The document discusses key elements of psychological thriller films, including common iconography, storylines, characters, settings, and music. Iconography discussed includes knives, shadows/silhouettes, and street lamps. Common storylines revolve around a protagonist facing a problem/mystery and building tension towards a climax. Characters may include detectives chasing an antagonist or an unstable protagonist doubting their own thoughts. Settings mentioned are cities, suburbs, woods, and cabins. Music is chosen carefully to build tension as scenes progress.

1. Physiological thriller
research
By Jake Fleetwood

2. Iconography in physiological
thrillers.
• Knifes - In physiological thrillers knifes are often shown as a way to kill someone, they have other links to blood, pain
and brutality. A grate example of knifes in killers are from Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller ‘psycho’. No matter what genre
the film when the audience see a knife it automatically means that 99% of the time someone is going to be killed, this
makes the audience want to carry on watching as it draws them into the film.
• Shadows/silhouettes - When the audience see a shadow or silhouette within a physiological thriller in brings in the
sense of mystery. The use of a shadow/silhouette in a thriller is to build up tension of fear within the audience.
Normally it’s when a antagonist is encroaching up on someone or are watching someone normally form somewhere
they’re not supposed to be, their identity is also hidden until the end of the film. They also tell the viewers that
something isn't right within the film. The protagonist also normally keeps seeing the shadow or silhouette which tells
that character something isn't right. A classical example of the se of this is one of the many Sherlock Holmes films.
• Street lamps - These are only used in night scenes obviously, we normally see the protagonist standing in the light to
signify that darkness is all around them. The antagonist can also hide in the shadows cast from the light of the
streetlamp so it works with good and bad in films. As the viewers we normally see a street lamp at the end of the
alleyway where something bad has just happened. They can also be used as a good establishing shot; be would
know they’re in a city and then the camera would then crane up the side of a building to show the inside of a room, or
would pan around to the road and normally see a car. A example of street lamps is in vanishing on 7th street.
• Woods - This is one of the best locations for any type of thriller, they give the film a sense of lost and some
characters are mentally unstable and then others are killers and this is where they put their bodies. Woods also show
characters are isolated from the world and communication with any people, the isolated location also gives off the
impression that whoever is in the shot is venerable and in some films they’ll be a house in the lonely woods that
always turns out to be the antagonists. In a film called ‘the cabin in woods’ it’s near enough all set in a set of woods.

3. Storylines in psychological
thrillers.
All thrillers are built around, ‘what will happen next?, anticipation and suspense. The whole idea of a thriller
is to keep the viewer watching on the edge of their seat at all times. The normal story line is the protagonist
of the whole film has a massive problem - normally this is an escape, mission or mystery. The tension
which has been building throughout the whole film, is leading up to a monumental climax. Examples of
classic thrillers are, ‘The Great Escape’,’The silence of the Lambs’ and ‘North by Northwest’.
The whole genre of ‘Thriller’ has different parts to it known as Sub-Genres. Some of these include,
Psychological Thriller, Action Thriller, Crime Thriller and Science Fiction Thriller are just some Sub Genres.
Psychological Thriller is what my 2 minute film is based around, and it’s when a normal thriller film, gets
drama and mystery added to it. There is a huge suspense building in a psychological thriller right from the
start although this is all in the viewers mind. The protagonist in a psychological thriller has to trust
themselves to think the situation through mentally. Because of what happens in psychological thrillers and
the iconography thats thought of it is closely related to the horror genre. Examples of psychological films
are, ‘Rear Window, Taxi Driver and Memento’.

4. Characters in psychological
thrillers.
In psychological thrillers characters who are normally the protagonist have to rely on the
mental sources around them to solve the problem that their facing, although this often ends
up them having battles with them selfs over what their thinking. This causes them to doubt
themselves and what their thinking like what’s real and whats not, what they’re doing, what
they have got to do. They don't recognise this but they often just go round and round in
circles. Whilst working out how to solve the problem at hand they experience things like,
death of themselves or others making it very complex to understand.
We also have characters like old detectives that know every trick in the book or a serial
killer/mass murderer. These type of characters are found to just be chasing the antagonist,
who is like the protagonist going round and round in circles. Examples of these are the two
detectives in ‘Se7en’, although at opposite end of the pole we have Robert De Niro playing a
unstable war veteran.
There are many types of themes running through psychological thrillers; reality, perception,
mind, existence, identity and death. Depending what theme is the strongest, different
characters would act in different ways. In some cases their would be characters like
detectives and killers and in others they’ll be a family man and a psychopath. It all depends
what theme is in the psychological thriller.

5. Setting and music in
psychological thrillers.
Setting - When a director is shooting a psychological thriller, one of the most difficult decisions he/she
would have to make is what type of setting will. The film should have all different types of locations and in
my first 2 minutes, I will even show 2 or 3 locations. In a psychological thriller the setting could be in
numerous places like a warehouse on the outskirts of a big city or could be right in the city itself, another
option is to go suburban and shoot the film on a housing estate. You could go in the complete opposite
direction and shoot scenes in a wood and they may even be a cabin in the wood where a antagonist lives.
Music - Music should be carefully chosen for a psychological thriller, a really good choice and one that is
often used and could be classed as a cliché is the sound that fades in to build tension, because the sound
grows so does the tension, meaning the reader will want to read on.