Research into Psychological Thriller Sub-Genre

Research into the Psychological Thriller genre

Psychological thriller is a sub-genre to the thriller genre.

Conventions – they generally always look at a characters state of mind, emphasize the character more than the plot, characters depend more on their mental capabilities than their physical ones, use their wits instead of strength, sometimes battle for their equilibrium in their own mind, suspense usually comes from one or two characters “preying upon one another’s minds” (usually done through trying to demolish their prey’s state of mind or through playing games that will mess with their state of mind.

Themes – Reality(it often relates to real life), perception (Protagonist is aware of their environment, for example they are careful and very perseptive), mind (sometimes requires the audience to think or the characters involved have mental issues), existence (focuses on the protagonist's sense of humanity and purpose), purpose (the protagonist usually questions this), identity (focusese on the main character's search or loss of this) , and death (a character usually dies in a psychological thriller). These can be used to show a characters loss of innocence that defines their character displayed in the film.

Paradigms –  you would most likely see things such as enigmas, hospitals, asylums, and weapons (knife, gum etc).  

History - Alfred Hitchcock's "The Lodger" as the first kind of thriller film and helped shaped thriler films today. Directed by George Cukor, "Gaslight" (1944) is one of the first psychological thrillers, as it is about a man who plots to make his young wife go insane so he can acquire her inheritance. "The Spiral Staircase" followed after this in 1946. These films helpedm shape what psychological thrillers are life today.

"With its intense focus on psychological issues such as mental processes, behavior, and human interaction, psychological thrillers often touch upon several philosophical issues. These theoretical and conceptual ideas usually focus on humanity's role in the universe." - artandpopularculture.com

Metaphysics

"Metaphysics is the most dominant philosophical area present within psychological thrillers since it tries to explain the world and define reality, a task that psychological thrillers try to do themselves. There are specific areas within this broad category that these thrillers focus on:

• Existentialism - Regards human existence as unexplainable and unknown. Thus humans are entirely free from any controlling factors and are responsible for what they make of themselves. In psychological thrillers, the world the characters inhabit becomes bleak and meaningless since they don't have any sense of security or feeling of safety; they can only rely on themselves and their own minds while the world around remains uncertain and mysterious. Pulp fiction and noir films often makes this the central theme of their stories.

• Determinism - Every event in which the character is involved, including cognition and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences. This concept creates characters that are desperate and feel hopeless since they are unable to change what is occurring around them, that is, the world is out of their control. See also causality.

• Fatalism - Similar to determinism, fatalism is the view that human deliberation and actions are pointless and ineffectual in determining events, because whatever will be will be, regardless of our actions. In psychological thrillers, characters fight a losing battle to gain control of their own lives in a meaningless and chaotic world. This is often integrated with existentialism.

• Ontology - Tries to determine what truly exists and what is fabricated by asking the question "what actually exists?" Characters in psychological thrillers often ask these very thought-provoking questions and try to answer them, but sometimes the answers become more confusing and ambiguous than the questions.

• Dualism - The view that the world surrounding us is divided into two separate entities: mind and matter. Often in psychological thrillers, characters find it difficult to separate these two elements. As a result, characters are unable to determine what is physically present and what is a fabrication of their minds." - artandpopularculture.com