Iconography Associated with Thrillers

To help us when creating out film opening I decided to research into iconography associated with the thriller genre. Iconography means the symbolic representations, which often have a caonventional meaning attached to an image or object. Thrillers often have various pieces of iconography associated with them, and is very important as it is part of the mise-en-scene and helps construct certain messages to the audience.

Cities/Busy Towns: Psycholocigal thrillers are often set in a city or busy town to bring the drama closer to home. It creates a sense of reality for the audience.

Woods/Trees: OFten thrillers take place in woods as it creates a sence of being lost as the characters find themselves trying to figure out how to escape. It creates a sence of vunerability and inevitability for the characters as they are so isolated. There may be a house in the woods which often turn out to be the antagonist.

Knives: One of the most recognised symbols associated with the thriller genre is a knife. It has the connotations of blood, death, pain and brutality. Knives are used to show that someone is about to get killed and acts as a common device to keeo the audience engaged. For example the famous knife scene from Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho'.

Shadows: Silhouetts and shadowns give a thriller the enigma and mystery for the audience and is a common piece of iconography. It builds up fear and suspence for the audience by instigating that the protagonist is being watched by a human or animal/monster. For a majority of the time the protagonist is oblivious to this but can often sence that something isnt right. They often induce thoughts of fear and darkness for the audience as well as giving them clues and adding to the suspence. A character with a silhouette is most likely to be the antagonist - usually revealed at the end of the film.

Confined spaces: A comon way to make the audience feel trapped is the use of confined spaces. It usually leads to the protagonist breathing heavily and panting. It informs the audience that they are trapped and cannot escape and leads to the start of their struggle as they try to break free.

Running water: Running water is often a symbol of death as it suggests the draining of life. Also associated with blood dripping and suggests that the character is in danger.

Street Lamps: NIght time scenes in thrillers often include street lamps to keep the emphasis and focus on the protagonist and the fact they are in almost complete darkness apart from the spotlight from the lamp. This further accentuates the fact that the protagonist is alone in the dark, creating fear and suspence in the audience. A tence atmosphere is created by the underlying darkness.

Bars on windows and Fences: Bars are used to show imprisonment and isolation linking to the conventional thriller. It also suggests that the characters are improsoned with no way out - detached from the outside world - conforming to the convention of isolation in thrillers.