Genre

Characteristics of  thriller

Themes:
-Crime
-Chase
-Suspense                                         

Iconography:
-Cars
-Weapons
-Urban setting
-Tension building music
-Low lighting

Feelings :
- Excitement
-Suspense
-Tension
-Anxiety

Characters:
-Police
-Stalkers
-People associated with danger
-Psychotic characters

Critical Theorist

"The concept of "thriller" falls somewhere between a genre proper and a descriptive quality that is attached to other, more clearly defined genres - such as spy thriller, detective thriller, horror thriller. There is possibly no such thing as a pure, freestanding "thriller thriller." The thriller can be conceptualized as a "metagenre" that gathers several other genres under its umbrella, and as a band in the spectrum that colors each of those particular genres." Page 4 Thrillers - Martin Rubin

On the one hand, the thriller, grounded in a strong sense of mundane reality, with a hero who is generally "one of us," seems to operate in a domain that aligns it with the low-mimetic mode (although certain forms of thriller such as film noir, may edge into the ironic mode.

The thrillers practice of removing the everyday world from its familiar context is often underscored by the introduction of elements that are literally foreign and unfamiliar - that is, exotic

Analysis

The film that I'm going to analyse is 'Prisoners', this film is a thriller with the sub genres of crime and drama. It follows a deeply religious man called Keller Dover but loses everything when his 6 year old daughter and her friend (Joy) are taken from him. The dover family go round the Birch's house for thanks giving and before they eat, the two girls and their older siblings go for a walk. The two girls had to to be pulled away from a RV after they start to climb it. After eating the girls ask to go the the Dover's house to get Anna's safety whistle she's suppose to carry on her at all times but never return. Detective Loki, a member of the police department who has dealt with past missing children cases. After a police hunt a white RV is found near a woodland area next to a petrol station. Loki attempts to approach the vehicle but the driver Alex starts to panic and drives into the trees.

Alex is taken into questioning but is no help as it's found that he has the IQ of a ten year old and the RV has no forensic evidence so he's let free. Keller is unhappy with the decision so decides to attack Alex whilst he's in the car park and he hears him say "they only cried when I left", Alex saying this the try to comfort Keller. No one else was close enough to hear this but Keller takes this as a fact that Alex took the girls. Later that night Keller abducts Alex and takes him to an old building that his father used to own and with reluctant help from Joy's father, repeatedly beats him for 5 days for information. Joy's father decides to invite his wife to see what is happening, whilst talking to Alex she unties him and he tries to escape. With his attempt, Keller builds an enclosure for Alex. The enclosure lets in no light and if he wishes Keller can turn on the shower which gives out either boiling hot or freezing cold water.

Loki finds out that Alex has gone missing so decides to start tailing Keller, Loki manages to find the building but doesn't find Alex. During a candlelight vigil for the missing girls detective Loki notices a man looking very suspicious but loses him in a chase. Later shows subsequent scenes of the man breaking into the Dover household but nothing is revealed to what he did there. Detective writes down the mothers statement as she heard the window go and thought her daughter has come back. After a sketch of the man appears on the news someone who works at a supermarket recognises him as says he comes in form time to time and checks out children's clothing, he's revealed to be bob Taylor. She gives Loki the man's license plate so he can try to find him. After Loki finds him, he enters the mans house to find the walls covered with maze drawings and room full of black locked boxes filled with maze books, venomous snakes and bloody children's clothes. Both the Dover and the other family recognise clothing belonging to their missing children and Taylor admits to killing them.

Keller starts to regret beating Alex but still thinks he may know something, Keller decides to go to the house (Holly's) where Alex lives and apologise about attacking him in the police car park. When it comes to Loki questioning Taylor he loses control and attacks him but Taylor manages to grab another officers gun and commits suicide. Days later Joy Birch is found and then put into hospital, she starts to ramble on about Keller being there. Keller then rushes off to where he's keeping Alex and Loki follows, he loses Keller but manages to find the imprisoned Alex. Keller goes to Holly's as he realises that it there were Joy heard him, Holly holds him at gun  point and forces him to take the same sedative the girls took. She forces him to put on handcuffs ,she then makes him go into a pit hidden under a functioning car made to look broken. In the pit Keller finds the whistle his daughter went to look for.

Loki goes to Holly's house and after knocking several times and saying Alex has been found, there's no answer so he decides to enter the house and as he slowly enters he can see Holly giving Anna a deadly sedative. The two shoot each other and Holly is killed, The bullet skims Loki's forehead and he rushes Anna to hospital. Loki is then later seen searching and digging up the garden area at Holly's near the pit where Keller is. Loki starts to walk away but can then hear Keller blowing a whistle in the background.

Character

When it come to the Protagonist(s) in this film, it's possible to argue there's more than one. Keller Dover's daughter is taken so he decides to take the law into his own hands due to the fact he thinks the police aren't doing their job as best they can. He takes in ans tortures someone who he thinks has taken his daughter or at the very least has something to do with it. Then there's detective Loki, a member of the police force who has been put on the case and at times in the film crosses paths with Keller as starts to question how he acts and what hes been up to. Keller is a man from a christian family, he tends to where rather dark clothing but on some occasions he has lighter under layers on. This could suggest that he can be a very dark character but the light could suggest that there's still some hope in him.

Opening Sequence

The opening sequence of 'Prisoners' first involves the father and son in the woods shooting a deer. This could symbolise the events to come as a woman and her husband take children away from their parents without them even knowing and them killing the dear is somewhat the same. After the hunting is over the Dover family go round the Birch's house for thanks giving, whilst they're there they eat and Franklin Birch insists on playing the trumpet. The opening sequence shows the Dover girl wearing bright pink clothing, this could suggest that she is relevent and possibly a target. The picture showing her on her fathers shoulders could suggest how vunerable she is. in most of the scenes, both families are wearing darking clothing to perhaps symbolise the dark horror that will over come them.


Production
Director - Denis Villeneuve
Producers - Broderick Johnson, Robyn Meisinger, Andrew Kosove, Adam Kolbrenner and Kira Davis
Writer - Aaron Guzikowski
Cast - Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul
Dano and Viola Davis