Psychological Thrillers
Psychological Thrillers
Themes:
Psychological Thrillers frequently focus on characters minds by regularly having a first person narrative, allowing the audience further insight into the mind of their antagonist.
The idea of what is real and what is not is commonly used in psychological thrillers such as Shutter Island, Black Swan. This compels the audience to pay attention and interests them as it forces them into thinking so that when they decipher the story they feel a sense of achievement. However, in some films, many viewers are left confused rather than gratified such as Inception.
Mind - the mind is explored mainly via the first person narrative, revealing inner conflict and the characters emotional state.
Identity - characters often doubt who they are or what purpose they are serving so set out to discover themselves.
Perception - often a characters perception of the world is revealed to be different to that of other with a more sound state of mind.
Death - characters often have a fear and or fascination with death and the dead.
Elements used in Psychological Thrillers:
Mystery
Drama
Reality
Perception
Mind
Identity
Death
Conventions of a Psychological Thriller:
Time disorientation (flashbacks, premonitions, dreams ect)
Music (mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds, there may even be no music at times)
Fast-paced edits
Frequent changes of the camera angle
Quick cuts, montage editing and alteration of shot sizes and camera angles, as well as effective use of incidental music all add to making an amazing thriller.
Mirrors and stairs are a convention of thriller movies, lighting and especially the use of shadow can have an immense impact. Through the use of on linear narrative, the audience are sometimes made to feel sorry for the protagonist as they'are shown part of a characters past through the use of flashbacks. Psychological thrillers use this as it plays with the target audiences mind and makes them think about the action taking place.
