Last but not least, is Secret Window it is a 2004 American psychological thriller film starring Johnny Depp and John Turturro. It was written and directed by David Koepp, based on the novella Secret Window, Secret Garden by Stephen King. In the plot, successful author Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp) suffers a psychotic break when he catches his wife, Amy (Maria Bello) having an affair.
Secret Window is another one of my personal favourites, because their is a contrast between fantasy and the real world and this sets up tension and a clash with reality as the viewers do not know what wll happen next.
Another one of my favourite thiller films is Panic Room, a 2002 American thriller film directed by David Fincher and written by David Koepp. The film stars Jodie Foster, Kristen Stewart, Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, Dwight Yoakam and Patrick Bauchau. The plot is about a mother and daughter taking refuge in a safe room during a break-in of their home by three robbers who are after millions of dollars stored in a safe.
Panic Room is one of my personal favourites, because it is linked to reality therefore viewers are more likely to relate which makes them feel in suspense. It adds tension, as the daughter suffers an asthma attack and cannot get the safety she needs as the robbers are restricting her. There is also a sense of despair as poeple who tried to help the mother and daughter ended up getting killed, on a lighter note one of the robbers turns in favour of the mother and daughter and helps them escape.
One of my personal favourite thriller film is Taken, this is a 2008 French action thriller film co-written and produced by Luc Besson, staring Liam Nesson, Maggie Gracie and Famke Janssen.
The screenplay was written by Besson and Robert Mark Karmen, and directed by Pierre Morel.
Liam Nesson's role is a former U.S CIA operative who sets about tracking down his daughter after she is kidnapped by human taffickers while travelling in France.
Taken is one of my personal favourites, because it gives a real sense of suspense to the audience, and it keeps the viewers on edge wanting to know what will happen. It also gives the aspect of danger that the viwers can relate in an extreme sense, to this is why it is so effective when getting across fear to the audience as it is based on extreme real life situations that are going on in the world to innocent people.
American Gangster is a 2007 American biographical drama crime thriller film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Steve Zaillian. The film is based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War before being detained by a task force lead by detective Richie Roberts. It features Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe in leading roles, with Ted Levine, John Ortiz, Josh Brolin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Norman Reedus, Ruby Dee and Lymari Nadal in supporting roles.
A History of Violence is a American crime thriller film directed by David Cronenberg and written by Josh Olson. It is an adaptation of the 1997 graphic novel of the same name by John Wagner and Vince Locke. The film stars Viggo Mortensen as the owner of a dinner who is thrust into the spotlight after killing two robbers in self-defense.
8mm is a 1999 American mystery thriller film, which was directed by Joel Schumacher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. Starring Nicolas Cage who is a private investigator who delves in the world of snuff film.
Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American crime-thriller film directed by Quentin Tarantino, who co-wrote the screenplay with Roger Avary. It has a non-linear storyline as it is known for its electric dialogue, ironic mix of humor and violence. This film was nominated for seven Oscars, including best picture; and Tarantino and Avary won for Best Original Screenplay.
Matt Damon was born on October 8, 1970, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Damon's acting career took off after starring in and writing Good Will Hunting with friend Ben Affleck. The duo won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in 1997 for that film. Damon is well known for his role in the Bourne series in which his his character is Jason Bourne a former CIA assassin suffering with psychogenic amnesia. He plays a heroic character with a tormenting past, destined to find out who he is. He also appears in Oceans; eleven, twelve and thirteen.
Angelina Jolie was born in Los Angeles, California on June 4, 1975. She stared in the HBO biopic Gina before earning a supporting actress Oscar for Girl and Interrupted. She's become one of Hollywood's top marquee names and is well known for her role as Lara Croft in in the Tomb Raider series (2001). Unlike most female role in thriller films, she is portrayed as a protagonist (hero) character, she is portrayed as very powerful even over men and is a great role model for young women. She plays similar roles in Mr and Mrs Smith (2005), The Wanted (2008) and Salt (2010).
Janet Leigh was born in Merced, California, on July 6, 1927. Her first film was The Romance of Rosy Ridge (1947), moreover she was cast in numerous films in the late 1940's and early 1950's.
Leigh's most successful films include Little Women (1949), Angels in the Outfield (1951), Scaramouche (1952), The Black Sheild of Falworth (1954) and Orsen Welle's film noir Touch of Evil (1958).
However, she is best known for her shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960)- which was annouced one of the most terrifying moments ever commited to film. She won a Golden Globe award for her performance and was nominated for an Academy award for best supporting actress. One of the most famous scenes that gripped and shocked people the most in psycho was the shower scene, this scene adds a lot of suspense and tension and really gets the viewers heart pouding. Janet Leigh plays this role very well:
David Croenburg is a very famous Canadian thriller director who focuses on the psychological horrors of our minds and started writing short gory films at a young age. He made his first thriller film in 1975- The Gore Filled Shivers.
He then won a genie award in 1984 for directing the feature Videodrome (1983):
Croenburg won more awards for Dead Ringers (1988), Naked Lunch (1991), Crash (1996)and Eastern Promises (2007).
Born in London (1970), Christopher Nolan a British-American thriller director whose narrative structures most often reflect the mental construction of the characters he uses in it. He began making films at the age of 7 and he directed his first film "Following" in 1998. The film depicts an unemployed young writer who trails strangers through London, hoping that they will provide inspiration for his first novel, but ends up being drawn into a criminal underworld when he fails to keep his distance.
He has directed many films such as: Memento (2000), The Prestige (2006), Batman-The Dark Knight (2008) and Inception (2012):
Memento- is an American neo-noir psychological thriller film. It is presented as two different sequences of scenes; a series in black-and-white (that are shown chronologically) and a series of colour sequences in reverse order- these two sequences then meet at the end of the film.
The Prestige- is a British-American mystery thriller film. The story follows Robert Angier and Alfred Borden, rival stage magicians in London at the end of the 19th century. Obsessed with creating the best stage illusion, they engage in a competitive one-upmanship with tragic results.
Batman- The Dark Knight- is a superhero film, which show Batman his childhood friends and the police combating the new rising threat the Joker.
Inception- is a British-American science fiction thriller film. Inception the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious.
Hitchcock believed that everything in the making of a screenplay is done for the audience and that nothing is more important than how each scene is going to affect the viewer. He made sure that the content engaged the audience and reeled them in, he manipulated the use of his characters to tease the viewer and pull them along desperately wanting to know more.
Portraying emotion was one of Hitchcock greatest highlights and he knew what camera angles best showed emotion that would add suspense to the audience and allow the audience to relate as they could understand this emotion. A close-up really focuses on emotion as it shows the characters eyes and very little background. The intensity of emotion can be controlled by placing the camera further away or closer to the characters eyes.
One of Hitchcock's techniques includes allowing the camera shots to have human qualities such as when looking around in a room (for something suspicious), this allows the viewers to feel like they are involved in uncovering the story.
This is a brief part of a documentary made of Alfred Hitchcock's film techniques:
Alfred Hitchcock, acknowledged as the "Master of cinematic suspense", he is described by many as one of the most famous thriller directors of all time.
Born in London, August 13th, 1899, Hitchcock entered the film industry in 1920. He left for Hollywood in 1939 where he won an Academy Award for best picture for his first American film, Rebecca. He created more than 50 films, the classics including;
Rear Window (1954), The 39 Steps (1935)and Psycho (1960).
In 1925 , Hitchcock directed his first film film and began making the thrillers for which he became world famous for, his works became renowned for their depictions of violence.
Psycho was one of Hitchcock's most famous thriller films and left people with horror and fear as screams where heard from the cinema.
A new film was released on the 8th of February 2013 called Hitchcock;
Synopsis
Anthony Hopkins plays legendary director Alfred Hitchcock and Helen Mirren is Hitch's wife Alma Reville in this witty biographical drama. As the 'Master of Suspense,' Hitchcock extended a powerful influence over cinema and generations of directors. He forever sealed his reputation with the release of his ground breaking 1960 horror, Psycho, one which turned the shower into an object of pure terror. Now Sacha Gervasi's affectionate film takes a peek behind the (shower) curtain, exploring the marriage between Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) and Alma Reville (Helen Mirren) as it plays out against the backdrop of this cinematic masterpiece. From the financial difficulties that arise out of Hitchcock's decision to fund the movie himself to the pressures Reville feels as she supports her husband from the sidelines, Gervasi's film takes a fresh look at this monumental figure. Screen siren Scarlett Johansson co-stars as the unforgettable Janet Leigh whose role as the ill-fated Marion Crane was to terrify audiences worldwide.
Characteristics of a thriller are knowngeneric conventionsthese are the aspects that we expect there to be in a thriller such as;
The plot- a thriller will generally show justice and injustice (good and evil) fighting against each other, adding the overall feel of suspense. Most commonly the identity of the antagonist (villain) is known and the role of the protagonist (hero) must intervene with their plans. Thriller films usually have a growing sense of threat and danger, and mainly show a clear sense of pursuit.
The Characters- generally in thrillers there are two main characters; the antagonist (villain) and the protagonist (hero) whom is set apart from each other according to how the audience views them. Most commonly the heroes are men who are accustomed to danger in their everyday lifestyle or job (for example; policemen, spies, etc), but can be ordinary people who are dragged into danger by accident. The aim of the hero is usually to defeat evil and will prevail even if nothing goes accordingly to their plan. Moreover the villains are most commonly men also, and are typically tall or well-built and have a shady sense around them that gives the impression to the audience that they should not be trusted. If their identity is secret for the majority of the film the villain tends to have a physical deformity, or a traumatic experience that has changed their outlook on life or humanity, they usually work alone. Other supporting characters are usually on the heroes’ side and will either attempt to help him or betray him and leave to support the villain. Female roles are often innocent and helpless (damsel-in-distress) until her help is needed, when she will become the savoir of the hero(es) and support them.
The types of costume that different characters wear are typical and generic. Generally most characters appear smartly dressed or of the least well-dressed, costumes vary in different types of thrillers and settings for example in James Bondfilms, the characters usually appear in suits whereas in Memento the main character mainly wears a shirt with the top button undone with smart pants (achieving a casual look).
Often the villain wears a form-fitting costume to emphasize their build and therefore their power (i.e: leather trousers or/and jacket) this creates a contrast with the hero. Depending on the sub-genre of a thriller, female characters will either wear a costume that covers them up or reveals a lot. One prominent feature of the costumes are the colours used as they represent the personality of the character; villains appear in dark colours (black), while innocent young characters wear pastel or light colours (white). A bright and shocking colour is used for the hero (red) to draw attention to them and show their differences to the main party. Red is also used for an alluring female to show that they are attractive.
Iconography (setting, mise-en-scene, props, colours)- The general setting of a thriller is an urban city.
The main colours are usually grey, black and white to emphasize the helplessness of the first character we see, they can also be set in quiet country villages where everyone leads poor and simple lives; often the villain will come from a small village. There are only a small range of colours used, the main being black and grey if set in a city environment to show how normal and mundane life is. The colours used also reflect the scene, for example if there is a recurring theme of red it represents danger. The key camera shots used in thriller films are either shots with many movements or a steady (still) shot, in many cases, scenes with a lot of dialogue have a steady shot to focus more on the characters than the background. When there is more than one character in a specific scene the director will use a range of camera shots such as; mid shot, two shot and close up to represent how they relate to each-other. When there is an action scene taking place the camera moves around a lot, and increasing cut rate allows the audience to feel more involved in the action, this therefore keeps them on the edge of their seat as they do not know what is going to happen next. Movement shots are also used when something has gone wrong in the scene and there is a sense of vulnerability, this builds up the suspense the audience expect and want. The lighting, more often than not is dim and can hide parts of the character or environment which gives the sense of mystery to the audience and the sense that the character is not who they originally thought, this is used mainly for villains as it creates a feel of suspense and anticipation for the audience. Weapons are usually used for the main props in thriller films, either large weapons or easily identifiable weapons such a knives or swords or loud and threatening such as guns or bombs.
Last but not least, is Secret Window it is a 2004 American psychological thriller film starring Johnny Depp and John Turturro.
