Of course, one is always fighting the struggle between being edgy and not going too far so as to turn off the reader. Let me give you an example. I just wrote an opening scene where my female anti-heroine disguises a murder as a kinky sex-scene gone wrong. Visually, imho, it really works to set the tone of the piece, and more importantly it fits narratively and establishes how smart, inventive, ruthless and powerful my protagonist is in this world. Otoh, despite movies like Basic Instinct and even assuming that it could be shot "tastefully", I'm still uncertain about the scene because it feels almost like some perverted sex fantasy and therefore could very well come across as gratuitous. Certainly, if the genders in this scene were reversed, I almost certainly wouldn't go there. Scott, what would be your advice on something like that?

Pliny, as far as I can tell, we are in a dark, edgy space right now in terms of a lot of the content Hollywood is buying and producing nowadays, so your opening may be a plus. The main thing as far as I would be concerned is character [as always]. Does the opening reflect on the characters involved and if so, how? Is this revelation important? Is it tied to the plot? If it's just gratuitous, an attempt to jump start a story with a titillating open, it could very well come across like that and undercut your efforts. You mention Basic Instinct. The opening scene jump-starts the story and grabs reader's attention, but also is tied to the plot, reveals something essential about Catherine Tramell, brings Nick [the cop] into the story and as a result intersects him with her. So as salacious as the scene is, it's not gratuitous, but essential to the plot and tied to Catherine's character. When in doubt, always check with your characters and how scenes serve them. That's my motto and I'm sticking to it!

Scott, thanks for this. In terms of establishing character and tone, the opening scene does do all the right things (important things about my protagonist are revealed), so from that perspective I'm happy with it. otoh, it's just that there are some kinds of scenes that, if not written just right, loudly scream "The writer is a total noob!", and I was concerned that this might be one of those kinds of scene.