Psychological films focus on the mind and emotional or mental issues that affect behavior. Characters may experience depression or other psychological conditions that could lead to violence or death. An example is The Orphanage, where a boy is psychologically affected and starts acting strangely. Thrillers use suspense, tension, and excitement to stimulate audiences and provide an adrenaline rush. Plots include sudden excitement, twists and red herrings to keep viewers on the edge of their seats until the climax. Subgenres include psychological thrillers, crime thrillers, and mystery thrillers. Black Swan is an example of a psychological thriller that creates suspense through imagined mental illnesses and jealousy. Slasher films typically involve a

1. Genre & SubGenre

2. Psychological
The word psychological is do with the mind to speak. If a
film is tagged with a psychological theme, you can expect
the characters in the film to be emotional, mental or have
behaviour issues. This might include depression or anything
associated with the mind and how it affected the way we
behave. It has no resemblance to blood or the stereotypical
elements of horror but psychological issues could lead to
violence and death.
An example of film with psychological elements within it, is
THE ORPHANAGE. The little boy in the film who plays the
son, gets psychologically affected and starts acting
strangely. We see more psychological elements throughout
the film.

3. Thriller
Thriller is a broad genre used in both television and film.
Suspense, tension and excitement are the main elements of
thriller. Thrillers stimulate the audiences mood, giving them
a high level of anticipation, expectation, uncertainty and
anxiety. It also gives the viewer ‘adrenaline rush’ as the
anticipation affects the heavily as they wait to see what else
happens next within the plot.
This genre provides sudden excitement and emotions and
keeps the audience on the ‘edge of their seat’ as the plot
builds up to a climax.
Red herrings, plots and twists are very commonly used in
thriller films. Thriller films are usually a villain-driven plot in
which the protagonist must overcome.
The sub-genres of thriller are psychological thrillers, crime
thrillers, erotic thrillers and mystery thrillers.
Thrillers tend to be psychological and threatening as they
sometimes involve a large scale of espionage and conspiracy.
An example of an thriller film is the 2010 film ‘Black
Swan’. Its sub-genre is psychological thriller. It’s a
thriller film because it create suspense and excitement
for the audience to see what else will happen to the
characters throughout the film. Has elements people
stabbing themselves through mental illnesses and
jealousy however we see it was all imagined and it
allows the audience to relax for a while.

4. Slasher
Slasher films are a sub-genre on horror films. Slasher’s
typically involves a psycho killer who is usually seen wearing a
mask. The killer is stereotypically stalking its victims who are
normally teenagers. The teenagers get killed in a
random, unprovoked manner and there are a number of
killings committed in one day.
The teenagers in a slasher film are seen to be away from
mainstream socialisation and are often seen involved in sexual
activities and drug and alcohol use. The killers in slasher films
use unconventional weapons such as blades, chainsaws and
weapons such as guns are rarely used.
There is always a back story for the audience to see how the
killer developed into this state and what his/hers motive was.
Typically in sequels, the killer returns from the dead and is
referred to as ‘inhuman’ rather than a psychopathic killer.
An example of very well known slasher film is the 1996
film ‘Scream’. In this film very see most of the
conventional elements in which I have discussed. Other
slasher films such as ‘Friday 13th’ and ‘Halloween’ are
also mentioned in this film