A psychological thriller is defined as a fictional story that focuses on the unstable psychology and emotional states of characters. It often involves elements of mystery and drama and explores common themes of reality, perception, mind, existence, purpose, and identity. Key conventions include deceptive mind games, flashbacks, tense music, shadows, and confined spaces. Cinematography techniques like low-key lighting, quick camera movements, and montage editing are used to build tension and highlight a character's emotions.

1. Genre research:
Psychological
thrillers

2. What is a psychological thriller?
A psychological thriller is defined as a fictional thriller story which mainly
focuses on the psychology of the characters in the film and their unstable
emotional states. A psychological thriller is classified in the sub-genre
category as it is part of the broader range of the thriller genre. A psychological
thriller film often involves elements from other genres such as mystery and
drama genres, it also joins in with the horror genre, mainly the psychological
horror sub-genre.

3. Narrative:
The narrative to a psychological thriller is very different for each film,
however, the main plot theory seems to run the same in most psychological
thrillers.
The plot goes as the following;
Equilibrium Recognition of the New
disruption equilibrium
Disruption of the Attempt to repair
equilibrium the damage

4. Literary devices and techniques:
Stream of consciousness: This is a literary technique where an individuals
point of view is produced as a written equivalent, so the audience is able to see
an individual characters thought process. In psychological thrillers the
narrative often manifests a characters psyche through word usage,
descriptions, and/or visuals.
First person narrative: This literary technique involves the way in which the
storyline is narrated by one or more of the characters. This technique is often
used to make the audience feel more involved with the characters. This helps
the audience understand how the characters mind works.
Backstory: This technique involves showing the history behind the situation
at the start of the main storyline. This deepens the psychological aspect of the
storyline, as it allows the audience to fully understand the main character,
especially the characters motives behind their actions and how their past has
shaped their current state of mind.

5. Common themes:
• Reality
• Perception
• Mind
• Existence
• Purpose
• Identity
• Death
• Use of dark, isolated places
• Psychological thrillers also often use the plot of the film to shape the characters
personalities, as usually as the character develops in their film so does their true
identity, this often means the characters loss of innocence is shown as they
develop into the ’baddy’ or the ‘heroine’.

6. Codes & conventions:
• Deceptive mind games
• Flashbacks
• Black and white colour themes
• Tense music
• Mind
• Perception
• Reality
• Purpose/ existence of a character

7. Iconography:
• Shadows, fears, confined spaces, running water, mirrors.
• Low-key lighting, contrasting colour temperatures, quick camera movements,
prolonged action, suspense.
• Non-diegetic sound, high pitched sounds, silence, muffled sound, dialogue.
• Knives: Knives are commonly used to indicate danger to the audience, as they
are a way to harm another. They are often linked to danger, violence, blood, pain
and brutality. An example of the use of knives in a psychological thriller would be
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Weapons are often used in thrillers to entice the
audience, this causes them to carry on viewing the product.
• Shadows/ silhouettes: When an audience views a shadow or a silhouette in a
thriller are used to connote a sense of mystery and suspicion. Shadows and
silhouettes are often used to help build tension and fear with an audience.
Normally they are used when an antagonist is behind a ’victim’ or watching their
‘victim’ closely in an area they aren’t supposed to be.

8. Iconography (continued):
• Shadows/ silhouettes: Shadows are often used in psychological thrillers to
create a tense on edge atmosphere for the audience. Shadows and
silhouettes are commonly associated with fear so they are often used to
create tension within a scene so that the audience feels on edge. Shadows
and silhouettes also help base the enigma as they are often used to create
mystery and make the audience want to find out what is hiding in the
shadows/ who or what is the silhouette.
• Barred/covered widows and fences: This creates the idea to the audience
that the character is trapped and imprisoned to the audience. This will also
make the audience become more engaged to the character and feel sympathy
for the character do to the situation they are in, this will also cause the
audience to feel as the character feels as they will feel as though they are in
the journey together with the character as they watch the film, this
connection with the audience is also helped by the tense atmosphere which
is common in a psychological thriller which supports the idea that the
character is 'trapped' as the atmosphere helps play on the characters fear of
being isolated.

9. Mise-en-scene:
Shadow/ low key lighting: These are typical conventions used in psychological
thrillers, they are used to help build tension in a scene, and to show the
‘darkness’ of a character in the film.
Props: Mirrors are often used in psychological thrillers as they are used to
denote a characters inner self, this connotes that there is more to the
character than what the camera sees, suggesting they have a ‘dark side’.
Costumes: It is common for costumes in psychological thrillers to convey
surreal themes, this is done with the use of ‘normal clothing’ to create a sense
of realism. It is also typical for the ‘villain’ to dress differently to denote that
they are the ‘odd one out’, and to also give the impression that something isn’t
quite right about them.

10. Locations:
Most locations used in psychological thrillers reflect real life, so that a sense of
realism is created. It is normal for a location of a psychological thriller to be
overly theatrical, and fairly stereotypical of the area in which it is set. An
example of this would be the setting of Donnie Darko, this film is set in
suburban America. The setting of the film is shown in the opening sequence as
the audience are shown the ‘perfect’ area, as people are cutting their lawn,
cycling, playing golf etc. The houses also appear ‘perfect’. This is then
contrasted by the underside of working in the factories, as this is shown to be
cold, grimy and gritty.

11. Sound:
It is common in psychological thrillers to use eerie and tense music to build up
tension to the audience. By doing this the audience is made aware that
something bad is about to happen.
Sudden breaks and silences from eerie and tense music are often used in
psychological thrillers to build up the ‘fear factor’. This technique is also used
to help create jump scares within a scene.

12. Camera movement:
Camera movements are a key factor when making a psychological thriller.
Most psychological thrillers use quick camera movements to help build
tension and panic to the audience. Also by using quick shots to show how the
character within the scene is feeling so that the audience are able to relate to
them, this also makes the audience feel as though they are on the journey
with the character.

13. Editing:
• Obtrusive and montage editing: This is commonly used in psychological
thrillers to highlight the emotions of key characters, this also helps tension
within scenes. This is often considered an important form of editing in
psychological films.
• Flashbacks: flashbacks are a common convention of a psychological thriller.
This is because they give a an insight on previous occurrences and
experiences of the character. These flashbacks are important as they often
show the backstory of the main characters, and gives important messages
regarding certain scenes, so that the audience is able to understand what is
going on, and the true story of the character.
• Black and white: These colour effects are often used to enhance shadows
within a scene, this makes the scene appear more eerie and mysterious.