The Title Sequence That Assaults You Into Paying Attention

Most title sequences ask for your attention politely. They fade in, set a mood, maybe drop a few names over some tasteful typography.

Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void does not do this.

The opening two minutes of the 2009 film are a sustained assault — credits strobing at frequencies that border on physically dangerous, typefaces hurled at your eyeballs in rapid succession, colors that seem to be trying to burn through the screen. There’s no easing in. You’re either in or you’re not.

What’s Actually Happening

The sequence was designed by Tom Kan, who treated each credit as its own typographic event. There’s no unified visual language — every name gets a different font, weight, color, and timing. Some flash so fast they register subliminally. Others punch in slow enough to feel threatening.

The track is “Freak” by LFO. It matches perfectly.

What makes it work isn’t any single choice — it’s the relentlessness. Never repeating itself, never settling. By the end your nervous system is recalibrated and you’re ready for whatever comes next.

The Film

Oscar is an American drug dealer in Tokyo. He gets killed early. The next three hours follow his disembodied spirit drifting over the city, watching the aftermath. Shot entirely in first-person — not action-movie first-person, but literally from inside a skull. When he dies, the camera keeps going. It’s exhausting in the best way.

The title sequence is a warning. It’s telling you exactly what kind of film this is going to be.

The Design Thing

Every typeface is different, but they all flash. That’s the whole system. One rule, brutal in execution — and it works because it never breaks. There’s something worth stealing there: pick a constraint and commit to it completely.