As me and my production team are producing a short psychological thriller film, we have come across common themes of this genre. It is important for us to include these themes in our own short film because without them our film would not fulfil the criteria of a psychological thriller. There are overarching themes that tend to pop up which are guilt, mystery, imagination and suspense. Sometimes these themes form the core of the film alone, but often they are combined with a context of ambiguity involving what is real and what has been imagined. In our film, the girl Eve is portrayed as a normal person to Richard, but at the end he finds out that she died four years ago and she is actually a ghostly figure. Therefore the core theme in our short is imagination. The guilt is present also when Eve left home to attend a party which her father, David, did not let her go to. The mystery and suspense is why did Richard see Eve? Were they meant to meet each other? Examples of psychological dramas:

SHUTTER ISLAND (2010)

In Shutter Island, directed by Martin Scorsese, based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Teddy Daniels, a US Marshal investigation a mysterious disappearance at an institution for the criminally insane. As the story continues we see bizarre occurrences that become highly fantastical in nature. We learn that DiCaprio’s character is really an imprisoned patient at the institution, as he killed his wife Michelle Williams after she drowned their children. His guilt over this crime has caused him to elaborate the story in his mind that gave him a new identity and could make him cope with what he had done. His feeling to escape from this misery subjects to himself to a lobotomy to free and clear his mind. Therefore, Shutter Island is an example of a film that combines the theme of guilt with ambiguity regarding reality, creating a mind bending experience that even has a horror like element.

INCEPTION (2010)

The film Inception is categorised as a psychological action film, but the elements of guilt and ambiguous reality are present at the film’s beginning. This is also yet anther example of a film that came out in 2010 where a character played by Leonardo DiCaprio is plagued by guilt over his wife’s death. In the film we learn that his character, Dom Cobb has planted an idea in his wife, Marion Cotillard’s mind that their world was not real so that she would eventually want to leave the dream world they have been in for an extended period of time. However since this idea was planted deeply they still had a belief in the real world, she had killed herself thinking that this would allow her to return back into the real world. Dom Cobb felt guilt, and finds that an opportunity arises for him to return to his children. His emotional peace is confirmed at the end of the film when he reunites with his children.