The document discusses the genre of psychological thriller films. It defines psychological thrillers as thrillers focused on elements of the human mind that create tension through slow pacing rather than horror. Settings for these films include normal homes and towns but also asylums and woods to play on fears of insanity and isolation. Character conventions include those who are deviant or mentally ill. Narratives often involve themes of fear, insanity, and delusions. Techniques like close-ups, blood, and non-diegetic sound or music are used to build tension. Prolonged shots and camerawork also change audience perception.

1. Film Genre Research
By Zak Knight

2.  The genre we are doing our group activity on is psychological thriller which
is a sub-genre of thriller which features elements revolving around the
human mind.
 Psychological thrillers share many similarities to other thrillers in that they
aim to keep the audience in suspense by creating tension due to slow
pacing as compared to horror genres, which often have faster pacing and
less tension.
 Psychological thrillers usually lack any form of comedy, instead focusing on
the more serious aspects of relationships between characters which sets it
apart from other drama orientated genres.

3.  The usual setting for a psychological thrillers are in the homes of a seemingly normal individual, or the
streets of a seemingly normal town. however they can sometimes be centred around insane asylums
and woods as these have a eeriness to them, as well as these each of these settings play off of a
different fear, the fear of insanity and the fear of isolation. The fear of insanity plays into the genre of
psychological thriller as it incorporates the human mind and asks more philosophical questions. This is
present in the film “Shutter Island” which centres around a character who investigates an asylum, only
to find out he is one of the residents.

 Whereas the fear of isolation fits into the genre of psychological thriller as it makes the
audience relate to the situation the characters on screen are in. This is present in the
“Blair Witch Project” which is about a group of friends camping in the woods and slowly
getting picked off. However films such as Se7en, Donnie Darko and Gone Girl relate to
this relation trait even higher by giving shocking scenarios in cities just like the ones we
live in, and show us the mental capabilities of humans in normal environments as well as
their thought process.

4.  There are many conventions of characters in psychological thrillers, for
example in many psychological thrillers the characters are deviant and anti-
society, they often do things society shuns upon as this creates familiarity
with the audience.
As well as this characters often show signs of mental health problems and
addictions as these all work towards painting a realistic picture of a
persons mind and body.

5.  The narratives for psychological thrillers can be completely different and
varied. However they often incorporates themes revolving around fear and
insecurities. As well as this it often revolves around the thought of an
individual losing his sanity as is present from the movies, Shutter Island,
The Machinist, Jacob’s Ladder, The Game and Black Swan.
 There are often sequences were there are delusions, which the character
later wakes up from or figures out aren’t happening.

6.  In psychological films they often show blood, high key lighting in a mostly
dimly lit background and extreme close ups to the eye as each of these
makes the audience feel a sense of tension as we are not used to seeing
this, as well as blood often indicating attack or pain. An example of blood
used as iconography is in the film “We Need To Talk About Kevin” where
the main character spends a large amount of time cleaning blood, which is
later explained as to why this is done.

7.  Psychological thrillers usually include either a lack of non-diegetic sound to
make us feel uneasy and make scenes feel more raw, or high tension non-
diegetic music in order to build expectations. This can be seen in the film
“Lost Highway” and Paranormal Activity, paranormal activity features no
music in it’s scenes with creates tension more effectively.
 The camerawork used in psychological thrillers is unique in that they use
many extreme close ups on top of establishing shots, as well as this
scenes are edited so that they last longer than many horror films as this
changes an audiences perception of the shot and allows for them to gather
more information, as can be seen from We Need To Talk About Kevin and
Requiem For a Dream where they prolong scenes of importance and
symbolism.