Athena's AS Media Blog : Analysing a Psychological Thriller

Release: March 12th 2010

Cast: Leonardo Di'Caprio, Mark Ruffalo

Director: Martin Scorsese

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime, Psychological Thriller

Directed by Martin Scorsese, Shutter Island is a psychological thriller looking into the murder. In a psychiatric hospital fortress on a deserted island by a woman who has seemed to have vanished from her locked cell room.

Features of a Psychological Thriller

- The character often has shaky camera's and very close up shots to show emotions of how they're feeling and/or their mind state

- Often the storyline doesn't make sense till the end of the movie

- This film is a 15 for certain scenes in the film which may be disturbing, violent and gory

Camera

The camera shots throughout this film shows lots of extreme close ups in the characters faces, to show the audience the emotions and feelings of the character; especially the one who have mental illnesses. There, is tracking shots going into the the hospital through the gate way and showing around the hospital, also there is lots of wide shots showing the scenery, it shows the island when they are on the boat going towards the island and others where Dicaprio's character is searching by the rocks for clue to where the woman disappeared. These show aspects of a thriller as they create along with dark colours and low lighting a spooky, scary, creepy atmosphere where the viewer is constantly wondering.

Mise-enScene

Mise-en-scene in psychological thrillers but also especially in Shutter Island show low key lighting and dark scaled colours, there aren't any vibrant or very warm feel in colours to the film. The costumes are professional and based in the 1950's when the film was set in, the mental patients wear a typical bland grey colour that patients would wear in a psychiatric hospital. The opening shot to this film is seeing nothing but thick fog, it creates a mysterious tone and makes it intriguing to the audience to what the next shot will be.