This document discusses the genres and conventions of psychological thriller media products and how the creator's media product relates to and challenges these forms. Psychological thrillers typically feature an isolated or mentally damaged main character who breaks down otherwise strong characters. The creator's product features a strong female lead seeking revenge through violence, challenging the norm of dominant male roles and victims being female. It develops the convention by having a female serial killer as the main character, pushing for greater representation of strong female leads in the genre.

1. In what ways does your
media product use, develop
or challenge forms and
conventions of real media
products?

2. Genre Research
My media product falls into the genre of ‘psychological thriller’.
This genre has been very popular over the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s, as
the media has sparked a fascination for the psychotic,
glamourizing serial killers and making them more appealing to
watch and analyse from behind a cinema or television screen.
Psychological thrillers play on the fears of the audience, such as
isolation and the breaking down of society, which enhances the
popularity as the audience can handle seeing the darker side of
the human mind, and watching their fears on a screen, rather
than facing them in reality. The love of this genre implies the
audience want a thrill whilst viewing these media products, and
they seek new ways to have fear induced within them.

3. Character Research
A psychological thriller typically has a main character that is,
most of the time, the killer or the person to be feared. This
character is usually isolated, introverted, mentally damaged and
a sadomasochist, due to their back story or current situation
within the film. The other characters within the film usually
begin strong minded and ‘invincible’, making them appear as if
nothing can harm or affect them, but over the course of the film,
you see their character become broken down and weak due to
the main characters actions. This also plays on a fear that the
audience have, as society doesn’t like to believe that bad, or
dark, things will ever occur within their life, but this shows that it
can.

4. My Media Product
Through-out my media product, conventions of society are played with, due
to the strong female lead and the weak male victim. These roles are not
typical, as there is a strong sense of dominance within male roles through-out
different media products, and the female is always the calmer, reserved
character. I believe my media product challenges these conventions, as it
shows that physical strength within the male character doesn’t always over-
rule the physical, mental or emotional strength of a woman.
Due to the main character within my media product ‘Grace’ going through
severe bullying rituals every day at school, her vengeance is fuelled by her
physical, emotional and mental damage, caused by the characters who bully
her. The bullies within ‘Grace’ are all male, leaving the female lead somewhat
undermined by the male dominance. This is shown through a course of
flashbacks, where you can see the female lead’s motives for revenge.
I believe my media products also develops certain forms and conventions of
psychological thriller products, as typically the main character is male, and
there are very few female leads within products glamourizing serial killers,
yet my media product has a very strong female lead, pushing the strength of
females to become a ‘norm’ within media.