- Psychological thriller is a sub-genre of the brand ranged thriller and horror genres. However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, in addition to the typical traits of the thriller genre.
Themes
- Reality - the quality of being real. Characters often try to determine what is true and what is not within the narrative
- Perception - a person's own interpretation of the world around him through his senses. Often characters misperceive the world around them or their perceptions are altered by outside factors within the narrative
- Mind - the human consciousness; the location for personality, thought, reason, memory, intelligence and emotion. The mind is often used as a location for narrative conflict, where characters battle their own minds to reach a new level of understanding or perception.
- Existence/Purpose - the object for which something exists; an aim or a goal humans strive towards to understand their reason for existence. Characters often try to discover what their purpose is in their lives and the narrative's conflict often is a way for the characters to discover their purpose
- Identity - the definition of one's self. Characters often are confused about or doubt who they are and try to discover their true identity
- Death - the cessation of life. Characters either fear or have a fascination with death
Mise-En-Scene
- Shadows and low key lighting - these things are a typical convention of a psychological thriller, they are used to add tension into the scene, and in some cases are used to represent the inner darkness within the character
- Props - mirrors are commonly used in psychological thrillers to portray the use of reflections of a characters inner self as well as representing the dark side of a character
- Costumes - most commonly, the villains wear casual/smart clothes fitting in with the theory we have came to that most psychological thrillers are set in an urban and modern setting
- Location - location is an important element in a psychological thriller, in the majority of the openings we have watched they are set in modern and urban settings, the countryside is not often used as it could be confused with horror.
Sound
- Most commonly in psychological thrillers the music used is very eerie and tense, they use this to build up tension in a scene or create shock within an audience
Camera Movement
- Camera movements are an important factor in a psychological thriller. Quick camera movements are made during most psychological thrillers to build tension and panic within the scene which then makes the audience feel the same emotions as the character.
Editing
- Obtrusive and montage editing is used frequently in psychological thrillers to highlight the feelings and emotions of suspense and tension within a scene, this is mostly used in important scenes
- Flashbacks - this is a typical convention of a psychological thriller because it shows what has previously happened to give the audience insight in to the characters past or to highlight an important message that would not usually fit into the scene, this could be to show the audience why the character is how they are.
- Black and white coloring is used in psychological thrillers to enhance the effectiveness of shadows
No comments:
Post a Comment