Thrillers
The classic thriller carry out the same convention through each film no matter the sub genre.
conventions
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Music is always suspenseful.
Jump cuts build suspense and make the viewer on edge.
A mysterious antagonist .
Some sort of weapon.
Dark environment weather normally is pathetic fallacy to match the Dark theme of the film.
Low key lighting.
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sub genres
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Crime
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The generic conventions of a crime thriller involve things like.
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-Guns.
-A anonymous villain as the antagonist.
-Two beat down cops solving a murder,normally one brawn and one brain one maybe trying to leave his job.
-The crime being like a puzzle to allow the audience to guess through out the movie.
-The environment and time line is normally a big city like New York set in the 1980's where technology was less advanced,but can be set in modern day society.
Psychological
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The generic conventions of a psychological film involve things like.
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-Bathroom being a key scene as it highlight the key theme isolation.
-A male role for the antagonist is normally more used.
-Mirrors are used a lot.
-A knife is normally used as a weapon.
-cause some sort of insanity effect on the protagonist.
Spy/action
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The generic convention of a spy/action film involve things like.
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-Guns.
-High class antagonist looking to do something big like blow up a bank,the main antagonist having one special henchman that makes him different that the protagonist defeats proving him self worthy.
-A male protagonist with some special back ground like the armed forces.
-A few to a lot of explosions.
-A chase scene.
Erotic
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The generic conventions of a Erotic film involve things like.
-A crazed male or female antagonist chasing their lust.
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-The protagonist ending up doing something to get rid of them multiple times and with their final attempt doing something more rash to achieve it.
-A pet of the protagonist dying most of the time.
-the development in how obsessive they come.
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Containment
The generic conventions of a containment film involve things
like.
-Theme of isolation contained in a small place.
-A hostage situation someone holding someone against their will because they have power over the protagonist.
-Guns.
-trying to protect someone who's has an emotional connection so their forced to come from safety.
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Conspiracy
The generic conventions of a conspiracy film involve things like.
-A woman who finds out something important to a high up government or something similar that causes her to be haunted.
-explosions,traps and guns.
a higher power trying to kill them.
-being isolated by the government.
-A happy ending for the protagonist.
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Medical
The generic conventions of a medical film involve things like.
-An deadly out break.
-Apocalypse of some sort.
-A group of survives or a single one out numbered by the the rest by a zombie like creatures.
-Guns/weapons.
-overgrown building.
-broken and deserted.
My three film reviews on thriller movies
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Seven -(5 January 1996) Seven is a crime thriller directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. It stars such actors like Morgan freeman Brad Pitt and Kevin Spacey. It's a film about two homicide detectives Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. Brad is young, strong, and places the brute while Morgan places the wise older partner near retirement. The film is based around a murderer who kills in the form of the seven deadly sins pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. For the film preparation, they kept Kevin Spacey's name out of all trailers and even the film opening as they knew it would spoil the film and also because he wanted to avoid attention at the time. The filming for the movie was detailed in every small way, with one scene having over thousands of books in the scene and all were designed to have writing on the inside even know no one would see them.
The film is very dark keeping it in low key lighting through most of the film keeping the theme/mood of mystery throughout the film, combined with the setting of the film being placed in a beat down Los Angeles in the 1980s keeps the theme of smoke and mirrors as the two cops seem to be chasing a ghost. It is rated 18 which is suitable for the target audience as the original script had trouble getting actors to comply with it seeing how dark it was.
In conclusion, I enjoyed the film as it kept with its dark intentions even when it was criticized and created suspense and tension for the ending of the film. The film's gruesome mystery and LA Noire theme were well kept with great music choice and athletics to further push the crime genre with its subdued and dark characteristics.
Prisoner (27 September 2013) - Is a crime thriller that follows the story of two girls that goes missing one night and disappear mysteriously, we follow the film from one of the families whose daughter goes missing (Hugh Jackman, Jane Brewer, Dylan Minnette)struggling to hold on to hope that their daughter still out there and a police investigator(Jake Gyllenhaal) and their attempts to find who kidnapped the girls.
The film after the key event setting the narrative in order seems to always be in low-key lighting or rain or fog as a pathetic fallacy on the emotions of the struggling family and the inspector who seems to be losing his clam. The narrative of the film is linear but has a string of the story that ends up all interlinking towards the end so allowing the audience to guess along with the film as they try and figure out who did it.
In the end, the prisoner is similar to seven and silence of the lambs as they both are crime thrillers and all good examples of crime thrillers did well. The film has a gruesome climax to it as the actors and audience pushed to the limit as they try and find out who did the crime, the film is suspenseful and manages to keep the suspense throughout the film.
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The orphanage (20 May 2007)- The Orphanage is a Spanish spectral thriller set in modern-day Spain where a couple decides to set up an orphanage for special children. The couple has a son with them called Simon who is 5 years old and has grown up alone with no other friends except his two imaginary friends. His mother Laura was once an orphan in the house they plan to refurbish to make it once again an orphanage for special children. The film has two key settings: the house and the beach. The film rarely moves from these locations which aren’t uncommon in a spectral thriller film as it keeps it easier for the audiences to follow.
The film follows a simple linear narrative from start to finish, the film starts off bright and colorful but like most films the conflicts sharply changes the film setting most of its events from then on into low key lighting changing the effect scenes have upon the audience. The soundtrack used is tense and cold as it leads the audience with the captivating cinematography that gives the spectator spine creeping content.
Overall The Orphanage is a good example of how when you try and make a spectral thriller film right it can come together really well similar to what lies beneath but in a similar but different concept. The film is entitled to praise as it keeps the audience hooked throughout and at the end peacefully closes the suspense in one of the best ways to end a movie like itself.
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Danny Bennett Unit 10 learning aim A
Compare and contrast the narrative and stylistic codes and conventions of two thriller films using detailed examples to illustrate your points.
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In the opening to “Silence of the Lambs,” we are given an establishing shot of the woods with low-key lighting, showing us the classic environmental conventions in a thriller film. As this combined with the low key lighting highlights the mystery that this film has that keeps the audience drawn in till the end. This opening shot also contains some editing where we see a typewriter-like font in the bottom right corner underlined, this alone gives the film a crime thriller aspect as the font represents those used in police documents. The opening has some non-diegetic eerie music that slowly builds up tension setting up for the film's suspenseful tone.
Throughout the film, the director uses mystery to keep the audience guessing. This allows the audience to be more engaged with the film as Clarice Starling played by Jodie Foster tracks down a case of a serial killer. The only way to catch them is to get help from an even bigger serial killer Hannibal Lecter played by Anthony Hopkins who helps her in return for a favor.
A key scene within the Film is when Clarice Starling first meets Hannibal Lecter. We are put in the POV of Clarice to see a prison cell in the dark underground department of a prison. The use of the blue color theme within this shot almost gives a sense of isolation as we also see him in a blue jumpsuit, giving the impression that we know that Clarice is safe from the prisoner. In POV we see Hannibal standing up waiting for us/Clarice as if he knew Clarice was coming giving him a comfortable and patient look, this gives the viewer an uneasy comfort. The music slowly builds up to the big suspenseful moment of the big reveal of Hannibal the non-diegetic music spikes then drops when he is revealed to us through the POV of Clarice.
This film’s target audience is R(18) as the theme is following some gruesome themes including murder and cannibalism and would not be suited for young ages as it is also hard to follow.
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In the movie The boy next door we follow Claire played by Jennifer Lopez as a high school teacher through her new separation from her ex-husband she engages in a harmless flirtation with Noah, played by Ryan Guzman, Although Noah spends much of the time hanging out with Claire's son, the teen's attraction to her is palpable after Noah sleeps with Claire and after the night is over she realizes she's made a mistake as Noah is obsessed with her with no limitation to what he can do to get her. Throughout the film, a key theme is an isolation even know it has a large number of scenes with a large population of people in them we can see that she's nearly singled out on her own with just the protection of a few close people but even then her son isn't always on her side.
In this establishing shot, we see both of the main actor's house together in low key lighting. In the shot, the main goal is to let the audience perceive how close the danger is and the aspect of it being night lets the audience see the classic convention with night and its conventions to danger. The non-dietetic music is quiet but still eerie as it shows us the danger, it may be unnoticeable but still there. Even though this is before the danger of the film is revealed we see the key theme of how close they are no matter how hard she tries to avoid him like later on, we know the man to try and get close with her son.
In this key scene, Jennifer Lopez is in fear for her life as she expects Ryan Guzman to be breaking into her house. We see that she is carrying around a classic convention of a thriller weapon showing her fear and how she is trying to protect herself, along with the mid-shot we get an understanding of her feelings as her body position is defensive and hiding behind a wall showing that she's scared for her life. The high key lighting shows us that no matter what time it is she’s not safe as the high lighting shows us that it’s not night but probably around midday once again highlighting the danger she is along with the loud suspenseful non-dietetic music.
The film is rated as a 15 as it contains sexual actions and violence and it is not suited for younger ages.
Both of my films are of the thriller genre but different sub-genres, Silence of the Lambs(crime) and The boy next door(erotic). Both films are very different from each other but hold similar thriller aspects. The music used in both films is used to build drama and suspense. Both of my films have lead female actress, which is a common convention in thrillers but in The Silence of the Lambs, the actress is presented as stronger wherein The boy next door the lead actress is shown as more defenseless. Low key lighting is used to created shroud and mystery in the silence of the lambs, where low key lighting is used more for isolation in The boy next door.