Unit 3.4 Thriller themes

Click here to view the trailer for Get Out

One of the key themes revealed to the audience in the trailer Get Out is the theme of romance. The theme of romance is revealed to the audience instantly at the start of the trailer.
Romance is denoted to the audience between Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams with clips of them living together and happily in a relationship. This clips of the couple together in the start of the trailer showing their body language and gestures towards each other instantly inform the audience that they are couple.

We can see this especially at 0:13 seconds into the trailer where Allison is lying down on the bed and talking to Daniel .The way in which she is sitting was done on purpose to make it come across to the audience that she is almost trying to be 'sexy' and please him even though the signs were not extremely clear. That particular scene is followed with the line 'my black boyfriend will be coming up this weekend' and this line effects the audience by making them feel elements of shock and confusion. This was purposely done to build up the suspense and narrative towards the audience.

In my thriller opening sequence I will consider the way in which they used a happy ,positive scene of the couple  talking then added a line that they knew would purposely shock the audience and make them want to watch the film.

Another key theme denoted to the audience in the Get Out trailer is the theme of fear.
The theme of fear is constantly conveyed to the audience through a montage of clips where Daniel jumps at weird and scary moments within the film.

An example of this is at 01:05 into the trailer where we see Betty Gabriel standing staring through the window. This has a huge effect on the audience as they begin to sympathize feel the fear that Daniel felt when he looked up at saw her staring uncomfortably at him. Staring endlessly at someone through the window is not seen as a normal thing to do hence the reason it makes the audience feel slightly on edge and scared.

Another example where the theme of fear is denoted to the audience is when Daniel taps the shoulder of Lakeith Lee Stanfield and he turns around slowly and awkwardly as if he is going to attack. We can see this scene at 01:28 into the trailer.

Scenes of fear help to not only engage the audience in the trailer/film but also helps to allow them to sympathize with the protagonist who in this case is the character Chris (Actor-Daniel). I will definitely incorporate this into my thriller opening sequence.




 
The last theme that this particular thriller trailer is the theme of mind games. Mind games are extremely common in thriller movies because it allows the audience to actually put themselves in the characters position and expect the unexpected. An example of this this thriller theme being shown in the GET OUT trailer is at 1:40 where we see Daniel take a picture of the actor captured in the screen grab and the actor responds by charging at hi with a sudden nose bleed shouting get out. This contributes to the building of suspense and plays with the audiences mind as nobody knows why he would react in such a way. I find this form of thriller theme incredibly useful as it not only engages the audience but the way in which s builds suspense makes the audience want to keep watching. The way in which I will incorporate this into my thriller opening sequence is by having a similar scene whereby an action is done and another actor reacts in a totally weird, irrational way.