Conventions of a Thriller

 

 

 

Throughout this term, we as group 36, have been preparing to create a thriller movie in January. Often people usually mix up the two genres of Thriller and Horror. In a horror movie, the audience are yet to expect scenes containing a great deal of deaths and gore. Displaying villians with menacing supernatural strengths and having helpless victims that lie in their wake, the genre perfectly represents binary oppositions in the movies. One horror movie that does this perfectly is 'A nightmare on Elm street'. The main character happens to be a serial killer that hunts his victims in their sleep with his unique and brutal powers, where the characters can do nothing to stop this evil. The movie contains a substanial of gore and fits the description of a perfect horror. (Link is at the bottom)

 

 

 

On the other hand, a thriller is the genre that uses supsense and tension as its main element within a movie. It is intended to make the audience to sit on the edge of the seat as it slowly builds the awareness by the camera and sound techniques. One movie that utilise this well is the movie 'Pyscho 1960'. The non-digetic sounds that plays in the background during the shower scene illustrates the menace is coming closer to the victim, the high notes on the violin suggest this. Also the high angle shots suggests that she is going to be in the grasp of the murderer because it demonstrates fragility within the character. (Link is at the bottom)

 

 

The movie 'Psycho' will give me ideas in making my Thriller by the dramatic techniques they used such as Camera, Mise en scene, Sound and Editing. It helped me realise that the victims should be dressed in some type of white clothing to illustrate innocence and purity, it taught me that the choice of music should always build up awareness and tension, the editing between scenes should always create suspense and get the audience asking questions; a good one would be 'cross cutting' and last but not least high and low angle shots to represent the power of the characters.