Thriller Movie Analysis’By Jaymes

The Silence of The Lambs

This is one of the first frames of the film. As we can see it is an eery scene that contains foggy/misty forest - focusing on a barren tree. This shot follows the rule of thirds allowing a greater view of the fog

This already gives the film a creepy, more importantly thriller, feel to it. This is because a misty forest is almost a tradition in order to create tension and suspense.

In this frame of the opening sequence we see the introduction of the main protagonist in a shallow focus.

The fact we are introduced to her in this setting and manner tells us/the audience a lot. Primarily that she is a strong character and is used to this type of eery setting.

In this frame of the opening sequence we see a blurry close up of the protagonists foot whilst she is running

This frame is highlighting running - a fast, physically tiring movement. It is typical of thrillers to include fast paced scenes. The zoom in on the foot draws attention to the key feature and suggests that there will be some sort of chase in the film

In this frame we see the protagonist climbing a rope wall hurdle.

This frame is not only portraying her strength, however this is likely to convey a struggle between the protagonist and antagonist

Se7en

This is one of the very first frames of the film. With in it is a close up of a book and what appears to be the shadowy outline of a figure's head.

The fact that the we cannot tell what the shadow is conveys to the audience that we do not know and adds mystery, tension and slight suspense.

This directly follows the book frames as a fade. It too helps to build the thriller identity of the film.

This is achieved by the dark background - showing evil, scariness etc - contrasting with the bright white text.

The text itself is written in a jagged hand style font - suggesting a rush and insanity perhaps. The shaky motion of “An” and “Production” add to this.

This frame contains a pair of deformed hands on a notebook style pad. The fact chiaroscuro lighting is used signifies its importance and adds to the creeper thriller feel.

This infers that the antagonist is psychopathic and looks at medial conditions etc which may inspire his killings.

This frame is mostly red.

The colour red suggests blood and danger - telling the audience that murder and death will highly be the basis of the film.

Inception

This is the very first frame of the film. Here we are introduced, by a short take to the main protagonist - played by Leonardo Di Caprio.

The expression on his face is one of shock, fear and trauma. These are common emotions for thrillers as the main character is usually put through a series of draining events.

In this frame we see an extreme close up of the protagonists watch.

This shows that time is *usually* of the essence in thrillers and that many things can change the course of the film if the wrong thing happens at the wrong time

In these consecutive frames we see how quickly the mood/pace of a film can change in thrillers through short takes.

This is done by contrasting two scenes, in this case one being a possible terror attack and the other the protagonist calm on a train.

In this scene we get a close up of the safe which is hiding what Cobb (DiCaprio) needs to access.

The safe represents the mind, and its contents the dreams. This is mise-en-scene using a safe as a metaphor for the stories plot.

The Bourne Identity

This is how the film begins. A quick, bright flash of lightning on a stormy night. The visual effects suggest that something dangerous has occurred.

There is no fade into the storm - instead it is a quick jump from the universal opening pictures to this. The fact there is no cut highlights that this is very dramatic and sets the tone for a thriller film.

In this scene that follows the dialogue, we hear the first dialogue of the film.

However, it is in a foreign language (Italian). This means the audience has no idea what they are saying, and leaves us clueless as to whether they are good or bad characters - adding a sense of mystery.

These frames are linked through cross-cutting. This is in order to show that these events are happening at the same time and builds tension as the audience wonders what will happen when the characters meet.

The floating body also gives us a basic plotline and what the film will entail. This is through the use of a low-angle shot which shows the character as small and week.

Also, this is a slight loose frame - highlighting that the character is alone and is likely to remain so throughout the film.

This POV (Point Of View) shot shows that the body has been spotted by the fisherman and makes the audience wonder what’s going to happen to the body, and how will the characters react to one another?

The way the title of the film appear in a jumbled up, code style fashion indicates a lot about the film.

The randomness of the order of letters suggests that the main character has to solve something.

The code style font relates to the FBI, hacking etc.