Thriller Ideas

From watching past As level thriller movies and Cinema Thrillers i have found out a few things that are key to making a thriller effective.
- The lighting should always be quite dark, this exploits the viewers fears of the dark and also leaves the audience with an unawareness of what is going on. Heroes and villains can hide without being seen and it allows a lot more suspense to build up than in a lighter environment.
- The settings that are most effective are those that appear to be places of innocents which don't usually contain violence, such as a kids playground or the comfort of your own home. This in particular is effective as intrusion of homes is very common to this day which allows the story to appear more realistic. (e.g. Roberts home in Disturbia)
- The victim should be visually pleasing towards the intended audience so we can build up a liking for them, that way the scene is even more dramatic as we do not want them to get hurt. (e.g. Jennifer Love Hewitt from "i know what you did last summer.")
- Jumping into a scene without the introduction at the start of a film can be very effective as it is very enigmatic, it makes us ask questions in our head about what is going on. In Momento The man appears to have shot someone in the head but we do not know the reason for his actions, this leaves me to wonder if he is a bad guy or a good guy and makes me more engaged in the film.
-Locations Shots

Characteristics of the Thriller Genre from Saw 2

I think Saw 2 is a great thriller with a very exciting plot, this is because it creates a fictional, real life scenario and makes it seem realistic to the audience. I have broken down the main characteristics of the film into four categories:
Themes - Deception, Illusion, Torture, Entrapment, Vulnerability, Danger, Corruption of innocence, mentally unstable and Memories.

Iconography- Dark rooms, Small rooms, Deadly Traps, Unknown Places, Shadows, Sharp Objects, Blood, Masks and Artificial Light.

Characters - Mental Patients, Victims, Protagonist, Antagonist, Family and Female Victim.

Narrative - Murder, Accidental Death, Self Mutilation, Insanity, Torture and Abduction.