My chosen sub-genre: Psychological thriller First of all, what is a psychological thriller? This is the quintessential sub-genre of thriller that is implemented into all the sub-thriller genres. It plays with the audiences minds and produces suspense in film because it reflects the main characters conflict being mental and emotional hindered. It shows the mentality of a character and the thought processes that they go through which makes this sub-genre so suspenseful.

There has been plenty recent and popular psychological thrillers which have been very successful and because of them, they have inspired me to make my own psychological thriller. Some popular films are:

Black Swan is a 2010 American

psychological thriller/horror film

directed by Darren Aronofsky and

starring Natalie Portman, Vincent

Cassel, and Mila Kunis.

Release date: December 3, 2010

(USA)

Director: Darren Aronofsky

The silence of lambs Release date: February 13, 1991

(USA)

Director: Jonathan Demme

Prequel: Red Dragon

Sequel: Hannibal

Awards: Academy Award for Best

Picture

The Manichist The Machinist is a 2004 Spanish

psychological thriller film directed by

Brad Anderson and written by Scott

Kosar. The film stars Christian Bale with

Jennifer Jason Leigh, John Sharian,

Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, and Michael

Ironside.

Initial release: January 18, 2004

(USA)

Director: Brad Anderson

Running time: 102 minutes Cine21

Screenplay: Scott Kosar

Budget: 5 million USD

I decided to do a psychological thriller because the thought process and ideas produced for

these popular films have really inspired me to make my own. I’ll try to recreate the

suspension and tension made, in these films and get the same type of reaction from

audiences as these producers did.

How is my thriller similar to others? Well first of all, like the other big films, I have included;

a consistent setting (household and neighbourhood) in my film just like the popular thrillers.

I have realised that plenty psychological thrillers are often based in the setting of a home or

hospital to create a scary realisation that even in your own home, you can never be to safe

and that there is danger lurking everywhere. This thought plays on the audiences/ viewers

mind (which is what a psychological thriller has to do). Another similarity is the use of

diegetic and non-diegetic music and sounds I’m using (leaves blowing outside /voices of

actors talking) which all add to the overall viewing experience of the film. By giving my

thriller sound, music and dialogue, it adds enjoyment to my film and is similar to thrillers

because they use sound, music and dialogue to create tension, conflict ad emotion. Another

similarity would be props and costume used (Mis-en-scene) as we dressed up

Desire(character playing the mum)in her mother’s clothes which were large on her –to

imply she was a mother at home in her comfortable clothes. We dressed her younger sister

and brother in pyjamas to create the assumption that they were getting ready for bed-

which would imply that it was in the evening .These little details which would could have

easily been overlooked, are very important because just by changing a few items of clothing,

we created a new time scale (evening) and instantly created a family scene (mother and her

children).

On the other hand, our thriller differs from others due to certain details such as our budget.

The mechanist –which was released in 2004-, had a budget of £5million, meaning the

producers had the time and money to produce and direct however they wanted, hire top

billing actors to act their film roles effectively, had top quality cameras and equipment(such

as HDI) and overall had a better chance at producing their film as opposed mine. In my

thriller, because I didn’t have qualified actors or actresses, I had to make do with what I

could get – meaning I missed out on accents which could have give my actors different class

of characters.

The target audience of many psychological thrillers are 18+. This is because they include a

lot of violence and some psychological issues which can be disturbing for many younger

viewers. There are usually warnings on the back of the DVD cover which states why it is

rated as it is e.g. contains extreme violence or sexual scenes

Our Target Audience: The audience which we are aiming to attract with our film is 15+

males or females who enjoy psychological thrillers. Our film opening will have a rating of

15+ because the movie will contain aspects of violence and a character with psychological

problems However, it will not be an 18+ because the content is not overly explicit.