Sound in Thriller Films

Sound Used In Thriller Movies 

In thriller films, the music is used to create tension and suspense within the audience and to make them feel scared and frightened. The music helps to build up a climax when approaching a scary part of film. 

They often include synthesized sounds, this helps to create the mood of the scene in the film. The most commonly used sounds in thrillers are dark, eerie sounds. 

The music usually starts of in a slow pace at first whilst gradually speeding up the pace helping the create the tension and build up climax

There are different types of sound used and there are called, Diegetic and Non Diegetic Sounds and Synchronized Sounds 

Developing Batman

Batman - The Dark Knight Returns

This masterpiece of modern comic’s storytelling brings to vivid life a dark world and an even darker man. Together with inker Klaus Janson and colourist Lynn Varley, writer/artist Frank Miller completely reinvents the legend of Batman in his saga of a near-future Gotham City gone to rot, ten years after the Dark Knight's retirement.

However, most people would disagree that the thriller is not a masterpiece and that it is just an average piece of work from Marvels and that they have been better Batman films made in the past from Marvel.

Evolution of Thrillers

How has thriller movies evolved in recent years due to the improvement in technology?

For better or worse, thriller movies have evolved to become much sleeker with new improvements in special effects. If you look back at some older slashed movies, you’ll notice how much rougher of a cut filmmakers settled upon because practical effects could only go so far. 

There’s also a lovable characteristic to cheesy character effects though, looking back on movies like Night Of The Creeps and laughing coyly off at obvious shots of mannequins with alien slugs crawling out their mouths. 

Practical effects have an undeniable charm, but technological advancements have made it easier to perfect practical effects in the digital stage, coming together in a way that creates a picturesque experience. 

If anything, the CGI work is a post-production safety blanket, but it’s a shame that some see terrible animation as a clear replacement for practical effects. Going the CGI rout can sometimes be cheaper, but there’s a reason for those practical effects will ever be replaces, only improved upon.

Makeup for Thriller films

Makeup For Thriller 

The main bit of thriller movies is probably the makeup aspect,  of these elements is pretty basic –in order to fear something, you have to believe it.

Makeup artists are tasked with transforming an actor into a character so that we forget there’s a person under that heavy coating of makeup.

If Freddy Krueger didn’t look the part, all his nightmare dwelling antics would have been pretty forgettable, and he certainly never would have achieved his iconic status. A thriller character’s look is equally as important as the actor’s performance, because in order to become a monster, you first have to look the part.

Film Review

Film Review Research 

Paranormal Activity By The Guardian

It has been some time since I physically jumped at a scary movie. Horror has become a predictable genre and these days, maggoty skulls can leap out of wardrobes all they want, and we merely yawn.

But in this film, all it took was one bedroom door to move 12 inches, unaided – just that, nothing else – and I felt like leaping into the arms of the person next to me. And there were ­moments when I thought I would not just need to change my trousers, but have them professionally incinerated by a bio hazard disposal team.

This ingenious and often genuinely frightening film is a digital real nightmare, based on the idea of "found" video footage, comparable to The Blair Witch Project and Clover field, lower in budget and humbler in scale than both – but arguably scarier than either.

However, it elegantly solves a problem that always threatened to sink both of those films, particularly Clover field,  how is it that the camera-person so often manages to keep the scary thing more or less in shot? Wouldn't they just drop the camera and run? 

Lighting in Thriller films

Lighting 

Lighting is a very big thing for thriller movies. Think back to when you were a small child, I’m sure you owned a nightlight, right? Everyone is afraid of the dark at some point because that’s where the meanest, nastiest monsters can hide without being seen. 

Thriller movies love manipulating darkness because they can hide creatures and have them emerge in the most dramatic fashion. How many times has a thriller protagonist burst from the shadows and scared the daylights out of viewers? A cloaking darkness makes for grander reveals and bigger scares. 

Darkness is a thriller movie filmmaker’s best friend, and with found footage movies we now have even more ways to play with darkness with night vision mode, only making our fears of the dark that much more sensible.

                                         

Location research

A forest is a good location for a thriller film and this is due to the isolation and that cold chill that it provides, it also creates a tension for the viewer, as it seems as if the character is lost.

We think that using a forest would be a suitable location for our movie because it is a quiet, almost lifeless location. Forests are very commonly used locations throughout the thriller opening sequences, made in the past, therefore this may be the best location as it doesn’t show much diversity.

Forests also give the audience a chill for example when the antagonist steps on a broken branch and then silence falls in the film.

Also a key feature is that effects like the broken branch make the actors react to the situation so it creates an element of suspense which is good when attracting an audience.

When thinking of the locations near me at the school we have a forest that could be used, this is just an idea at the moment but I would like to do some location scouting in this place to see how we could use and how it could link to a thriller genre.

Thriller conventions

What Makes A Thriller Movie "Scary" 

There’s one simple constant that makes a good thriller  movie – fear. The whole reason I watch thriller movies is to get a good scare. No matter what method a thriller movie might choose, whether it be a zombie movie, creature feature, vampire flick – anything – if there’s no fear present, then something is wrong. 

A good thriller movie has to be smart, respectful of its audience, atmospherically tense, original, and everything else, but most importantly, it’s got to be scary. 

The good thing is directors are finding more and more ways to achieve scares, be it found footage film making or wild monster creations, as technological advancements are opening doors that lead to entirely new realms of thriller. Show me something fierce, confident, spine-tingling and fresh.

Props in films

The props generally uses in many Thriller films consist of weapons such as guns, explosives, knives, etc... These all contribute to adding suspense and a lot of tension to a thriller film, especially in particular scene like for example Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock.

The use of weapons can establish an audience who is the antagonist or protagonist, depending on the narrative. Thriller films such as 'Psycho', 'The Stepfather' and ' What Lies Beneath' borrow aspects of props from each other. These are the conventions that are expected to be seen in a Thriller film. 

Many other props within a thriller film uses aspects of other thriller film props such as the shiny knife, the white shower curtain, the dripping bathroom/kitchen tap and blood (fake blood). 

Props make it easier to replicate realistic situations without having to implicate the actors' safety which without the use of props would be difficult for an audience to understand the reality to the killings or fatal injuries shown in thriller films. 

As with most props, from my research I have discovered that dummies or stunt doubles are used to enable the filming of certain situations which would otherwise harm the actors themselves. 

Mise en scene research

Mise En Scene

. The location is important for the film because it helps the audience understand the theme

. Lightning is often low key

. Costumes – antagonist will be in dark clothes if you see them. While the protagonist will be in 

everyday clothes

. Composition

. Makeup and hair styles

. Acting

. Film stroke ( Black and White, or colour, Fine grain or grainy)

The role of the anatagonist

In thriller movies, the costumes range depending on the characters and the time the movie is set in, however in thriller movies, most movies made in this genre are made to the present time and characters in the movies wear typical clothing.

However in general the characters will wear formal clothing and look well dressed, but for the characters that play villains in the movie, they will tend to wear clothes that emphasizes there build and make them appear more powerful.

Also the clothing that the villain wears is often dark clothing, but also characters can wear a single piece of clothing that is in a bold colour like yellow or red, as this draws our attentions and singles them out if in a large crowd for example the Joker in Batman.

Females in thriller movies, especially characters who are often the damsel in distress wear red to show they are attractive and the colour red helps the female stand out from the rest.

Opening Sequence

This film opening started with a quote which says "and they descended upon the earth to strengthen their ranks" this is very effective because it makes the audience start to think before the film as already started and the quote itself has a kind of thriller behind it, if you read it, it shows that there will be some kind of war, showing that this thriller has a lot of action behind it.