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Revised Proposal for Psychological Thriller Journal Article
Joshua Hinckley-Porter
ENG 105 Online
Violence in Psychological Thrillers
We all know of this moment in film. It’s night. The moonlight glimmers on a wet street just after the rain has faded away into mist. Everything is silent. At this moment, the film comes to a crossroads. Will the eyes be seared by a sudden explosion, the ears assaulted by gunfire? Or will the only sound be the click of a locking door that seems to echo into the unknown recesses of the night? Writers and directors must constantly make this type of decision when dealing with any number of film genres, but even more often with thrillers in particular. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to question why this choice is so much more significant in thrillers, and the answer is simple: the goal of the thriller is to thrill, and violence can be thrilling. Yet violence is also not the only means to that end, and perhaps (though it can certainly be argued either way) not even one of the best. What then motivates writers and directors of psychological thrillers to include violence in their films? My journal article will attempt to reconcile and explain the vast differences that can be seen in the use of violence across the genre, as well as determine how, why and when its use adds to or diminishes the power of a film.
On the most basic physiological level, witnessing acts of violence produces feelings of anxiety and fear in human beings. Thus it naturally follows that films will take advantage of this fact to produce suspense, or give the audience a “rush” similar to the release of adrenaline experienced in a truly dangerous situation. In contrast to many other sub-genres that share the same goal, psychological thrillers are unique in that they do not require violence to evoke these feelings. Yet despite their lack of dependence on it, violence can still be found in copious amounts in many psychological thrillers. On the other hand, there are also many films of the genre that include minimal, if any violence. It’s discrepancies such as this that lead us to wonder on what basis the decision to use or exclude violence is made, if films of the same genre can vary so widely in their approaches to the issue.
There are plenty of examples of psychological thrillers that use a great deal of violence, such as Fight Club, and also ones that use hardly any, such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window or the more recent Donnie Darko. Before examining their content any further, however, it’s important to define what exactly constitutes “violence” in a film. Traditionally, we might think of violence as being physical harm inflicted upon one living thing by another, but by looking again at our films and even our own daily lives, we can quickly see that this is not the case. Anyone who has ever recoiled at a harsh word or insult will testify to the fact that the notion of verbal and emotional violence is every bit as real as its physical counterpart. A parent neglecting their child can still be seen a violent or malicious act, even if no physical harm results from it. If we expand the definition of violence to include any type of hostile conflict, it becomes evident that every thriller, psychological or not, depends upon it, for without conflict there would be no tension, and without tension there would be no thrill. When looked at in this light, less physically violent films like The Sixth Sense and War Games take on a new, previously unnoticed aspect. For the purpose of this article, then, I will focus exclusively on differences in the use of physical violence in the films, since it is the easiest type to identify and also the most culturally accepted; film critics and ratings boards are far more concerned with guns, knives and blood than with their more implicit, invisible brethren.
In examining violence across the genre I will also identify how the role of violence in the psychological thriller has changed over time, comparing some of Hitchcock’s classic works to their more contemporary peers of today. Ultimately, I hope to discover what motivates a writer or director to change the dropping of a hat to the firing of a gun, or the firing of a gun to the slamming of a door in a film. But whatever the purpose for taking a closer look at the genre, it’s impossible to imagine coming away from the experience without learning something profound, due to the films’ natural inclinations toward incredible depth and layered meaning. Like Shakespeare, these films could certainly be used for pure entertainment, but to do so would be to ignore the true greatness that lies just beneath the surface.