Forms and Conventions of a Psychological Thriller Trailer

Psychological thriller is a sub-genre of the wide-ranging thriller category, but it often incorporates elements of mystery, drama, and horror. Psychological thrillers feature intense action in the plot as well as in the characters' minds and unstable emotional states.

I have decided on creating a film trailer rather than producing a 5 minute short film as I feel that the story will be more in depth due to it being a psychological thriller therefore I do not want to have to condense the storyline to fit a 5 minute film. This was a major factor that aided my decision to make a trailer, furthermore by creating a trailer I can intrigue the audience into wanting more which would ultimately influence them to watch the full feature film. Due to my chosen genre, I also felt a film trailer would be more appropriate because it will leave the audience with unanswered questions.


After researching various trailers, I decided my overall genre would be psychological thriller as personally I found it a very interesting genre and enjoy watching and understanding the storylines of these type of films. This means that I will most likely use certain techniques and features such as the build up of tension throughout the trailer and the use of jump cuts to disorientate the audience as these are typical conventions of the psychological thriller genre. The film trailers I will be analysing are:
 
• Black Swan
• Side Effects
• The Sixth Sense
• Shutter Island