Thriller Themes Blog Post

Disturbia

Paranoia:

The trailer of Disturbia denotes Paranoia by no one believing the teenage boy over the elder man due to the fact that Kale has been under house arrest and of course why would anyone believe a criminal. In the shot below at 1:26 minutes Kale is being arrested after accusing his neighbour for kidnapping and killing women. 

Between 1:31-1:35 minutes, there is a voice over where the audience hears Kales voice saying the words "No one believes me". The lack of belief that no one has in Kale portrays the theme of paranoia as he begins to put his life in danger to prove his accusations are true. Paranoia stirs questions that he starts to reassure himself and utters "I know what I saw". This phrase acknowledges  that he knew something bad had happened and is fearful of something dangerous occurring.
The term paranoia is psychological and it means to have beliefs that are exaggerated or unfounded and feel a sense of threat a fear which all concludes how Kale is behaving and feeling. The paranoia created throughout the trailer evokes suspense and fear for the audience because they are let into the main characters mind and hence this involves the audience in his thought of heightened anxiety. It begins to effect the audience by questioning whether anyone will ever believe Kale who is telling the truth and will justice ever be served to his neighbour in the end.
The technical elements of the voice over used allows the audience to hear what is going on in the protagonists thoughts and connects with them to create suspense and paranoia. This element will be useful when creating themes for my thriller film.  

Death:

At 0:55 seconds of the Disturbia trailer shows blood smears splattered on the neighbours window which is noticed by Ashley. The blood smears connote death and danger and indicates the strength of the neighbour and what he is capable of. The colour of blood which is red makes the audience cautious and wary that the neighbour has committed murder, however in the screenshot the blood is portrayed as black. The black reveal of blood indicates that the image is unclear and has been protected from an under layer maybe because the murderer does not want to be caught and this reveals his deviousness. As the blood in the shot has been displayed as black, the colour connotes darkness and fear.
The enigma creates questions 'Who's blood is that?' 'What is going on in that house and did the neighbour cause the blood to splatter?'. The various continuous questions throughout the trailer keeps the audience in the dark to continue guessing and asking question which creates suspense. Death will be the main theme in my film as it will be the opening sequence of the movie so that the audience will be asking questions right from the beginning and gets them thrown into the action straight away.

Entrapment:

Entrapment is seen in Disturbia as Kale has been restricted from leaving his house as he is under house arrest. At the beginning of the trailer, a voice over narrates that Kale has been under house arrest and at 0:06 seconds shows the shot of his electronic ankle tag which tells the reader that his whereabouts is being observed. The storyline of him being under house arrest illustrates the idea of Entrapment being perceived and prevents Kale from taking action against the neighbour who could be a potential killer.

His house arrest raises concerns and questions to why Kale has been sent to court and what crime has he committed. It also confuses the audience to whether Kale may be the antagonist of the movie as the audience do not know why he has been arrested and may assume he has committed murder or manslaughter. The enigma that the audience are thrown into straight away creates excitement and tension. My film may have elements of the theme entrapment, which creates a sense of claustaphobia and keeps the protagonist locked away in one location and would be useful to use and it will help me produce the best possible thriller film.