Psychological Thriller Media Studies

Topics: Psychological thriller, Thriller, Literary Genre Pages: 5 (1263 words) Published: April 6, 2013

I chose to pick a genre, and I chose to do psychological thrillers. What are psychological thrillers? A psychological thriller is a subgenre of horror and thriller fiction that relies on characters' fears and emotional instability to build tension. However, this genre often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre in addition to they typical traits of the thriller genre. ALso. occasionally this genre will border into the, also wide-ranfing, horror genre. The elements of psychological horror focuses on the inside of the characters mind, their mental state. This includes emotions, personality, mental attitude of individuals, inhumane acts and conspiracies. The aim is to get you confused with the story, you’re not supposed to understand whether what is happening is actually happening, the story is supposed to come from the characters point of view and if they're confused mentally then you're supposed to be confused, too. With psychological thrillers, the characters are no longer reliant on physical strength to overcome their enemies but are reliant on their mental resources by battling for equilibrium in the characters preying on one another’s mind. For example; playing deceptive games.

Psychological horror aims to create discomfort by exposing common or universal psychological and emotional vulnerabilities and fears, such as the shadowy parts of the human psyche which most people repress or deny, whereas splatter fiction focuses on bizarre, alien evil to which the average viewer cannot easily relate.


Psychological thriller films are different than traditional thriller films, where the source of fear is typically something material- such as monsters, supernatural or a person- as well as splatter film, which derives its effects from gore and graphic violence. Thriller also uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer’s moods giving them a high level of anticipation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety, and/or terror. The elements of psychological that are related to the mind of the processes of the mind; they are mental rather than physical in nature. Sometimes the suspense comes from within one solitary characters where characters must resolve conflicts with their own minds. Usually, this conflict is an effort to understand something that has happened to them. These conflicts are made more vivid with physical expressions of the conflict in the means of either physical manifestations, or physical torsions of the characters at play. Generally, thrillers focus on plot over character, and thus emphasize intense, physical action over the character's psyche. Psychological thrillers tend to reverse this formula to a certain degree, emphasizing the characters just as much as, if not more so than, the plot.

Psychological thriller – Characters are no longer reliant on physical strength to overcome their brutish enemies (which is often the case in typical action-thrillers), but rather are reliant on their mental resources, whether it be by battling wits with a formidable opponent or by battling for equilibrium in the character's own mind. The suspense created by psychological thrillers often comes from two or more characters preying upon one another's minds, either by playing deceptive games with the other or by merely trying to demolish the other's mental state.


There are many themes, or story plots, that are regularly used to make up the story in psychological thrillers. The main ones are:

REALITY - The quality of being real. Characters often try to determine what is true and what is not within the narrative. FOR EXAMPLE; The Matrix or Final Destination.

PERCEPTION - A person’s own interpretation of the world around him through his senses. Often characters misperceive the world around them, or their perceptions are altered by outside...
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