Editing - Psychological Thrillers

1. Editing – Psychological Thrillers
The right editing produces suspense and fear within the audience.

2. Continuity editing
 This is used when the audience needs to understand something making it
likely to be used at the end of the psychological thriller when the mystery
is revealed The shots are long, running smoothly and they all link together
(unless there are flashbacks).
 Continuity editing is used in American Psycho. At the end of the film when
Patrick Bateman realises that he hasn’t killed anyone the shots are long
and there is also a narrative where Patrick is trying to make sense of what
has happened and by speaking it aloud it helps the audience to understand
as well.

3. Straight Cut
 This is seen when there is a lot of action going on. The shots jump from
different focus points when there is a tense part going on. These can be
running scenes. A example of this is in The Bourne Ultimatum…

The fast jumps
create tension and
leaves the audience
on edge.

4. Match Cuts
 This type of editing cuts two unrelated scenes together but show the
relationship between them. This is especially used in thrillers to show how
the unexpected can be related together. The video below shows many
different films that all include match cut editing.