exactly what a fantastic opening should do. But, notably, it does so by contradicting what we initially assume is about to happen based on what we have seen in other films.