Iconography of Pyscological Thrillers

Iconography is the visual images and symbols used in a specific genre of film. In physiological thrillers, iconography is very important as it is what sets the atmosphere and the mood for the film. 

Shadows


Shadows are used alot in psychological thrillers and they link to low key lighting, they can also depict a sense of mystery, danger, and sometimes they can foreshadow close events. When shadows are used in a film with this genre, they can expect to get anxious, intimidated and scared of the events which may unfold in the story when shadows are used. The audience will try to anticipate what will happen next and this is what will make them sit on the edge of their seats drawn in and fully immersed to the world on screen.


Low Key Lighting

Again linking with shadows, low key lighting is used in physiological thrillers to depict a sense of danger, uncertainty, and mystery. This all makes the audience feel unsettled and disturbed when this is used. Alot of films can use low key lighting where it only shows half of the light on to something, this is usually a characters body or face. This is used not only to scare and unsettle, but to show the split in the characters personalty and attitude, which in some cases can be dangerous and result in violence. This is a visual metaphor that there is more to the character than meets the eye, and infarct there is more depth to that character, than perceived by his appearance.

Weapons

Weapons have strong iconography towards physiological thrillers. Yes, action films seem to have the most iconography towards weapons, but a lot of people associate weapons to be in some physiological  thrillers. It is an aspect as well as they symbolise danger and have connotations to death and injury. Weapons such as knifes are heavily associated to physiological thriller films because of  example films like "Psycho" where they had Alfred Hitchcock`s famous shower scene. When a weapon is seen, it will symbolise that somebody will get killed or the wielder has bad intentions and it allows the seriousness of the situation to be understood by the audience. 

Mirrors

Mirrors are often used in thrillers to symbolise the duality of the character, or the deeper meaning to their motives. It shows their emoticons and feelings deep inside. We can see from this symbolism that there is more to the character mentally which is shown, allowing for mystery to surround that character along with the suspense of the audience wanting to find out whatever it is.







Confined spaces/claustrophobia

In psychological thrillers a lot of films use confined spaces to scare the audience and also to give the idea of insecurity to the audience, which should make them very uncomfortable and uneasy when watching the film. 

Settings and Locations of Psycological Thrillers

The setting of a psychological thriller film varies from locations and story lines however commonly used settings are: Wooded areas, haunted houses and rural areas. However depending on the story line psychological thrillers can be based anywhere.
In the psychological thriller 'Sinister' it was set in a rural area, a small town surrounded with a lot of wooded areas, most of the film was shot in and around the house where the family lived.

Normal day to day settings

Houses and normal day to day settings are wildly common settings used in psychological thrillers because it is part of people day to day lifes, so it adds a factor of immersion and worry because it makes the audience feel like it could happen to them so they feel more connected to the character because he lifes an average day to day life, in a setting like this. People are supposed to feel safe in there homes and in their day to day lifes, but danger is commonly linked with being outside and in the open world and in the unknown. Stuff that commonly happen in physiological thrillers happening in normal settings for people, makes it that moire surreal and interesting.


Cities

Cities are another popular setting in the physiological thrillers. This is because the large crowds of population you can find in the city and the feelings of being ignored and walked past and people ignoring the subtle things and what the one character is feeling in a crowd of hundreds. It messes with the mind and adds scale, because out of a big crowd, you wont know who is going through these physiological issues and whats happening in everyones lifes. They are also used as a metaphor for a state of claustrophobia and not being able to escape because of the scale of the city and the walls surrounding it as building, adding to the mind trickery of the setting.

Weather

Weather can aslo mirror characters feelings in the particular setting. A stromy setting would connatetae feelings of sadness, loss, anger, and deporession, etc. This is because storms are seen as bad,, and have that imagaery behind them. But on the otherhand, if its sunny it may lead the audience to beleive that it is happiness, coming of peace and a resolutuion at the end of a film.

Senssitivty

Carrying on from the weather setting, sensitivity of a setting can be used to show how negative the state of a character is. A mild grey dusk conveys less fear and emotion than a pitch black stormy woodland.

Offices/Workplaces

This setting revolves around is usually formed around the idea where a character despises his job and always repeats the same process: Wake up, go to work, go home, sleep, repeat. It also revolves around the idea of  "work making you go crazy" which is a common theme used. This gives the audience an insight of the character's life and allows them to sympathise with them.

Conclusion
Since phycological thrillers are meant to work on the mind and manipulate the mind if the protagonist and the audience in some ways, the initial use and connotations received from these settings are not to be ignored as they have so many metaphors and meanings behind the thought out locations and settings The hidden meanings of the setting can amplify and emotions and feelings. For example, in shutter island (Dir, Scorse, 2010) many claustrophobic and close up shots are meant to illustrate DiCaprio`s character`s "trapped in" state of mind at that point if the film. Many shots of bare brick walls and sweeping pans of the island demonstrate the isolation he goes through and this is shown also by the desolate living space.

Genre Research- Storyline

What is a psychological thriller?

Psychological thriller is one of the many numerous sub genres of thriller. Some of the main themes include reality, mind, perception, death and existence. In this genre, the main character is usually battling himself mentally which leads to the idea of an "inner demon" and personality disorders. This creates severe interest for the audience and even tempt them to view it multiple times to discover any secrets due to the complex story lines that psychological thriller provide.


Another key aspect in psychological thrillers story lines are flashbacks and/or visions. Flashbacks are used in this genre to emphasises an event that has happened, usually a death of someone close to the main character. This creates a sense of mystery and the flashback is usually extended as the character gets closer to solving the mystery. This entices the audience and encourages them to keep up with the character's progress. Visions are mainly used to emphasise a character's unstable state, often showing repeated images until the climax is reached.


A great example of flashbacks is in Memento (2000) which tells the story of man who is suffering from amnesia and the last he remembers is the murder of his wife. Throughout the story, he attempts to find the murderer and as the story progresses, more of the past is revealed.

In the clip, the main character is seen holding a book and then a flashback is shown with his murdered wife holding the same book. This puts the audiences on the edge and maximises their curiosity.