What is a thriller?
The thriller genre often is a style of film that sets a heavy emphasis on tension and feelings of excitement, anxiety and surprise. Thrillers often use suspenseful music, pathetic fallacy (where mood is conveyed through the surroundings), chase sequences and feelings of isolation and/or dread. A good example of suspenseful music done well is the film Psycho. The music (composed by Bernard Herrmann) is filled with tension and suspense and is elevated by the constant sting motif that permeates throughout. A good example of a chase
sequence would be in the psychological thriller The Shining
when Jack chases Wendy.
Thriller sub-genres:
Crime thrillers are often based around a criminal pursuit where a detective is looking to find the perpetrator of a crime. The films often show the aftermaths of killings rather than showing them straight up and they often rely on the mystery to generate suspense. There is also often a buddy cop dynamic of brain/brawn with the protagonists.
Psychological thrillers are often emphasises the unstable mental state of a character. They are often from the perspective of someone with a distorted world view. There are prevalent themes of vulnerability throughout which are often conveyed through imagery like pathetic fallacy.
Spy/Action thrillers often feature an ex-cop male protagonist who accidentally stumbles into a plot from a villain poised on world domination. The film will often disregard death and show police as pathetic in favour of the protagonist who is shown as exceedingly strong.
Erotic thrillers often feature the protagonist committing adultery with one of the partners coming after them. The antagonist and protagonist can be either gender and the films use most typical thriller techniques. There are often families that are threatened by the antagonist.
Contained thrillers often will feature the protagonist being literally trapped in an enclosed space by the antagonist. There will often be themes of isolation and voyeurism throughout. Set that the protagonist is in will literally be an enclosed space.
Conspiracy thrillers often feature a plot where the protagonist uncovers a government secret and is hunted down so the secret is prevented from coming out. There are also themes of isolation although they are conveyed through the entire world being out to get the protagonist.
Medical thrillers often feature a disease outbreak that has wiped out much of humanity. The protagonist is one of the last people left and will have to face the apocalyptic world. There are themes of isolation here too.
Thriller opening analysis:
The Net:
Psycho:
Thriller reviews:
Perfect Blue:
Perfect Blue (1997) is an animated Psychological Thriller directed by the late Satoshi Kon. The film is The plot follows Mima, a Japanese pop idol who quit to pursue an acting career and focuses on the backlash of the fans and the need to keep her image. The film contains themes of voyeurism and the problems it causes towards the degradation of the human psyche. The degradation of Mima’s mind is shown through the gradual deconstruction of the timeline of events throughout the film. One example of this is when Mima is supposedly hit by a truck but then the shot fades to her waking up in her home. Through the abnormal plot flow, Kon creates an unreliable narrator in Mimi leading the audience to speculate on who really commits the atrocities in the film throughout watching. The film is a perfect example of a psychological thriller as it balances tension with the point of view of someone going through a mental breakdown. The film even inspired classics in the genre like Requiem for a Dream where some shots are directly referenced. The first five minutes feature many astonishing match cuts that create a sense of speed even in mundane tasks like grocery shopping which help to prepare the audience for the psychological tension later on in the film.
Joker:
Joker (2019) is a Psychological Thriller directed by Todd Phillips. It features the titular Joker (real name Arthur Fleck and played by Joaquin Phoenix) and his descent into madness. While taking place in DC Comics’ Batman universe, it breaks the genre norm of comic book movies to serve something less triumphant and more eyeopening. While the film contains scenes of realistic gore and blood, they are very scarce and only act as either plot points or to highlight Joker’s descent into madness. The film makes the viewer question whether we are watching it from the point of view of the protagonist or the antagonist through different plot points that help to justify or demonise Arthur Fleck’s actions. There are also points where it is revealed that certain plot points are imagined by Fleck which helps to create the impression that the Joker is an unreliable narrator. It takes place in the early 1980s and this is shown through the stylisation that Todd Philips uses for the setting, costume and props. It fits the conventions of Psychological Thriller in the sense that it has an unreliable narrator and highlights the degradation of the protagonist’s mental state.
Get Out:
Get Out (2017) is a Psychological Conspiracy Thriller directed by Jordan Peele. It features Chris (played by Daniel Kaluuya) visiting his girlfriend’s white upper-class parents and the ensuing events. The film is a political allegory for racism and cultural appropriation which it conveys through the tension it builds and the scenes of action throughout. Being that the film is slightly satirical in its approach, the subgenre of thriller it falls into is quite ambiguous. It blends elements of psychological and conspiracy thrillers with the protagonist (Chris) becoming isolated and hunted upon discovering the truth of the family while becoming psychologically tormented by the things occurring around him. As standard for the thriller genre, there is very little killing and murder within the film. What is seen either helps towards the plot or fits into the political allegory Peele is telling.
Thriller Opening Pre-Production
From my research on thrillers, I have learned that it is a genre focused on tension and suspense and playing with the audience's expectations. There are often constant changes in the atmosphere of the film which is explained by the name "thriller". The opening scene in a film often has to be exiting or just interesting enough to draw in the viewer in the first moments of the film. It should also give a feel for the rest of the film by introducing the characters, their motives and personalities. In order to produce a successful thriller opening, we will first need to start planning story and characters. Once some ideas are made, it would be useful to reflect on thriller conventions and make sure the ideas are reflective of these. A brief script/plan for the opening should be written up to plan out the scene. Next, props, costume and equipment should be planned out for the scene along with a risk assessment to make sure everything goes ahead without problems. Now the final storyboards and script should be finished up ready for the production stage. Any actors should also be planned and recruited for production.
Thriller Convention Essay
In this essay, I intend to compare and contrast the narrative and stylistic codes and conventions of both ‘The Net’ and ‘Perfect Blue’. Through my research of the thriller genre, I have found that there is often a large focus on tension and the emotions that can be evoked from different scenes. The target audience for thriller films is often the young adult demographic although studies from Movio have suggested there is a growing majority of moviegoers over the age of 50 in the thriller genre. ‘The Net’ is rated as a 12 on the BBFC while ‘Perfect Blue’ is rated 18 due to its graphic imagery and topics. For this essay, I will analyse the ending chase scenes from both movies, the intro scenes to both films, the train scene from ‘Perfect Blue’ and the airport carpark scene from ‘The Net’.
The thriller genre often features themes of isolation and identity loss. Both ‘The Net’ and ‘Perfect Blue’ support this convention as both main characters begin to lose self-being and identity while also beginning to lose connection with others. In ‘The Net’, after Angela (Sandra Bullock) finds out her name has been changed to Ruth Marx without her knowledge, we see a long shot of her standing in an airport car park with many empty cars around her. The placement of empty cars around her could represent how she has become trapped in society yet is isolated by the lack of people around her. The use of a long shot emphasises her isolation as the cars around her are empty. In ‘Perfect Blue’ on the other hand, Mima starts to feel trapped by her past idol self and feels like she is the fake her. The appearance of phantom Mima begins to signify her growing isolation with her own identity. The two shot of her looking into her reflection and seeing the former idol version of herself could connote that she feels separated from her own identity now that her innocence and purity has been taken from her. Both films explore how the loss of one’s identity can make them isolated and vulnerable, the two being the biggest emotions expressed in thriller movies.
Another common convention in the thriller genre is the use of a female protagonist and how it twists the typical damsel in distress narrative compared to horror films. Both ‘The Net’ and ‘Perfect Blue’ support this convention by featuring female protagonists who are unconventional compared to traditional depictions of women. In ‘The Net’, we first see Angela in an establishing shot of her house that tracks and zooms into her room. It then cuts to her testing a video game with her multitude of computers around her and a messy desk with leftover cups on. The audience may connote that she breaks gender convention by fitting into the traditionally male stereotype of being a computer expert/hacker which is probably the dominant reading. In ‘Perfect Blue’, the film opens on a scene of Mima performing her last concert as an Idol with quick match cuts to her going about her normal life. These match cuts juxtapose her two personas: the one of her public idol self and the one of her personal one which humanises her and makes any stereotypes attributed to her character act as just part of her stage performance. Both films centre around female characters furthering the convention of thrillers having female protagonists.
‘The Net’ is a conspiracy thriller which means it focuses more on the effects of large conspiracies against characters while psychological thrillers like ‘Perfect Blue’ are often focused on character studies and the destabilisation of a person’s psyche. In ‘The Net’, a terrorist hacker group known as The Praetorians install a gateway into a widespread anti-virus and use it to gain access to government records and change Angela’s personal details. This eventually leads to numerous pursuits from the police like the one she has with highway police. The scene begins with a mid-shot of Angela driving with a quick jump cut to a close up of the car mirror, showing the police behind her as suspenseful non-diegetic string music plays over the scene. The view may connote that Angela is a fugitive at this point as the tension builds just from Angela looking at the police car. One of the most iconic and genre reflective scenes in ‘Perfect Blue’ is the bath scene. There is complete silence throughout the scene, which starts on a close-up of a falsified blog post about Mima. It cuts to a long shot of a messy room, with clothes and objects thrown around which conveys that Mima has mentally broken down. It then cuts to a top-down shot of Mima in a fetal position in a bathtub full of water which cuts to a close-up shot of her face submerged in water which permeates for a few seconds until she screams under the water. This further symbolises that she has become helpless against her own psyche and just lets it consume her like the water is. Both help support the overall themes that persist in their subgenres through their use of suspense and imagery although ‘The Net’ focuses on physical conflict while ‘Perfect Blue’ focuses on mental conflict.
Voyeurism is a concept explored in the thriller genre, often critically. ‘Perfect Blue’ tackles voyeurism through the character of Me-Mania, a deranged, obsessive fan of Mima’s who constantly stalks her. His ever-present gaze on Mima even outside of her work as an idol not only creates unease in the audience but also begins to cause some of Mima’s breakdowns. There are also the recurring fan characters that act as they see Mima and her actions as something to review and objectify rather than see her as a fellow human being with emotions. The perverse representations that Mima is forced contractually to serve also symbolise her loss of innocence to satisfy the male gaze and become a “mature” actor. ‘The Net’ slightly tackles voyeurism in the sense that Angela is constantly watched by Jack. His ever-increasing and aggressive presence in her attempts to live normally end up pushing her into constant running and hiding as she is constantly in his grasp. These themes are light and barely tackle the sexual connotations of voyeurism. While ‘Perfect Blue’ has voyeurism as a central and key theme in how the other characters perceive and sexualise Mima as commonplace in thrillers, ‘The Net’ barely tackles the theme and instead focuses primarily on the isolation from society Angela faces.
Ending chase scenes are a staple of the thriller genre and are often used to release all the dramatic tension at once. ‘Perfect Blue’ uses the chase not only as a dramatic reveal of the true main antagonist but also as symbolism for Mima’s self turmoil throughout the movie. One of the most effective segments of the chase starts with a long shot of a street with Mima and Phantom Mima running from left to right. It then cuts to a frantic free camera side angle mid-shot of Mima flailing her arms while running. It match cuts to Phantom Mima gracefully gliding in the same mid-shot style until a few seconds later when a mirror appears behind her and we see a reflection of Rumi in Phantom Mima attire running with much more of a sweat. The juxtaposition of Phantom Mima and Rumi highlights how Rumi has ripped Mima of her identity and is using it for herself. It then cuts to another longshot facing out onto a main road with Mima and Phantom Mima running at it. It cuts to another side angle mid-shot of Mima stopping at the road and then cuts to a long shot that tracks Mima as she runs down the road. The cars passing act as a shot transition to a two-shot of Phantom Mima grabbing real Mima and thrusting a sharp umbrella into her. It cuts as soon as the umbrella touches Mima to conceal the violence (a common convention in thrillers). The chase builds tension through the brilliant use of cutting on action and the chase acts as symbolism for Mima’s self-conflict and literal conflict with Rumi. The ending chase of ‘The Net’ only really serves to release and resolve the tension within the film. After killing Ruth Marx by complete accident, Jack chases Angela onto a balcony over a warehouse. We see a long shot of the door as Jack enters, with black surrounding him and only Jack and an exit sign visible. It cuts to a close-up of Angela’s face as she peeks out of a shadow caused by the low-key lighting to reveal half of her face. This could connote uncertainty on what she is about to do as she is at risk of death. It cuts to a mid-shot of Jack walking and then match cuts to a POV shot of Jack looking around at a low-key lit room. It then cuts to a mid-shot that tracks Jack’s head as he walks around searching for Angela. It cuts to another close-up of Angela’s face as she peeks out of a shadow and cuts again to Jack walking the wrong way from Angela. It cuts to a mid-shot of Angela sneaking to the exit, in full light which could suggest she is fully committed to a plan to escape. The scene sustains the tension until Angela commits and finally defeats Jack in a triumphant happy ending. While both films use these end chases to release tension, ‘Perfect Blue’ packs it with the internal mental conflicts of Mima which heightens the psychological aspect of it while ‘The Net’ uses it to end the direct conflict of Angela and her pursuers.
Sources:
https://www.aarp.org/research/topics/life/info-2017/the-50plus-moviegoer.html