Genre Research - Characters

The characters of Psychological Thrillers are arguably the most important part of the whole films due to the storylines revolving more around them and their internal thought processes rather than what is happening around them compared to other genres. Typically characters of this genre tend to be in a bad place in their life which is making them miserable or suffering from some form of mental illness such as depression, schizophrenia, anxiety etc.

My first example of a character from a psychological thriller is Norman Bates. Norman is a character from Alfred Htichcock's Psycho. As I described generally earlier Norman is a very psychological tormented character who has a very unhealthy and emotionally abusive relationship with his mother which has taken a toll on his mental health. Unlike most other characters who suffer these problems in psychological thrillers Norman is the antagonist of this film as he is the killer, however I still believe the same values apply to him and I suppose in some respects he could be an example of how these ,mental issues the characters suffer with can affect them mentally and make them psychopaths. We see how much of an effects Norman's mother had on him in the infamous shower scene in which he actually dresses as his mother to kill the young woman. This suggests that Norman's character has partly been taken over by his mother and due to her abuse to him, it has effected his mental well-being greatly. This is further suggested later on in the film when the audience discovers that Norman has kept his mothers skeleton.

However despite Norman being a fantastic example of the struggles that characters suffer in psychological thrillers he is not exactly a character I want to take much inspiration from towards our own film due to him being a killer and him not being able to overcome his psychological trauma.

A character who is more related to our own protagonist from our short film is Edward Norton's character from Fight Club. This character who is never named throughout the film is in many respects one of the key inspirations for the character of our film. He is suffering from many mental issues as he seems to be depressed and searching for thrills in his life, this comes from his distaste of his boring office job which he hates and he is actually suffering from insomnia. during the film when he finds Tyler Burden and starts fight club it seems that he is enjoying his life but as we know at the end of the film it is discovered that Tyler Burden is him and he is just a figment of his imagination, the man he has always wished he was with an exciting life and who is great with women. Just like Norman Bates as the film progresses this alter ego starts to take over him and he becomes out of control and in essence becomes a terrorist. However unlike bates Edward Norton's character is able to overcome his psychological torment and triumph. I believe this character is one of the best examples of a character from a psychological thriller due to him struggling with internal dilemmas and also external problems that are causing his life to go downhill.  In my opinion this scene perfectly encapsulates how the characters mental state and personality changes as Tyler becomes a bigger part of him.