The Structure of Thriller Openings
There are many types of thriller openings for example: psychological thriller, action thriller, romance thriller, supernatural thriller, political thriller, narrative opening, credits over a blank screen, etc...
In film opening there are 3 basic structures which are followed: 
- a narrative opening with the titles running throughout
- a discrete title sequence
- titles over a blank screen, followed  by the narrative opening

A discrete title sequence: arlington road (1999) 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx_t8qiH1PE 
Arlington road is a clear example of a discrete title sequence because it has a lot of different shots, images and pictures of thriller which are not in the film and brings more tense in to the audience and leaves them un-answered, therefore this makes the audience want to carry on watching the film