History of Psychological Thriller Films

A psychological thriller is depicted by the heavy focus on unstable emotions of a character or characters. It generally focuses on a person’s mental state than there physical as psychological is to do with mind and behaviour. In the film it normally involves a character having a battle with their own mind. These types of films involve suspense, tension and excitement in order to keep the viewer’s attention to make them want to watch it through to the end. Psychological films stimulate the audience’s mood from the realism of the film. 

Todorov’s Narrative Theory is present in many psychological movies. 

1. There is an equilibrium

2. This equilibrium is  the disrupted by an event perhaps

3. There is then the recognition of this disruption

4. An attempt is them made to try and repair the damage made from the disruption

5. A return or restoration of a new equilibrium is made

Psychological thrillers follow certain themes that can shape the personality of a character:

• Black comedy

• Identity

• Death

• Mind

• Perception

• Reality

• Existence

Examples of these types of films:

• Black Swan

• Fight Club

• Zodiac

• Psycho

• Inception

• The Sixth Sense

• Secret Window

Art of the Title Textual Analysis

For our chosen title we chose Se7en:

We chose this sequence as we really liked how it related to the genre as the images, music, colours and text are very unnerving. 

The beginning starts with pictures of a book which immediately creates a sense of mystery as the audience are unaware of what it is and why it is such a focal point in the sequence. All the shots are done in close ups and are done at eye level, perhaps as the director does not want anything to be revealed about the plot and to heighten the sense of anticipation and curiosity.

 The non-digetic music from the sequence creates a very eerie feeling, matching with the pictures and giving the implication of a psychological thriller genre. There are several sounds of screams which implies danger and a feeling of helplessness which adds to the horror.

There are images of surgery which gives the idea of psychological disorders which matches with the genre. The pictures are quite blurred which gives fear of the unknown, as we get the idea that things are not what they seem, including the blacking out of a picture of a person’s eyes. The credits are shown as very messy and they flicker which defines the genre and adds to the fear, as they are not stable much like the images, giving the idea that the person involved could also be unstable.

The editing starts quite slowly towards the beginning but gets faster as it progresses, then slows down occasionally to build up tension and focus on the more sinister aspects such as the needles and eerie drawings. The images which are shown in fast cuts are perhaps done to hide them from the audience so they are completely unaware about what is going on. There are often reflections of the images which again creates a disconcerting atmosphere.

The filter in the camera creates murky colours of browns and dark greens, which is often the colours that you relate with nausea and discomfort. The lighting is incredibly dark which creates an ominous feeling. There are continuous shadows throughout the clip which also creates a chilling atmosphere as the viewer does not know who or what it is. All of the writing is written in black scrawny handwriting, and black has connotations of death, which is helped by the images of blades and needles.