This document discusses the key elements and characteristics of psychological thriller films. It begins by explaining that psychological thrillers focus heavily on the characters and their psychological issues or problems. It then provides examples of common psychological conditions seen in characters, such as split personalities, serial killers, stalkers, schizophrenia, and memory loss. The document also notes that psychological thrillers typically receive ratings of 15+ or 18+ due to their inclusion of violence, horror aspects, and depiction of psychological issues. It aims to scare audiences while not being overly graphic and keeps viewers on the edge of their seats with unexpected twists relating to the unpredictable actions of characters dealing with psychological problems.

2. A psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the larger genre thriller with heavy focus on characters.
However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, along with the typical traits of
the thriller. genre.
The setting for psychological thrillers usually revolves around the character. For example
Christian Bale’s character in American Psycho had psychological issues and he lived in a
upper class new York apartment in comparison to the character Buffalo Bill in Silence of the
Lambs who also had psychological issues and he lived in a old house with a typical grimy,
scary basement where he kept his victims.
Characters in psychological thrillers obviously have some form of
psychological problems. For example:
•Split personality- Edward Norton's character in Fight Club
•Serial Killer- Christian Bale in American psycho and Ted
Levine/Anthony Hopkins character in Silence of the lambs.
•Stalker – Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction and Mark Wahlberg’s
character in Fear
•Schizophrenic – Jake Gyllenhaal’s character in Donnie Darko
•Memory loss – Guy Pearce’s Character in Memento
And so on.

3. Most psychological thrillers would have a certificate between 15+ and 18+ as they include violence,
horror aspects and psychological issues that are not appropriate for younger viewers.
They are aimed at viewers who like to be scared yet not grossed out (which horrors usually do) and
who like to be left at the edge of their seat as thrillers usually involve a twist of some sort, making it
harder for the viewer to work out what's going to happen next. Thrillers usually have a surprise
aspect especially Psychological thrillers as at least one character has some sort of psychological
issues/illness and their actions are typically unpredictable.
All of the psychological thriller
films, whose trailers I analysed, are
all certified 18+

5. Cast/actors and actresses. People are more likely
to see this film if they know whose in it.
The title of the film is the most important part of the
poster as the audience couldn’t walk into the
cinema or DVD store with out it. The picture of the
rabbit also holds importance as it immediately
defines the genre of the film to the audience, the
icy blue and bright white tones creates a cold and
chilling atmosphere, the faces are slightly faded as
if they’re looking through fog this also goes for the
title which looks as if its emerging from mist, these
are qualities that represent a horror/thriller and the
audience just from the poster can understand its
not going to be a fun, light hearted movie as its
clearly a horror/thriller. The faces inside the rabbit
inform the audience of the cast members, the fact
Title their inside indicates this movie might revolve
around this rabbit figure as it’s the centre focus.
The cloudy blurred mist that covers the rabbit may
also suggest this is a psychological thriller as
blurring the shot/picture is a common technique
when indicating psychotic issues and it shows the
characters mind isn't clear.
Credit Block

6. At first I thought the website was disappointing; I thought maybe it was because the film was out of date
and the website had gone down along with the hype. It began off quite exciting, with a small pop up of
Donnie banging on your computer screen (like the iconic scene in the film where he was banging on the
mirror) you then had to click the red circle to proceed but all that popped up was a affidavit for warrant of
arrest and detention of Donnie Darko!? There was also a pop up box for previous users asking for a
password to continue so then I thought there has to be more. I then realised (feeling rather embarrassed
that I overlooked such an easy step) this website is actually better than most film sites, you have to type in
‘Y’ as in yes in the affidavit for warrant of arrest and detention to proceed. It the took you to different levels
for fans and viewers to explore.. I thought this was very clever as the website coincided with the theme of
the movie – playing psychological tricks on your mind and allowed the audience to be apart of this and
experience it.

7. • How old is he ? • Establishing shot of school • In school, English class. Shows
• What's happening to bus he's a high school student. Target
• Panning shot audience older most likely 17 –
him ? 3o like my target audience.
• Shots of him with • Medium 3 person shot • Clip of him holding axe and knife
weapons and fire – • Slow motion clips and fast shows he's dangerous
does he hurt any forward clips – playing • Writing on the floor “they made
one ? with reality me do it” shows he's
• Inserted text of keywords psychologically ill – possibly
– informs audience schizophrenic, he hears voices ?
• When banging on window ripples
appear so does the rabbit figure –
is he haunting him ?
• Had Sci- fi elements – talked
about portals and an extreme
close up of Donnie holding a time
travel book
• Shot of storm cloud sound of win
– pathetic fallacy
• A series of fast cuts – clips of
people screaming – clips of rabbit
figure, fast paced music in
background builds up to the end.