Conventions of a psychological thriller

Titles

• Over ImageIn film such as Cape fearand Misery the title of the film and credits appearOn image.

• Over ColourIn films such as Fatalattraction, Memento andAmerican Psycho, the titleof the film and the creditsappear on either black orwhite background.

One other type of titles that I found from my

research was that there aren’t any titles at the beginning of the film.

The film started with no titles at all. E.g. The Ring and se7en start

with no titles.

Production and finance

• From my research I found that all the film that I have looked at with the genre of psychological thriller. They all are financed by American film studios.

• Studios such as New Market, Paramount, Lion Gates films, Universal Studios, New Line Cinema and DreamWorks have all spent millions of pounds in financing films which deal with genres of horror and psychological thrillers.

Locations

The Rings: The film is set in a city in America. In the house of the two

teenage girls. When the house appears on screen, the camera slowly zooms into

the window. The window is the eye of the house in which the camera goes into it. By this the genre of the film is clear,

as the window is the eye which goes into the mind.. American psycho:

The film is also set in a city in America.

The opening scene takes place in a posh restaurant and then

moves into the villain’s house.

Memento: The film is set in a city in America. The film

starts with the leading character being inside the

building of where the murder takes place. And

them moves to his house.

Cape fear: The film is set in a city in America, where we see a building of a jail

to start with. However the camera then uses a jump cut to focus on a house where most of the film

takes place.

Se7en: The film is set in a city in America. In this

film we start with a man who is in his house. And

then we move on to another house where a

murder takes place.

Fatal Attraction: the film is also set in a city in America in which the

opening scene also starts with the entrance of a

house. The camera focuses on a window

which is the zooms in to the inside of the house.

• The miss-en-scene that has been used throughout the films that I have seen is as follows:

• Costumes: The costumes that the villain usually wears is a smart suit or jeans and shirts. E.g. In American Psycho the villain Patrick is always dressed smartly in a suit. And in Cape fear the villain is always dressed in jeans and shirt. The villain is mainly a white man. Such as in American Psycho, Cape fear, Se7en. However, in films such as Fatal Attraction, Misery, The Ring the villain are all females.

• Props/Colour: Props that have been used in the opening of my 6 films that I have researched on are, The use of white colours of objects and costumes to help identify the victims or the hero. For e.g. In Fatal Attraction all the innocent characters are wearing white clothing and the colour of their walls and objects such as the lamp, the table are all white. Similarly in The Rings the victims are also wearing white clothing. The colour of their walls and their bed is all white.

Miss-en-scene

• In the opening of my 5 films I have notice that all the films start with Non-Digetic sound. All use sinister music in the background.

• In American psycho, Cape fear, Memento, Se7en, Fatal Attraction all use sinister music. However, in The Rings there is only digetic sound at the beginning. There is only dialogue used.

SOUND