As a group we had to decide what type of thriller film we wanted to make and we thought that a typical stalker movie would be appropriate. We had to be careful to not make the film seem like a horror which for the stalker sub-genre is very easy. Even though it’s a thriller film horror was the main inspiration behind our idea, and films like Funny Games (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808279/?ref_=sr_1) where you have no idea whats going to happen were a big help for our group.
We did use the typical signifiers that people expect from a thriller, the main signifier is the stalker idea. The stalker idea is one of the biggest within thriller films and these days people know that it’s a thriller just by seeing that. The lonely protagonist which is a big signifier in both horror and thriller, in thriller he guards and defends himself well even though he may come up against a few obstacles. With the stalker you will all ways know he’s there but not really see him til the end in most films, ours keeps that idea as you see glimpses of him but nothing major until the end. With the music we went with the slow tension building music, we started with strings and as the story went on we added drums to build the tension. Most thriller films do this in their sequences using something louder and faster paced when the action starts and beforehand using strings like in Psycho (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnYpF758Os0). During each paper with the credits we would have different sounds like louder drums even though it doesn’t match the timing, we did this to make the credits stand out more and each noise slowly gets louder and louder to fit whats happening as the story progresses.
As far as Todorov’s 5 five stages go we kept the order all the way until the return of a equilibrium. Everything was fine in the beginning of our story were you see the protagonist just walking around the park, but then we start to see the stalker following and watching him as he goes on with his day. We see that this has happened because the main character is now aware that he thinks someone’s following him, his facial expressions really show off how worried he is that there might be someone there. An attempt is made when he quickly leaves to get as far way as he can, but the audience see the stalker take another route which makes them think what could happen. We then disrupt the order when our protagonist is taken when Todorov’s fifth stage is a restoration of this equilibrium which we did not stick with. In Funny Games it starts off with a nice family drive but we get indications that this might not be the film we’re expecting as some heavy rock music starts playing which completely breaks the mood. They end up being captured and tortured as a family, you see this corruptness when their son is killed and both the mother and father have to try and cope with this even though two men have them held at gun point. The attempt and restoring this is when they escape the house looking for help only to be recaptured and the male being shot. The film ends like ours as there’s no complete restoration as she also dies, Both our film and Funny Games are Thrillers but both don’t follow Todorov’s.
We added our style with the stalker as you never see him not even at the end, most stalker films you will see the stalker at least once usually at the end. This is to keep that sense of unknown and that it can literally be anyone doing this. Not following Todorov’s five stages was on purpose as we didn’t want to be like every other stalker film where the victim would be captured but eventually would escape and live their normal lives again. Our stalker if people noticed is wearing tracksuits, this is to keep it more british like Eden Lake (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6j3K4MmOKs) where the people tormenting them ends up being some troubled youths. This just proves that it doesn’t have to be the usual middle aged man stalking someone it can be someone a bit closer to home.
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