Film Marketing Campaign

 

 

 

 Certain types of character often appear and play a big role in Psychological Thrillers. Here are a few examples. The unreliable narrator: A figure whose depiction of reality is flawed or deceptive due to trauma, mental illness or deliberate manipulation. The audience often follows the unreliable narrators POV and learns near the end that they have been mislead. A good example of this is in the film Shutter Island (2010) where the main character Teddy Daniel (played by Leonardo DiCaprio)  The manipulative antagonist: A smart charming manipulative character sometimes depicted as a narcissist who's purpose is to send the protagonist into mental disarray. 

 In Psychological Thrillers Narrative Structure is a very important tool used to manipulate how the audience views the characters and perceives the story and its development. A good example of a Psychological Thriller that thrives around the narrative structure is Memento (2000). It uses Non-Linear narrative and is told in reverse chronological order to reflect the main characters memory loss.  Another good use of narrative structure is in the film Taxi Driver (1976). This film uses the descent arc narrative structure. This is presented in the film by the main character Travis Bickle (played by Robert De Niro) who is a lonely and unstable Vietnam war veteran who alienates himself from the outside world and is suffering from a chronic case of insomnia. He takes a job as a nightshift taxi driver and as he witnesses the sheer amount of crime and urban decay during the film the audience also sees how disconnected he is from society and how his mental state slowly deteriorates....

 Psychological Thrillers often rely on specific visual iconography to make the viewer feel uneasy.  Some common visual depictions used in Psychological Thrillers are things such as mirrors which are typically used to show Duality, Identity crisis, Hidden Selves or Altered Selves. A good example of this is in the film Oculus (2013) Where the mirror alters perception showing the characters evil and twisted versions of themselves manipulating them their minds.  Labyrinths, Corridors and Stairs: All three are typically used in Psychological Thrillers to portray a characters mind or a descent into paranoia and madness. A good example of this is the film The Shining (1980) where the main character (Jack Torrance) is shown to lose grip on reality due to the hotel's confusing labyrinth like layout and disorienting architecture. The twisting hallways are used to reflect Jack's mind as he loses his sanity. Broken Glass/ Fractured Imagery can be used often used to depict ones fractu...

 The genre I chose to look at Psychological Thriller. In these next posts I am going to be looking at the genre more in depth and analysing different things that define it such as Iconography, Narrative Structure, Character Types, Music/Sound and more.