This blog encompasses the elements of a thriller film that inspire me. The film that I have chosen is Heavenly Creatures. Heavenly Creatures is a thriller film which is based on a true story about two teenagers who murder one of the girl's mothers with a brick inside a stocking during the 1950's. The motivation behind the murder was the fact that the parents of the two children tried to split them up due to fear of their obsessive relationship being unhealthy (it is implied that the relationship was also of a sexual nature).
THE MURDER SCENE
One of the things that stands as a real inspiration to me is the narrative of the film. The voice of Pauline (the daughter of the murdered mother, also known as Gina and Yvonne) is used as a voice-over throughout the sequence. Narrated in this way are pages of the real Pauline Parker's diary, for example "today Juliet and I discovered the key to the fourth world." This inspires me because diary pages are an interesting way to narrate the story, and they work well in thriller films because they allow you to get inside the head of the protagonist. For example, the character of Pauline could be seen as a psycho who murders her mother for no apparent reason. However, the presence of the voice-overs accentuate the motivation behind the murder, and illustrate the fact that she was simply a girl who was afraid of losing her best friend.
Another aspect of the film that inspires me is the use of colour juxtaposed with the use of greyscale to represent the differences between reality and the girls' imagination. Most of the film is in colour which illustrates what is actually happening in the story.
However, as depicted by these two screen grabs, some of the film is shot in greyscale. This is because it is not actually what is going on in real life, but what is going on in the girls' heads. For example, these two shots come right at the end of the film whilst the mother is being murdered. They illustrate the two girls being separated, and this in turn illustrates their fear of being separated and therefore the motivation behind the murder.
The screen grabs are able to deliver a sense of juxtaposition through the lighting used in both shots. For the first one, the natural lighting gives the shot a slight glow which makes it much more positive to look at in contrast to the second shot, where the only light coming through is through the window right at the back. Apart from this, the room is dark and the walls are yellow which paints a very negative image in the audience's mind. The first shot also has the actress look at the camera head on, whereas the second shot has her looking off to the sides. This creates a real sense of familiarity with the viewer because they are able to identify with the first character, whereas they are not able to identify with the second. This has really compounded my understanding of the ways that characters are represented in thriller films and will help me significantly when I come to plan my own because it has reinforced the idea that the ways in which characters are framed is important.
The images to the left are another way in which the film portrays the reality vs imagination theme entwined within it. The first picture shows the two girls sitting next to a sandcastle; the second shows them looking into it as if it were a real castle. The camera goes up an ancient looking staircase to get into the room shown by the second image. This inspires me because it creates a huge divide between reality and imagination, and it opens up several different psychological paths which could be adapted to create a thriller film. I am interested in the psychology of characters, and this is an excellent example of how psychology and mind-related subjects are portrayed in thriller films.
Another element of the film that inspired me was the juxtaposition of the two female characters; whilst one was very dark and in many ways disturbing, the other was bright and much more positive as a person. This interesting juxtaposition is demonstrated through the following screen grabs -
The screen grabs are able to deliver a sense of juxtaposition through the lighting used in both shots. For the first one, the natural lighting gives the shot a slight glow which makes it much more positive to look at in contrast to the second shot, where the only light coming through is through the window right at the back. Apart from this, the room is dark and the walls are yellow which paints a very negative image in the audience's mind. The first shot also has the actress look at the camera head on, whereas the second shot has her looking off to the sides. This creates a real sense of familiarity with the viewer because they are able to identify with the first character, whereas they are not able to identify with the second. This has really compounded my understanding of the ways that characters are represented in thriller films and will help me significantly when I come to plan my own because it has reinforced the idea that the ways in which characters are framed is important.
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