Visual Essay Psychological thriller

Difference to normal thrillers

• The Psycho thriller is closer to the audience.• Deep focus on the stage of mind of character• It takes place in more personal locations and

situations of life • E.g. The new neighbour is strange

Themes

• Reality• Perception• Mind• Existence and purpose• Identity • Death

Mise-en-scene• Shadows and low level lighting: they are used to add tension

in a film and they represent sometimes inner darkness of a character.

• Props: Mirrors are often used in Psycho-thrillers to show the second/dark side of a person.

• Costumes: The costumes are mostly smart casual what underlines that psycho thrillers often take place in peoples life and they are closer to reality.

• Locations: mostly modern and urban settings e.g. a hotel

Sound

• The sound is used to create shock in the audience or to create tension.

• But the music is also more personal/emotive than in normal thrillers.

• You also hear more screams than in normal thrillers.

Camera movement

• The camera movement is fast and visualizes panic, and fear.

• More emotive in these situations than slower movement.

Editing

• Montage & obtrusive is used to highlight emotions and feelings and to show tension.

• Flashbacks shows what happened previously and give the audience a better impression of the character. It also shows why a person acts in the way she does and explains a characters behaviour.

• The using of shadows is quite often used and comes best with a black and white scene.

Narrative

1. Equilibrium (the normal life of a character)2. Disruption of equilibrium (something unusual happens)3. Recognition of the disruption (someone see what happens)4. Attempt to repair damage (Someone fix the problem)5. New Equilibrium (everything should be okay now)