Psychological Thriller Film Research

We looked at the most popular films of our chosen genre for our opening to investigate their story lines.

One of the most popular psychological thrillers includes Silence Of The Lambs (1991). This film is about a psychiatric who is turned to a serial killer when he gets told to interview a patient at a hospital for the criminally insane.

Another popular psychological thriller is Rear Widow (1954) which is about a man who suspects that his naighbour may have murdered his wife and so turns to his girlfriend and nurse for help.

The Manchurain Candidate (1962) tells the story of dark secrets being held in the government and army and the reoccurring nightmares of two soldiers.

Taxi Drive (1976) is set in New York and shows a taxi driver slowly becoming disturbed by his own loneliness and alienation of the horrible and ugly world in which he reflects on.

American Psycho (2000) is about a man who is living the American dream but at night begins to experiment with fear and violence.

All of the main protagonists in these plots appear to find themselves in potentially dangerous situations unconsciously. The main protagonists all also appear to have lead a standard lifestyle. Also, in each of the films a dark secrete or a mysterious even occurs. In all of these films apart form American Psycho, either no or very little physical damage appears to occur within the film, but rather the event has a psychological impact on the protagonist. 

Research Into The Genre Of Psychological Thriller

As a group we have decided to produce an opening of a major genre-psychological thriller. To understand more about this genre, I have looked into its history.

An early psychological thriller is Gaslight (1944) directed by George Cuckor. It was about a scheming husband trying to make his young wife go insane in order to gain her inheritance.


Alfred Hitchcock is known for being a master of suspense thrillers by "manipulating his audience's fears and desires" and allowed the audience to associate the reality in which the character faced. His films often followed the plot of an innocent victim falling into a life threatening or terrorising situation due to a false accusation or mistaken identity. All of his films also featured similar techniques such as:

• extreme zooms
• cross cutting
• screeching violin scores
• fast paced editing

All of these techniques helped to heighten anticipation and are often used in both thrillers and psychological thrillers today.

Thrillers by Hitchcock include The 39 steps  and The Man Who Knew Too Much.

In a thriller, the conflict between the main protagonists and antagonists is normally physical. However, in a psychological thriller the harm is mental and emotional. In these films, a character is brought into a situation in which they are not prepared to solve. In order to escape the situation they are going to require a a mental source as opposed to a physical one. 

Audience Genre Certification: Romance

The Titanic (1997) was certificated a 12 due to it's sexual nature and mature themes. There is also the use of infrequent mild language. This certifications is a low one, opening the film up to a wider audience and allowing the film industry to make more money. It is common for industries to give their films as lower certification as possible to increase revenue. This film could also be classes as a family film, allowing more families to go and see it together due to the low certification.


The Holiday (2006) was rated a 12A due to the sexual references held and the mature theme for teenagers. Natural nudity is also seen. This means that the film is potentially suitable for children under the age of 12, however they will need adult supervision because parents may feel differently about their child hearing strong language and if the theme is too mature for their child to be viewing.

27 Dresses (2008) is also certified a 12 due to the moderate sex references and strong language. This certification allows the target audience of teenage girls to go and see the film with their friends at the cinema without adult supervision. The low certification also opens the film to younger teenagers as well as older one, increasing revenue and the audience.

This research has shown that the majority of romance films hold a certification of 12 or 12A. This is due to the sexual references made and the possible use of strong language. A romance film may be certified a 15 if stronger, more frequent sexual references are made.

Audience Expectations: Romance

I conducted a survey asking eight people questions about romance films to find out what they expect and enjoy to see in a film of this genre. Romance is one of our potential genres for our film opening, and can help us to create an opening to suit the potential audience. It also allows us to compare different genres for our opening. The survey includes a range of ages and gender, allowing us to see a range of expectations.

The results show that the audience expect a stereotypical boy meets girl romance film certified 12 or 12A. Majority of audience members felt that the main protagonist should be a young adult, and set in the modern day. However, there were mixed views as to if the ending should be happy and how many protagonists should be introduced in the opening.

Within our group, we covered a wide range of genres from romance to action. This is because we wanted to see what people thought of a variety of genres and so that we could gain an understanding of what people would want to see in an opening of each genre. This then allowed us to see what would work well in a student film and what we could produce in the short amount of time we will have to film and on the small budget that we will have. We need to take this into consideration because we do not want our opening to look like a student film, but more professional.

Film Certification

There are a number of reasons why we have film classification:

• To stop people watching something that is not suitable for them
• Legal obligations- to prevent material breaking the law
• Audiences may need protecting from items that may cause them harm
• To consider broader public opinion in mind with regard to language

The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) were created in 1912 and are in charge of classification. In 1984 they passed the video recording act stating that all films for home use must be certified. They also have to make a note of any dangerous or criminal behavior seen in films and also be aware of the law especially those which protect children and animals.

Below are how films are certified: 

• No discriminatory language or behavior unless clearly disapproved of.
• No reference to illegal drugs or misuse unless there is an educational purpose and the use is infrequent.
• Scary sequences should be brief and the outcome should be reassuring.
• No potentially dangerous behaviour which young children are likely to copy.
• Infrequent use of very mild language.
•  Occasional natural nudity with no sexual context.
• Mild sexual behaviour and references only.
• Problematic themes must be sensitive and appropriate for young children.
• Only mild violence and occasional mild threats.
  

 

• Discriminatory language and behaviour is not acceptable unless in a historical or educational context.
• Drug use must carry an anti-drug message.
• Frightening sequences should not be prolonged or intense.
• No detail of potentially dangerous behaviour which young children are likely to copy. Weapons must not be glamorised.
• Mild bad language only.
• Natural nudity, with no sexual context.
• Mild sex references and innuendos only.
• Unacceptable behaviour in more serious issues should be condoned.
• Moderate violence without detail should be justified.

• Discriminatory language and behaviour must be condemned and must not be endorsed on.
• Misuse of drugs must be infrequent, not be glamorised and must not give instructions on how to use them.
• Disturbing sequences must not be frequent but physical and psychological threat may be seen.
• Dangerous behaviour that can be copied should not be dwell on detail.
• Moderate language is allowed but strong language must be infrequent.
• Nudity is allowed but in a sexual context must be discreet.
• Sexual references should not go beyond what are appropriate for a young teenager and sexual activity must be discreetly portrayed.
• Mature themes are acceptable.
• Moderate violence is allowed but should not dwell on detail.

• Must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.
• The film must not promote of encourage drug misuse. 
• Strong threat is allowed unless sadistic.
• Weapons should not be glamorised and dangerous behaviour that could be copied should not dwell on in detail.
• There may be frequent use of strong language.
• Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but not in strong detail.
• There may be strong sexual references but sexual activity must not be shown in strong detail.
• All themes are allowed providing they are appropriate for a fifteen year old.
• Strong violence may be seen but should not dwell upon pain and injury. Gory violence is unlikely to be accepted.

In an 18 and R18 certificated film, adults are considered to be able to watch whatever they please bar a few exceptions such as treatment that may risk harming an individual.

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) was rated a PG because there is no bad language, drug use, discriminatory language or actions and no sexual references. However, there are some scenes that young children could potentially find distressing although the outcome is positive.

Ghost Ship (2002) was rated an 18 because scenes of gore are seen and sexual references are made. Also, there is use of bad language and frightening sequences. Furthermore, activities such as smoking and drinking alcohol are seen as sociably successful.





We need to consider film classification because it will affect our target audience. We want to aim our films at teenage boys, and will be certificated a 15. If we had our film being certificated a 12, we would have to be more careful with the content we show, for example we would not be able to show a lot of violence and would have to consider if we could use the drugs in our opening. This takes an element of our plot line away, and the film we would produce would be less of a psychological thriller, and lean towards a thriller.

Film Opening Remake: Superbad

We have remade the opening of Superbad. By doing this, we have been able to practise with the equipment that we will be using when we film our opening. It has also given us the practise of putting in titles where they should be at the right times and allowed us to experiment with different settings of the editing software. Trying to keep close to the original opening showed us how much consideration we will need to put into our film opening as we will have more to consider. It also reminded us how long the editing process is, and how lighting can effect the quality of the film.

Superbad Shot List

Superbad Shot List This is our shot list for Superbad I created. We created a shot list to we could see what shots we needed to film, where we would film them and considered what we would need to be careful when filming the shot. We also needed to know how long each shot needed to be, so that we could film for slightly longer and then cut it down in the editing process as it is better to have more film than too little.