16/12/2013

Researching Thrillers: The Usual Suspect

To research thrillers, in class we watched The Usual Suspects. The Usual Suspects is a 1995 crime thriller film directed by Bryan Singer.

 Straight away, the film opens up to an event that is, we assume, in the present. There is a villain, we assume, dressed in dark clothing with a long coat that covers his clothes and a wide brimmed hat to cover his body (very sterotypical costume for an antagonist) also, he's in the shadows so we can't see his face. This straight away makes us suspicious of this mysterious character.

The lighting in the opening sequence is very low-key and ambient. Lots of shadows are seen in the scene to further create an aura of mystery surrounding the characters.

The music used creates tension and it is a very slow, simple piece.

They use a montage of still shots to establish the scene and show us where this is taking place. It also foreshadows a future event by showing a, seemingly pointless, shot of something fairly significant in the end (The pile of ropes).

Lastly there is a dramatic ending of the boat blowing up. This is typical of a thriller as it leaves the audience confused. It also, though essentially spoiling the film by showing what's going to happen, leaves a lot of things unsaid, catching our attention and interesting the audience, making them hungry for answers.


Although not part of the opening sequence, I think it is important to note the distorted timeline that is not very clear until towards the end. For a while, it is not clear that most of what we are seeing is in fact a flashback. This causes confusion for the viewer and is a very good technique used in this thriller. It is also very unique and is something I would consider implementing into my opening thriller.

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