RESEARCH IN GENRE
(PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER)
Conventions of psychological thrillers:
•
Colours: normally dark, dull, unsaturated colours. This
is done to emphasis the tensions and illusion of the film. It’s also used to
sometimes represent the characters as dark and mysterious. Conventional colours
would be grey or black, and these colours connote death (people in mourning),
mysteriousness, and can also connote the power the antagonist seeks over their
victim.
•
Images
(particular scenes):
sometimes you see a killer looking tired and fatigued with baggy eyes and a
raged look in general. Normally the antagonist is seeking revenge on somebody
that has done something to them. The antagonist normally targets the protagonist’s
family to use as ransom to get what they want. The antagonists commonly find
themselves washing their hands or cleaning themselves.
•
Locations: woods, cellars, abandoned houses, occasionally
regular day-to-day places. However normally, the locations chosen are isolated
and deserted places. This is done to suggest that nobody can help the victims
of whatever is happening to the victims. This may also be done to represent the
antagonist as lonely, private and enigmatic.
•
Props: knives,
guns, torture equipment, mobile phones to use as they blackmail their victims.
Commonly use to make the actions scene more violent and graphic. Using weapons
make it easier to use blood in the scenes, which highlight the gruesomeness of
the antagonists.
•
Costumes: the typical costumes wouldn’t be anything
different than the everyday costumes you would see in the street. This is
because the antagonists want to make themselves seem normal as if they aren’t
doing anything wrong.
•
Music: the sounds and music during psychological
thriller s normally have slow beginnings and make the scene feel mysterious and
illusive. However, half way through the movie, more commonly during the action
parts, the tempo of the sounds pick up and become more dramatic to build up
tension in the audiences mind and body.
Psychological thrillers commonly have
asynchronous sounds (music or sounds that aren’t in sync with the visuals).
This is used to almost make the audience feel confused and disoriented, to
represent how the actors inside the film are feeling as well. This engages the
audience more due to the fact that it gives them a better experience of the
film as if they are witness what is happening in real life.
This
asynchronous music is often used as non-diegetic music, instead of diegetic.
Non-diegetic music is sounds that can be heard by the audience but the
characters in the film, in contrast to diegetic music, which are sounds that
can be heard by the characters inside the film as well. Non-diegetic music is
used to emphasis what the characters are feeling inside, rather than what they
can actually hear in the film. The audience get more of an understanding as to
how they are feeling because the music builds tension.
•
Characters:
in conventional psychological thrillers, there is a common use of binary
opposites. Theorist Claude Levi Strauss believes that good stories have
conflict driven by two characters who are completely opposite (binary
opposites) e.g. good vs. bad, men vs. women, younger vs. old. This applies to psychological thriller, in a
way that conventionally, the protagonist is a young sweet and innocent female
who is targeted by an older, evil, mentally twisted male (antagonists).
However, some psychological thrillers challenge these stereotypical
representations. A good example of this would be the 2014 production of Gone
Girl.
•
Another
conventional character you would find in psychological thrillers is a directive
or a crime solver. This character conventionally plays the role of the
protagonists and goes against the antagonist. This audience normally is on the
side of this character and comes out on
top at the end of the film. "saves the day"
Conventional actors/ production companies/
directors: In some film
genres, there conventions actors and directors. For example, Jack Black is
commonly known for featuring in comedy film, as well as Christian Bale being
known for appearing in action films. In the psychological genre, there are not
commonly known actors who are only known for being in this specific genre.
However, the are certain production companies and directors who have made a
name for themselves in this genre. Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most famous
directors in this genre due to his direction of the 1960 movie Psycho.
Another conventional director in the psychological thriller genre would be
David Fincher. He is commonly known for his production of the 2000 film Se7en,
and more recently Gone Girl. Along with David Fincher and Alfre Hitchcock,
James Wan would because a well known director in this genre of film, as he was
the director of the well know film franchise Saw.
Conventional production companies of psychological thrillers would
include the production company of Saw, Twisted Pictures. There were many
different Saw films, and over the years since 2003, they have built a
reputation for being associated with the film, hence why all audiences
automatically think of the production company being a psychological thriller
production company. Another convention company would be Hammer Film
Productions, due to their recent productions of The Woman in Black
and The Quiet Ones.
Themes tackled in psychological thrillers:
•
Love: love is commonly featured in psychological
thrillers. The elements of love is normally used as an excuse/ reason for the
antagonist to be doing what they are doing. For example, the male antagonist
may kidnap a woman, due to the fact that he is in love with her and want her to
himself.
•
Revenge: revenge can also be used as an excuse.
Often, the antagonist has had a bad past experience, and seeks revenge on
either a specific person, or maybe society in general. This is present in the Saw
franchise, where's the antagonist punishes those who have done bad things to
other people in society.
•
Mental health: this is a key the,e
tackled in most psychological thrillers. The mental health of the antagonist is
conventionally called into question , and commonly the reason for conflict in
this genre. Any character in these type of films who has a mental health
problem, is normally the cause of any dilemmas and situation.
Reasons why audiences enjoy psychological thrillers:
Audiences enjoy psychological thrillers for many different reasons.
Theorist Steve Neale came up with a
theory that audience enjoy specific genres due to the repetition of
differentiation of the film. Neale suggests that audiences enjoy certain genres
due to the fact that they either repeat the conventional elements of the genre,
or that that the film tries to differentiate from the conventional elements.
This could link to why audiences enjoy psychological thrillers. They could
enjoy it because they like to see the classic plot that is conventionally found
in that genre and want to see a clear protagonist (in this case a victim) and
and antagonist (the "psycho"/ bad guy). On the other hand, they could
enjoy watching psychological thrillers because they enjoy seeing various
different versions of different plots and stories.
According to Blumber and Katz's Uses and Gratifications Theory,
audiences use media text (watch films) for different needs. This different
needs are; escape (and escape from their normal lives), entertainment,
education and information, social interaction (something that'll help them
communicate with others) and self actualisation (to the individual find there
personality). In some cases in the film industry, the production and direction of the film is based on true
stories and aren't a made up plot. This could link to the audience watching
psychological thrillers to achieve information and education. Audiences may
want to find out what real people do and find out real stories that occur in
the world, as well as achieving entertainment.
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