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Lesson 1
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ROBERT R. SMITH
THRILLER DAY 1 DEC 1323
“Dressed to Kill” Thriller Conventions.
“What I learned doing this assignment is…?”
The conventions of the Thriller genre and preparing myself to create them in a script of my own.
Analyze a THRILLER movie to discover the conventions of a thriller. It is totally okay to analyze a movie you’ve already seen, but please watch it again. Don’t just do it from memory.
1. Go to Netflix, iTunes, or Amazon and search for “thriller” movies. Pick a thriller that fits three criteria and answer the two questions below:
- Matches our
model. - I have chosen “Dressed to Kill” written and directed by Brian de Palma (1980)
- “Dressed to Kill is not one
of the movies we are scheduled to study in this program.
2. Watch the movie and as you do, note the conventions of THIS story.
- Unwitting but
Resourceful Hero:- Liz Blake, a
hooker who unwittingly discovers the dying murder victim (Kate Miller) in
an elevator with her killer, a tall blond woman wielding a razor.Dangerous Villain:
The tall
blonde razor-wielding woman who killed Kate Miller and is apparently menacing Liz who is on her trail.High stakes:
Liz Blake is
told she is the primary suspect in the murder of Kate Miller so she sets
out to find the tall blonde woman (the real murderer) and exonerate
herself. She finds an ally in Kate
Miller’s geeky and resourceful teenage son Peter who helps her try to catch the murderer who is assumed to be another
patient of Dr. Elliott, Kate Miller’s psychiatrist.- Life and death
situations:The tall
blonde stalks Liz through the streets of New York and its subway. (Surprise, turns out this is a police
woman in disguise watching out for Liz.)- This movie is
thrilling because?- Every scene has some mystery or danger in it.
It resolves cleverly, Dr Elliott turns out to be “Bobbi” the so called patient of Dr. Elliott believed to be the killer. In a scene reminiscent of “Psycho,” Dr. Levy, another psychiatrist explains that Bobbi (actually Dr. Elliott) had come to him seeking approval for a sex change operation, he discovers that Bobbi is Dr. Elliott. Dr. Elliott had been sexually aroused by Kate Miller, thus, threatened the female side of his personality (“Bobbi”) who wanted the sex reassignment surgery. Bobbi’s reaction was to overtake Dr. Elliott’s personality and kill Kate Miller and almost killed the hero (Liz Blake) when she tried to seduce him while trying to get his appointment book to get information on “Bobbi” (unaware that Bobbi is not another patient of Dr. Elliott. Bobbi and Dr. Elliott are the same person.
Case is closed but it’s been a real thrill-ride.
3. What is the BIG Mystery, Intrigue, and Suspense of this story?
Big Mystery:
Who is the tall blonde woman who killed Kate Miller?
Big Intrigue:
o What can finally be used to unmask the killer?
o
· Big Suspense:
Liz and Peter are playing a dangerous game tracking down the killer. Can they survive? Liz almost doesn’t when Dr. Elliott transforms into “Bobbi” the vengeful jealous female side of Dr. Elliott as he attempts to slash Liz to death and is only stopped by a shot fired by the police woman who had disguised herself as Bobbi to keep an eye on Liz for her own safety and to let Liz lead her to the killer.
3. Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great thriller?
“Dressed to Kill” is one of my favorite thrillers and it isn’t even on the list. I just had to analyze it and enjoyed doing it.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by Robert Smith. Reason: Clarity
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Thriller conventions
Assignment one
What I learning doing this assignment is … I looked a little more closely at how the Thriller is put together, saw some suspense tools in use that worked (i.e. dramatic irony when the audience knows the guy has the passcode to the house all along, suspense knowing her friend is going to ‘get it’ for protecting her, ).
Unwitting but resourceful hero: Reese Witherspoon. Young girl of divorced parents. Innocent, ‘good’, but rebelling against her dad and his new wife. A cute boy likes her and he’s kind of a bad boy – = makes her vulnerable.
Dangerous villain: Mark Walhberg. cute, slightly older guy. He seems so sweet. Save the cat moment at the beginning when he saves her at the bar. (It looks like it just happened…but did it? Or did his friends help set it up? Which would be better?) He’s dangerous because he is super sweet…until he is not. He just wants her to love him back!!
High stakes. Her safety, Her friend’s safety, her friend (guy) is beat up almost immediatly, then later killed, her dad is threatened, then the entire family could be killed when it comes to the final battle.
Life and death situations: Her friend is raped, her other friend is beaten, then killed, her dad is threatened, then the entire family could be killed when it comes to the final battle. The villain and his dangerous friends break into the ultra-safe house.
This moving is thrilling because…It’s called ‘Fear’… but the guy is soooo nice at first, you’re like…when’s the fear coming? (suspense) and once you know what to fear, the question is…how bad is it going to get? Can she get rid of him before he kills her family?
What is the big
Mystery: Is the cute guy really bad?
Intrigue: The villain will do whatever he can to make this girl his…all his!
Suspense of the story: Can she get rid of him before it’s too late?
Anything else to say? This was a good movie that held my attention, but it was also predictable. I wonder if this film would have been better if the audience could have seen how shitty a guy the villain was before the hero did? As it is, we learn at the same time she does. Not sure which is better or what that depends on.
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