Film Research - Similar films and examples

Genre of film: Psychological Thriller/horror

Typical Psychological Thriller/Horror
a psychological thriller is usually a fictional story that emphasises the psychology of its characters and their unstable emotional states to build tension. They usually have elements of mystery, drama, horror etc. The fear is usually created within the mind of the character and it has an impact on the audience.

Similar Film genre:

• The Shining
• The Ring
• The Sixth Sense
• Black Swan
• The Changeling

Similar Story lines:

• Thirteen
• Pulp Fiction
• The Conjuring

A psychological/thriller example:

Black Swan:

Storyline: A ballet dancer has just won the lead in the play "Swan Lake" as a delicate White Swan but she slowly loses her mind as she becomes more and more like the Black Swan.

Characters: The film consists of an upcoming ballet dancer Nina (Natalie Portman) who still lives with her mother, the other main character is Lily (Mila Kunis) who plays another dancer who is quite the opposite to Nina.





Nina (Natalie Portman)

(Mila Kunis)

Storyline

Evan Treborn grows up in a small town with his single, working mother and his friends. He suffers from memory blackouts where he suddenly finds himself somewhere else, confused. Evan's friends and mother hardly believe him, thinking he makes it up just to get out of trouble. As Evan grows up he has fewer of these blackouts until he seems to have recovered. Since the age of seven he has written a diary of his blackout moments so he can remember what happens. One day at college he starts to read one of his old diaries, and suddenly a flashback hits him like a brick.

Characters

The film includes the main character (Evan Treborn played by Ashton Kutcher) at 3 stages in his life, at seven, thirteen and in adulthood. He is shown more in his adulthood looking back at his younger years as he suffers from flashbacks and memory loss and when he finds his diary he tries to change the past and what happened but his retains his mind in the present. Before he tried to change his past, he is smart, studying psychology at college. He is the main character throughout. The other main character is his love interest from a very young age, we see her as a different type of character in each flashback and age due to what has previously happened. However as a young child/teenager she was seen as shy and timid however she had a rebellious side to her, she doesn't wear make up often and has a natural look to her.

The typical psychological/horror film:
Characters:
Usually in a psychological/horror film, the main characters are usually younger people who have just hit adulthood. They are usually suffering from their own personal problems: maybe alcoholism, anxiety, being lonely etc. The characters emotions/fears are played with in the film, to the extent where they can go insane. Either the character finds out the problem and over comes it or they are defeated.




Mise-en-scene:
Setting: The location of most of these films are usually in a small, lonely surbubian area with no sense of community, most of the people in the area are oblivious to what is happening or they make out they don't know. The setting usually is dark and has an eerie vibe to it. Everyone in the community is usually not aware what is happening and carrying their lives on as usual.  
Lighting: Most of the lighting in these typical genres are dark and mostly greyscale, they usually give a dark atmosphere so it looks eerier and more mysterious however they have to have a normal/daylight for the parts where everything is normal and nobody knows whats happening.  
Make-up: Usually the protagonist are pale-faced and have dark eyes or they wear minimal make-up to show how weak and tired they actually are.
Costume: Usually the characters are wearing everyday uniforms or clothes because it's meant to be psychological rather than obvious to the world. More dark colours are warn by the main characters.
Props: Most films of this genre use props which are used in everyday life as they are thrown about or have a meaning.









Iconography:
This genre uses a lot of iconography in different ways. In most films of this genre, dark corners and dead ends are used, this lets the audiences own imagination run wild as you can't really see whats happening so they have to imagine themselves also usually they can run away no further. In horrors which are mostly gory, a lot of weapons are used such as: knifes, guns, axes, chainsaws etc and you instantly, as the audience, think murder and death. In the films, a lot of blood can be used to give the feel or danger, harm or murder. It has a lot of interpretations. Depending on the film itself, different techniques and strategies are used to link to psychological horrors. For example, mirrors might be used which scares the audience for it's own personal experience, it usually represents the characters inner self. This is done in Black Swan. Moreover, innocent children are after used when it is a family based setting who are the ones who usually spot whats going on first but have no idea.