Then the non-diegetic sound fades out, but as the diegetic sound creeps in, it mixes with the added sounds and suggests something is wrong. As the children play in a city park, the strange flowers are blooming everywhere. From a long shot a suspicious looking priest stares at the children while swinging on a swing set, he is an odd character, showing no emotion as the swing, very loudly, creaks back and forth. The diegetic sound is exaggerated this sound creates tension, and unease.
We are then introduced to the character of Elizabeth Driscoll, played by Brooke Adams, who picks one of the mysterious flowers and takes it home. As she walks home the camera is at a low angle showing the rain heavily falling from the sky. When she gets inside, her sports obsessed boyfriend Geoffrey, played by Art Hindle, is laid on the couch, with very low key lighting, but his attention is focused on the game on TV. The dialogue is off camera, and they are not talking face to face. This shows that maybe their relationship was not at its best, as he was more interested in what was on the television than what she was saying. She then studies very closely the strange flower she had found before and places it in a small cup filled with water.
Meanwhile, health inspector Mathew Bennell, played by Donald Sutherland is inspecting the kitchen of a French restaurant. When he enters the restaurant kitchen he is greeted with a close-up of the manager’s face, who is smiling broadly. Although he gets into an argument over the hygiene with the manager, his expression changes quickly, from a smile to a scowl. The camera is tracking Matthew‘s movements. He is shown to be quite strict with his job and takes it very seriously. As he leaves, the camera zooms in on one of the kitchen staff smoking, and his windshield has been cracked with a bottle, but Matthew brushes it off his shoulder as though it happens regularly and he is used to it. The camera then zooms out as the car swiftly drives off. Later Mathew calls Elizabeth from work. The phone call conversation makes it clear that they are good friends, and know each other well. We are then informed that Elizabeth works as a lab technician at the health department, where Matthew also works. As Mathew is cutting up a news extract, the camera slowly zooms out to reveal a newspaper headline which reads, "Webs shroud the Bay Area". This is focused on and suggests that the headline maybe significant to the development of the plot.
The scene is then cut and opens as Elizabeth and Geoffrey are going to sleep. The lighting is very dark and we see she has placed the flower in a vase next to Geoffrey's side of the bed. As they both drift off to sleep, the camera focuses on the flower, as non diegetic eerie music plays in the background, the atmosphere is tense and the flower looks very enigmatic, and arouses suspicion. The scene is then cut abruptly, and you hear the sudden loud ringing of the alarm clock, where Elizabeth wakes to find Geoffrey dressed in a suit and sweeping up the glass of the vase the flower was in. This is very unusual, as Geoffrey was earlier portrayed as a person who loved sports and he then informs Elizabeth that he has given away his tickets to a football game as he would instead be busy all night at a business meeting. Geoffrey is emotionless when he speaks to his girlfriend, which is very strange. This makes the audience feel distant from the character of Geoffrey, as he is like a hollow box with no emotion or feelings, which makes it hard for the audience to connect with him.
He then leaves for work, where the camera shot is changed to the point of view of Elizabeth as she watches him leave from the bedroom window. The diegetic sounds are yet again exaggerated creating a tense atmosphere as Geoffrey takes out the rubbish bin to the garbage truck. The camera makes a point of the fact that he has taken the rubbish out, which suggests that it is strange and weird thing, and maybe significant in the rest of the film. Elizabeth is shown as confused by what just happened, which shows that Elizabeth has noticed something is wrong with Geoffrey’s character.
Elizabeth then sees her friend Mathew she tells him, "Geoffrey is not Geoffrey." This shows that she has noticed the significant change in her boyfriend, and she starts to feel paranoid. Mathew tries to comfort her, and invites her to a book party, as his psychiatrist friend David Kibner, played by Lenord Nimoy, will be making an appearance. He maybe thinks that if she sees a psychiatrist, she might feel better, as at first she is shown as just being paranoid. This shows that Matthew has feelings for Elizabeth and he cares for her.
Later that day, before the party, Mathew has an odd experience when his dry cleaner tells him, "My wife is not my wife." This is where the film starts developing a paranoid mood, and as Matthew backs out of the dry cleaners, the camera follows where he is looking in a point of view shot as he stares back at wife of the dry cleaner, who is looking very strange. This shows Matthew as being paranoid too. This is when Mathew and Elizabeth notice strangers staring at them, as though they are different and alienated to everyone else. In the first 25 minutes of the film, a sense of paranoia and loss of control has been developed. Which gives the audience a sense of suspicion and the feeling that they can not work out what is going on. This is all part of the slow reveal that is cleverly shown throughout the film, as the film progresses you realise how everything links into one another, and shows how you can't truly trust people.