In order for a film to belong to the 'Thriller' film genre,the film would be required to use a variety of specific film Codes in order to create the gripping mood for a film as well as using the elements of intensity,mystery and suspense for the sole purpose of 'thrilling' the film's audience.
The thrilling codes that are commonly used in a Thriller film in order to increase the anxiety and anticipation of the film's audience are ,scenes of violences,sinister themes such as murder, horror elements,filming techniques such as sinister, ominous digetic sound, dimly lit lighting, fast paced scenes, P.O.V shots, slow panning camera movement etc.
These are important to be used during the making of the film as if Thriller film did not use a fair amount of thrilling techniques , it's final product would come off as being boring and very subtle, therefore the film, would have failed as a Thriller.
The formula of a common Thriller would involve the film's protagonist being unwilling placed into the film's dilemma which that is very life threatening to the protagonist, a loved one of the protagonist or a large number of people. In this genre the most common dilemmas that a protagonist would need to overcome would most often be found in the sub genre 'Crime Thriller' in which the protagonist would be established as a normal working class person who would later be be inadvertently caught up in a type of crime or conspiracy caused by the films antagonist. Later on in the film the protagonist will then be set up against a series of thrilling,life threating and suspencefull predicaments devised by the antagonist because they have discovered something that could ruin the antagonist's plans which could possibly lead to the antagonist being incarcerated as the villains schemes are most likely to be illegal.
In the cases of a few spy thrillers the protagonist's character is established as being an ordinary person to the audience, but as the film progresses it will be revealed to the audience that the Thriller's protagonist has had a previous relationship or affliction with the antagonist or their organization .The protagonist's previous connection to the film's villain is often set up as being ambiguous to the protagonist(due to a kind of memory loss) and to the audience so that they can then eventually discover his or her previous past. This revalation will then cause the antagonist to target the protagonist in particular because they know information that could potentially damage the antagonist or his plans .
An example of this kind of Thriller story plot can be the 2011 conspiracy thriller 'Unknown', which stars Liam Neeson. In this film Neeson plays a working class american doctor called Martin Harris who had been caught in a car accident which had caused had him to become comatized in hospital for four days with him suffering from memory loss as a result. Once he was discharged from the hospital he discovers that his wife claims that she does not know who he is and that she believes her husband is another man has been using his identity and also owns and ID card with Neeson character's personal information on it along with a family photo that includes the character of Harris' wife and the imposter. Throughout the course of this film Harris also encounters a group of deadly assassins that have been sent to kill him for an unknown reason. Near the climax of the film Harris then confronts the film's main antagonist who is the head of a secret organization of assassins who was acting as a colleague of Neeson's character. The antagonist then reveals that the protagonist's alias 'Martin Harris' is a false name and that Neeson's character is in fact an assassin who is a member of the the antagonist's secret organization. It is also revealed that in the film's introduction the protagonist was attempting to carry out an assassination attempt , but could not because of the accident he had endured. It is at this point where the audience realises that the reason the protagonist cannot recall himself being a mercenary before is because of the head injury that he had sustained in the car accident that had caused him memory loss. In addition the protagonist also discovers that the characters of his wife and the imposter are also spy assassins that were his colleagues and that the reason the other man took the identity of 'Martin Harris' was so that he could carry out the protagonists failed mission in the his absence.
However the protagonist could also be established as a person who is a member of a type of law enforcement organization (such as a police officer who would be prepared to face these predicaments as they would see it as his or her duty to put an end to this problem) and would be faced with a predicament that is most often either a kidnapping, mystery or murder(or series of murders).
An example of this kind of thriller could be 1995 crime thriller film 'Se7en' which is directed by David Fincher and stars Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman as two american homicide detectives that are out to catch a mystery killer who is responsible for a series of murders that all represent each of seven deadly sins (hence the film's name:Se7en).
No comments:
Post a Comment