Psychological thriller research

By Jake Fleetwood

Iconography in physiological thrillers.

• Knifes - In physiological thrillers knifes are often shown as a way to kill someone, they have other links to blood, pain and brutality. A grate example of knifes in killers are from Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller

‘psycho’. No matter what genre the film when the audience see a knife it automatically means that 99% of the time someone is going to be killed, this makes the audience want to carry on watching as it

draws them into the film.

• Shadows/silhouettes - When the audience see a shadow or silhouette within a physiological thriller in brings in the sense of mystery. The use of a shadow/silhouette in a thriller is to build up tension of fear within the audience. Normally it’s when a antagonist is encroaching up on someone or are watching someone normally form somewhere they’re not supposed to be, their identity is also hidden until the end of the film. They also tell the viewers that something isn't right within the film. The protagonist also normally keeps seeing the shadow or silhouette which tells that character something isn't right. A classical example of the se of this is one of the many Sherlock Holmes films.

• Street lamps - These are only used in night scenes obviously, we normally see the protagonist standing in the light to signify that darkness is all around them. The antagonist can also hide in the shadows cast from the light of the streetlamp so it works with good and bad in films. As the viewers we normally see a street lamp at the end of the alleyway where something bad has just happened. They can also be used as a good establishing shot; be would know they’re in a city and then the camera would then crane up the side of a building to show the inside of a room, or would pan around to the road and normally see a car. A example of street lamps is in vanishing on 7th street.

• Woods - This is one of the best locations for any type of thriller, they give the film a sense of lost and some characters are mentally unstable and then others are killers and this is where they put their bodies. Woods also show characters are isolated from the world and communication with any people, the isolated location also gives off the impression that whoever is in the shot is venerable and in some films they’ll be a house in the lonely woods that always turns out to be the antagonists. In a film called ‘the cabin in woods’ it’s near enough all set in a set of woods.

Storylines in psychological thrillers.

All thrillers are built around, ‘what will happen next?, anticipation and suspense. The whole idea of a thriller is to keep the viewer watching on the edge of their seat at all times. The

normal story line is the protagonist of the whole film has a massive problem - normally this is an escape, mission or mystery. The tension which has been building throughout the whole film, is leading up to a monumental climax. Examples of classic thrillers are, ‘The Great

Escape’,’The silence of the Lambs’ and ‘North by Northwest’.

The whole genre of ‘Thriller’ has different parts to it known as Sub-Genres. Some of these include, Psychological Thriller, Action Thriller, Crime Thriller and Science Fiction Thriller are

just some Sub Genres.

Psychological Thriller is what my 2 minute film is based around, and it’s when a normal thriller film, gets drama and mystery added to it. There is a huge suspense building in a psychological

thriller right from the start although this is all in the viewers mind. The protagonist in a psychological thriller has to trust themselves to think the situation through mentally. Because of what happens in psychological thrillers and the iconography thats thought of it is closely

related to the horror genre. Examples of psychological films are, ‘Rear Window, Taxi Driver and Memento’.

Characters in psychological thrillers.

In psychological thrillers characters who are normally the protagonist have to rely on the mental sources around them to solve the problem that their facing,

although this often ends up them having battles with them selfs over what their thinking. This causes them to doubt themselves and what their thinking like

what’s real and whats not, what they’re doing, what they have got to do. They don't recognise this but they often just go round and round in circles. Whilst

working out how to solve the problem at hand they experience things like, death of themselves or others making it very complex to understand.

We also have characters like old detectives that know every trick in the book or a serial killer/mass murderer. These type of characters are found to just be chasing

the antagonist, who is like the protagonist going round and round in circles. Examples of these are the two detectives in ‘Se7en’, although at opposite end of

the pole we have Robert De Niro playing a unstable war veteran.

There are many types of themes running through psychological thrillers; reality, perception, mind, existence, identity and death. Depending what theme is the strongest, different characters would act in different ways. In some cases their would be characters like detectives and killers and in others they’ll be a family

man and a psychopath. It all depends what theme is in the psychological thriller.

Setting and music in psychological thrillers.

Setting - When a director is shooting a psychological thriller, one of the most difficult decisions he/she would have to make is what type of setting will. The film should have all different types of locations and in my first 2 minutes, I will even show 2 or 3 locations. In a

psychological thriller the setting could be in numerous places like a warehouse on the outskirts of a big city or could be right in the city itself, another option is to go suburban and shoot the film on a housing estate. You could go in the complete opposite direction and shoot

scenes in a wood and they may even be a cabin in the wood where a antagonist lives.

Music - Music should be carefully chosen for a psychological thriller, a really good choice and one that is often used and could be classed as a cliché is the sound that fades in to build

tension, because the sound grows so does the tension, meaning the reader will want to read on.