What is a thriller film? Miss Georgiou

What is a thriller film?

Codes and Conventions of a thriller film:

Dark shadows (low-key and high-key lighting)
A killer's identity is often hidden to create mystery.
Tension builds up to create suspense for the audience so that they continuously carry on watching.
Iconography(weapons, knives, ropes, guns). These are used to show violence and danger.
Killer/s- often wears black to symbolise darkness and evilness.
Victim/s often wear white to show purity and innocence.
A change in pace of music is used to help change the editing speed.
A chase scene is used to build suspense and tension.
A victim is used to show helplessness and violence to make the audience feel scared.
An enigma leaves the audience puzzled and makes them want to find out what the enigma means.
It is normally set in a mystery or mysterious location to make the audience surprised.
Fast editing is used to show a change of pace in a scene.
Slow editing is used to show a change of pace in a scene and to build suspense.
Shock, surprise and suspense.

Opening scene of SAW analysis

Codes and Conventions

The opening scene of SAW shows a man in a room with the lights off talking to someone who cannot be seen. As the scene carries on, a dead man is shown in the middle of the room. These two segments create an enigma which puzzles the audience and makes them want to watch more of the film. The music starts off very slowly and quiet, but as the lights come on, a loud static noise can be clearly heard.

Target audience

SAW is aimed at young adults (17+) because it contains gory scenes that are unsuitable for the elderly or young children. For example, the opening scene shows all lot of blood and there is a lot of swearing from where the characters are in shock.

Audience expectations

The audience is expected to see a lot of violence, murders and blood. SAW shows all of these constantly throughout the whole film. The audience also expects to see an enigma, which means something that has no explanation or something that seems to be impossible.

Shock, Surprise, Suspense

The audience would be shocked by the opening scene of SAW as it shows a dead man in the middle of the room after a few minutes of the film. This shocks the audience because it has only been a few minutes since the film began. The audience would also be surprised to see two men chained to the walls of an abandoned room so early in the film. Suspense builds up in the film from the slow quiet music at the beginning when the
lights are off.

Micro Elements

The film SAW is set in an warehouse that is abandoned. This setting is used to show the audience that there is something creepy about the film. The characters look like they are frightened. The reason that they look frightened is to scare the audience.

Representation of characters

The two men look like they are surprised to be in the room chained to the wall which shows them as being innocent and they appear to be the victims. The dead man in the middle looks like he has killed himself and therefore he looks like he could be dangerous but there must have been another enemy that .


The film SAW shows what it is about from the first few minutes and as my film would be fairly short, I should try to replicate this idea in my opening scene. It also uses different lighting techniques to show shock and fear, another element that I am now going to include in my opening.

Se7en Opening Analysis

Codes and Conventions

In the opening sequence of Se7en the main character (who is suspected to be the antagonist) has their identity hidden because the camera angle is from their point of view or it only shows their hands. This creates an enigma for the audience because they do not know who the character is. The audience only see what the villain is doing, not who they are and their reasons for doing those things e.g. writing in a book or cutting skin of of their thumb. Every time something is shown, a black screen is shown immediately after which gives little away in terms of the plot.

The music in the first half of the opening sequence is very quiet and basic (a slow, simple drum beat). This is because no music can also create fear in the audience when the correct sounds are used instead. The main sounds used in the opening sequence are non-diegetic. For example, the screeching sounds used and the sound of metal.
Target Audience

Judging by the first scene, I would think that the Se7en is aimed at people aged 15+ because it appears to be more of a psychological thriller rather than a violent thriller due to some of the images shown. For example, the person shown at the start appears to be making a montage of some sort out of pictures and newspaper clippings which is commonly used in thriller films that are rated 15.
Audience Expectation

The audience expects to see murders take place and lots of blood to be shown. There is no murder in the opening scene which means that the film is more likely to be a detective sort of thriller because the antagonist has the qualities of a serial killer.
Shock, Suspense, Surprise

The suspense builds throughout the opening due to the music and the sounds as they get louder and louder. The audience would be surprised at the fact that the antagonist is making a montage of pictures of dead people. The audience would be shocked at the pictures of the dead people that flash in the background of the scene for a microsecond.
Representation of Characters

Only one character is in the opening scene, and from what the audience can make out, he would seem to be the villain/ antagonist due to the music and sounds, the images on screen and because their identity is hidden.