Thriller (1973)
Brian Clemens' anthology of feature-length suspense plays, sold to America as a late-night staple.
Thriller (1973) opens with a main title sequence of 21 seconds.
At 21 seconds, it opens well under the 50-second median for horror sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on ITV in 1973, when The Sooty Show, The Big Match and Rainbow were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 1
21sFan upload.
More horror opening titles from the 1970s
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A reporter whistling in a car park, and a premise established in twenty-six seconds — the direct ancestor of The X-Files, as Chris Carter has said repeatedly.
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1 sequenceTales of the Unexpected
A dancing silhouette, a spinning roulette wheel and Ron Grainer's theme — an anthology opening far more unsettling than most of the stories that follow it.
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1 sequenceCircle of Fear
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Downton Abbey
A dog's back, a bell board and a house — thirty-one seconds establishing an entire social order without showing a single face.
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Mr. Bean
A man dropped from the sky in a spotlight while a choir sings about him in Latin, every week, for a character who never explains himself.
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Midsomer Murders
A theremin over English villages — the single most incongruous pairing of instrument and setting in television, and the reason the show is recognisable in four notes.
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