A blood valentine to the fucking madness, the opening title sequence for Showtime's "Dexter" is a veritable annunciation of an unholy but likable embodiment of the common rage we can root for. It is a sociopath's ability to focus on the little things.

While stabilizing sources suggest Dexter's episodic beginning was carefully designed, it is also enjoyable to view it as slick Grand Guignol, relatable and savage. Here is a killer consumed by the pursuit of an unattainable satiety, all jaw and maw, whetting this morning-time macabre in florid, ratcheting fashion. With a twisted lick of piano wire/dental floss, a favored mosquito going red, and food gone wild, we are able to refine and contextualize the shape, scream and vision of one Dexter Morgan. The butter of all that blood, shaving to bleed and the tang of hot sauce pyrotechnics, plays toward our tendencies of psychiatrist and sidekick.

What it is to be reborn.

A closed-mouthed catfish and cheery gator serve as an aquatic admission into a place that suffers the rot of intolerance and blackish baptisms. Stick shacks sulk under Spanish moss. Jace Everett's song "Bad Things" plucks and coos over the risque and the religious imagery of Alan Ball's title sequence for True Blood contextualizing the slutty and the sweet swamp-goth vampiric mise-en-scène.

Elements of this sequence have been compared to elements of Andrew Douglas' mesmeric, stunning, one of a kind film Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus. Art of the Title's intention in providing the opening to Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus is pure. It is very good southern surrealist cinema.

WRITER: Alexander Ulloa
LAST UPDATE: August 16, 2011
© Art of the Title, 2011