Discuss the genre conventions in three films and compare how they appear to an audience.

The three thriller films that I have chosen are; Psycho which is a 1960’s psychological horror thriller and is one of the first thrillers ever produced, directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock and was based on the novel ‘Psycho’ by Robert Bloch; Gone Girl which is a 2014 psychological thriller directed by Davis Fincher and based on the book Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and finally Coraline which is a fantasy thriller directed written and produced by Henry Selick and based on Neil Gailman’s book also called Coraline.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho was the first major thriller film and as a result of that has all of the conventions that are typically associated with that genre of film and although as time had gone by and films have interpreted these conventions in a different manner generally Psycho is the basis on which all thrillers have followed and taken some kind of inspiration from. The convention associated with psycho is that there is a pretty blond female victim really highlighting how vulnerable the character is and also attracting male viewers this is the male gaze theory, a male murder, an isolated house in a rural area so it seems that there is no place that the victim can escape to creating a panicked feeling, bad weather as some kind of foreshadowing for the bad events to come or pathetic fallacy, and a mind twisting storyline that makes the audience question everything that happened during the course of the film. The opening titles for Psycho are presented in a very clever way, only three colours are used in the titles black, white and grey. These colours come together using a jagged effect and jointing together, possibly symbolising the idea of split personality. When the title Psycho appears on the screen it is more prominent and abrupt really drawing attention to the title which creates a atmosphere of tenseness and fear.  In the first scene the victim is presented to us her costume is really important as not only does it further prove the male gaze theory but the colour of her underwear, all white, connotes innocence and a form of purity and vulnerability in her however when we learn more about the character and that she is not so innocent, her underwear changes from white to black making the audience associated her with danger and a sense of mislead.  The non-diegetic music that is played in the opening make the opening more mysterious and tense, also the music is rather distorted which links to the main ideas behind the film.  Overall the film Psycho is constantly making the audience feel uncomfortable and panicked throughout the entirety of the film.

The film Gone girl is a 2014 psychological thriller and as it is rather modern had changed or entirely missed out on some of the conventions that we saw in Psycho.  Before the narrative of the film even starts the audience Is already put into a state of emergency as the titles are only on the screen for around 3 seconds, making the audience feel forced to rush to read the names (in a similar way to Psycho the titles already put us in a state of alarm and may foreshadow to events that may happen in the rest of the film). The, also, non-diegetic music is rather different to psycho as it is more slow paced however just as effectively gives of an eerie atmosphere which also add to the sense of emergency for the audience. Similar to Psycho the first shot of a character that we, the audience, see is of a blond woman head with a man’s hand stroking her hair. Without the need for any dialogue this scene creates tension because of the slowness of the man’s hand on her head and also because it seems to give of some kind of possessive attitude that the man may have over the woman, showing a rather stereotyped relationship between men and women. While this acting of taking place the first piece of dialogue we hear is the words “I picture cracking her lovely scull” this almost immediately adds a psychopathic image for the man in this shot as it is a hugely violent phrase, which  makes the reader feel worried for this ‘poor’ woman. Although we then find out later on that this woman is his wife allowing the audience to realise that he is just referring to the fact that their marriage is breaking down. Then the girl turns around and we see her face properly and it is almost as if she is looking into the camera making the audience feel a connection towards her. The location is in a rather urban area which is quite different to a typical thriller however as it is a modern film set recently it may be vital to the film. What is strange but clever about this film is that we think the woman is the victim and the male is the antagonist however it is the opposite way round, which would probably be a surprise for the audience and make them feel uneasy as they don’t know what the film is going to throw at them, this also is a good way of challenging the stereotypes of gender roles. Generally this film uses the majority of conventions that are typical to a thriller and that’s what makes it a good, tense and exciting film however the way they have change these features as well has made it stand out and not only makes the audience question what is really going on but also how they hold and see thrillers as a genre of film.

The film Coraline is a 2009 stop-motion animated thriller fantasy film. It is a rather peculiar thriller as it although it follows the conventions of a thriller it is also a children film (PG) so it has to stay within the boundary of what that entails. Coraline sets the tone of a thriller in the opening with really sinister music that creates a mood of comfortableness and shows us that this film is not going to be like all the other typical PG rated films. Also the lighting in the opening scene (which is low key lighting) also adds to that tense

uncomfortable atmosphere making the audience feel really intrigued into what type of a film this is generally going to be. The supernatural vibe we get from this film with the monster/needle hands is not typical for a thriller film as thrillers usually are focused on fact and what can be proved and not on things that cannot be proven, however this makes it, in my opinion, a better film for the audience (which is made up of mainly children) as it shows that the antagonist if not a real thing in real life and that these events are not
able to be replicated making it less scary for the young children, but can also be seen as taking away a vital aspect of thriller (the possibility that this could happen to you). This film is the only film out of the three that I have chosen that shows women (in this case a women monster and a young girl) as being bot the antagonist and protagonist. Overall I think Coraline is a really interesting and clever (and personally one of my favourite) films and cunningly navigates the fact that it’s a child’s film but also being careful not to lose what makes it a thrilling and genuinely scary film.

Generally these films are all extremely different yet rather similar but I feel that there is no way of being able to choose which of off these films see more effect as they  are all so different and for different audiences. Personally I feel that my favourite is Coraline as it plays with the typical conventions and make it into its own film, however I do also appreciate Psycho as the first mainstream film that was created that was a thriller. Overall I believe that each of these films hold their own in the thriller genre and all effectively establish what a thriller film is.