Genre Conventions:

Genre Conventions:

Psychological Thriller



Norman Bates looking through a hole.
Example of voyeurism

 Psychological thrillers are films of suspense. The audience can predict what is going to happen later in the film, or even in the next scene, as they become familiar themselves with the conventions of a thriller, however, the psychological thriller delays the action, leaving the audience in a state of suspense as they know what’s about to happen, but the victim doesn’t. This ultimately creates fear and apprehension in the audience. Alfred Hitchcock was the master of suspense as he built it up leaving the audience on the edge of their seat, waiting in anticipation for the murder to take place. In ‘Psycho’ (1960), for example, we, the audience, know that Marion Crane is going to die at the hands of Norman Bates, as we have been watching her, unseen, as we peep through the holes in the wall, alongside him. However, we don’t know when or how she is going to die. This voyeuristic shot exemplifies the conventional use of voyeurism in psychological thrillers, often featuring sequences of  Point of view shots of women, not knowing they are being watched, just like Marion Crane. The audience, when the murder has taken place (it is also worth noting that thrillers almost always feature a murder, especially with a female victim) feel a sense of relief as they have been watching the victim through the eyes of the murderer, know his thoughts, as we begin to have them ourselves put in the same situation as the attacker and victim, but we don’t know when or how it will take place, so when we are finally shown the murder taking place, the audience is no longer at the edge of their seat; they are relaxed.

Iconic scene from 'Psycho';
the killer using a knife

The psychological thriller plays on our very own fears by drawing on infantile, and therefore mostly repressed, fantasies, which are voyeuristic and sexual in nature. This is the reason behind the conventional use of the attacker having sexual motivations, and therefore often strangles their victim to death. However, in some instances a knife is also a prime example of a murder weapon in a psychological thriller. The main underlying themes of a conventional psychological thriller is based around voyeurism and fetishism. In most psychological thrillers, we view the film through the perspective of the killer, stalking the victim, mentioned above. However, the strange thing about this is the additional fetishism. The audience enjoy watching the victim, knowing that they don’t know they’re being watched, however, we project ourselves on the victim, so when they are eventually murdered, we feel remorse. We become the killer, and then we become the victim.



Norman Bates' mother -
The source of his madness.



Other common themes in psychological thrillers include sadomasochism, madness and, again, voyeurism, mixed together to form a deadly antagonist. For example, the killer often spies or stalks and then ensnares his victim in a series of intricate and sadistic moves, waiting to strike. Of course, when he does strike, he is quite often successful. This of course sounds extremely strange, but even Alfred Hitchcock’s antagonists had sexual motivation, often strangling the victim as a means to kill them, and it is commonly well-acknowledged that this was one of his motifs. Conventionally, the killer is often psychotic and his madness is his motivation. Were the madness came from, however, is quite often the result of bad parenting, as seen in many iconic psychological thrillers such as Michael Powell’s ‘Peeping Tom’ (1960). This film positions the audience as voyeur-directors and also as the victim, aforementioned above, and the antagonist ‘Mark Lewis’ as well as Norman Bates (the antagonist in ‘Psycho’) both had bad parents. Norman Bates had an overbearing mother, which is reflected in the narrative as, when she dies, he can’t cope and develops an alternate personality, that of his mothers. Mark Lewis, similarly, has an overbearing dad which led to his insanity. Sibling rivalry has also been the cause of the madness, as well as previous bad relationships.



The killer in 'Disturbia' is
the next door neighbour...






Shot taken from Alfred Hitchcock's 'Frenzy'
showing murders in
London, UK: It's scary because it's supposed
to be safe.

Thrillers represent fantasy more so than real life. However, what makes them scary is the fact they have an aura of ‘the possible’ about them. The audience go to see horror films and psychological thrillers with the intention of getting scared. Of course the psychological thriller is dissimilar from a horror film as it is scary in a different way. Horror films, especially at the beginning of the popularisation of the psychological thriller, feature monsters such as vampires and werewolves as well as modern creations which are destined to frighten the audience. However the psychological thriller frightens the audience by featuring an average normal person, who could quite easily be the spectator’s next door neighbour, as the antagonist/murdered. This creates a sense of realism about the genre as the audience will go home thinking that they could be killed at any moment, being stalked without them even knowing, as they just saw it happen right in front of them, even though they know it’s not real. This is achieved through the use of mise en scene; the settings being ordinary, such as a motel on an American motorway, or even the city of London, in a market. This is shown in Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Frenzy’, were the setting is London, and the female victims (conventional of a psychological thriller) are being murdered by someone as ordinary as a fruiterer. It is also worth mentioning that psychological thrillers, due to the voyeuristic approach, feature the extensive use of extreme long-shots as well as close-ups, the latter limiting the visibility of the surroundings for the audience and the former representing a point of view shot from afar.

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