Thriller Evaluation: Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Joseph Cotten in 'The Third Man'

  My opening to a thriller, Blind Faith, is a film which tries to challenge some generic aspects of Thrillers in the construction of mise en scene, though uses others to place itself firmly within the genre.

The title ‘Blind Faith’ is an appealing play on words which hints directly to the plot of the film; a racist/right wing father, blinded by his corrupt moral and religious beliefs, attempts to murder his daughter’s boyfriend out of racial hate and overprotective parenting. Thrillers such as The Third Man and Se7en also utilise a title which hints to the dilemma or crime of the film, The Third Man being the presence of a contradictory third man at the staged death of Harry Lime and Se7en being the Seven Deadly Sins which the killer uses to make an example of his victims.

The primary location of the film was a small council estate in Lakenham, Norwich. The partly dilapidated features of the area are credited to the dark underbelly of Essex in Essex Boys, but at a far less intense level. Unglamorous locations such as our chosen part of Lakenham are a generic aspect of Thrillers which connote the moral corruption in the community. When Samuel and his mother are taken for questioning in Peter Weir's Witness, the streets are dark, unwelcoming and seedy.

  The area is intended to appear built up, suburban, quiet: somewhere where the audience will be shocked at a crime taking place. The somewhat faceless vibe of the suburb means the film could take place anywhere in the country. The possibility of a crime being committed in your own neighbourhood is a powerful tool for creating fear in the audience, inspired by Hitchcock’s Rear Window. The attack takes place in a woodland area around Lakenham, which challenges some of the generic expectations of location in Thrillers. Unlike Essex Boys, which uses the Essex Marshes - a bleak and featureless landscape devoid of any hope of escape - Blind Faith utilises the labyrinthine nature of the woods to give the effect that Caesar is lost in the wilderness and at the mercy of Jason. The struggle to survive the unfamiliar woodland location mimics the frightening backwaters of Deliverance and the camouflaging curtain of flora in Predator.

Morgan Freeman in 'Se7en'

  When choosing the costume of Caesar, we tried to embody the character’s moral ideology and goodness in his choice of attire. Caesar wears plain, monochrome items of clothing including a smart, white, collared shirt and straight black trousers. This work attire was partially inspired by Milky in This is England, who as a young man casually wears white shirts, Samuel and the other Amish characters in Witness, unexposed to the debauchery and violence of the social underworld, and partly by the moral high ground taken by Morgan Freeman as Detective Somerset in Se7en. Caesar’s name was taken from the Roman emperor Julius Caesar. Helen is not necessarily provocatively dressed, but wears a fashionable scarf, jacket and boots. Helen is the modern rendition of a femme fatale, moving away from the subtle sophistication of Anna Schmidt in The Third Man and more into the territories of Lisbeth Salander, the edgy heroine of the Millennium trilogy. Helen’s father, Jason, wears a khaki hooded coat and well-worn denim trousers. The khaki coat has several underlying connotations; the camouflage blends him into the woodland and places him in the role of the hunter; the coat, along with the murder weapon (a large knife) may imply that Jason is a veteran of war, most likely the Falkland’s war; the present day culture of hooded yobs places Jason in the violent working class English stereotype. Jason is a character similar to Sean Bean’s Jason Locke in Essex Boys. Jason stays mostly to the stereotype of the thuggish and racist skinhead, as seen in the This Is England's Combo.

Caesar, Steven & Sorrel

- Caesar plays himself, Steven plays Jason & Sorrel plays Helen

Combo (Stephen Graham) in 'This is England'

  The choice of soundtrack was inspired by the opening credits of Se7en, which uses Nine Inch Nails’ song ‘Closer’. I chose the song for my cut of Blind Faith because it was laden with peculiar noises and effects. There are no lyrics or especially loud segments to distract the audience from the visual experience. The music is there only to intensify the tension and overall menace of the opening sequence.

Chiaroscuro in 'The Third Man'

As in the sewer sequence of The Third Man, chiaroscuro lighting is used during the attack scene in the woods. The contrast of the dark of the woods and the light of the setting sun is a visual metaphor for the good and evil of Caesar and Jason, as well as Jason’s emergence from the dark, which is similar to the arrival of the killer in Rear Window out of the darkness. The cliff-hanger uses the extinguishing of a candle in unison with the scream, apparent death and fall of Caesar to imply Jason’s attack. The sequence of the turning of the tap makes the film in it’s entirely appear like a flashback, as in Memento, or as part of a hallucination/dream sequence, as in Vertigo.

  To conclude, Blind Faith uses forms and conventions to please the existing audience: The lighting aspects take inspiration from film noir and Hitchcock, costumes play to stereotypes inspired by Essex Boys and Witness, sound follows the atmospheric and unnerving tones of Se7en and the title is typically memorable. The femme fatale is developed by down tuning Helen’s sexuality and granting her the strength to defy her father. Generic locations are challenged with the removal of large faceless landscapes and the use of woodland to create the vital sense of isolation.