In psychological thrillers, characters are often vulnerable individuals who have lost something important, like their family, making them susceptible to manipulation. Main characters are usually males who are taken to their lowest point to engage the audience. Females sometimes take main roles but more often play supporting roles as vulnerable people the main character relies on, such as a mother or daughter. Other common representations include characters who are psychotic or of lower-middle class.

1. REPRESENTATION OF
CHARACTERS IN
PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLERS

2. DETAILS
 In psychological thrillers the characters are often very vulnerable and isolated
and have either got a lot to lose (example is The Lazarus Project) or already lost
what matters most to them making them vulnerable (such as in Shutter Island).
Often they are males because they are often taken down to their lowest point which
engages the audience because it can get a fully grown man such as (Shutter Island)
on his knees begging because he doesn’t want to realise the reality that they have let
him believe he lives into. Often men with wives and children are used because when
exposed they are much more vulnerable than just the everyday person.

3. EXAMPLES OF MAIN MALE ROLES
IN PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLERS

4. FEMALES IN PSYCHOLOGICAL
THRILLER
Women are not usually seen in the main roles from psychological thrillers but they
do get some main roles and other advanced roles such as the mum in The Sixth
Sense and the little girl from Hard Candy. The example from Hard Candy shows
her as very vulnerable yet with a mysterious powerfulness as she tries to overpower
the man she suspects to be a paedophile. This can also be seen in Scorned because
of how she is using her power to try and get revenge on him for cheating on her
with another girl. The example from The Sixth Sense shows how she is the main
person in the little boys life and this shows how he relies on her for support.

5. EXAMPLES OF FEMALE CHARACTERS IN
PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLERS

6. OTHER REPRESENTATIONS
Some other main types of people who are shown in psychological thrillers are
psychotic and have disturbing thoughts and images, this makes them hard to read
and creates an enigma around them, examples of these would be in Shutter Island
and The Sixth Sense.
Most of the time the people involved in psychological thrillers are of lower and
middle class as the upper class would not be seen with the problems that are faced
by the characters in these films. Normally the people in these films are either
younger making them vulnerable or they’re middle aged with a family which makes
them vulnerable through this way

7. OTHER REPRESENTATIONS
FROM FILMS