Time for Research! Part #1

 Alright! Week two! After mulling about around my house, I think I'm set on my decision to do a thriller genre. I already have a set idea for my plot/characters as well, but I'm saving that for a later posting ;). Anywho, today I'm going to be focusing on research of the thriller genre and show some specific examples of certain films that I have taken inspiration from in order to develop my plot and be creative with it at the same time. 

Content:

The thriller genre consists of plot that emits a suspenseful and engrossing theme throughout the film. They are filled with conflict and tension, as well as unexpected twists. Plots could vary from gory and physically sickening to psychologically twisted with deeper hidden meanings. Thrillers are never meant to be boring, and each scene has a purpose to further develop the plot and leave the audience on the edge of their seat. Content of such films can range from murders to kidnappings, to serial killers, etc. 

Above is an image of some popular films that are categorized under the thriller genre, including Psycho and Silence of the Lambs. 

One movie that matches with my aesthetic of what I'm trying to portray is a film released in 2011 called Megan Is Missing. This movie recently gained a ton of popularity over the everso growing social media app, TikTok. 

This movie has been one of my main inspirations for my film opening plot-wise. It is filmed uniquely in the sense that it is filmed in the "found-footage" style to make it seem like it is a true story, though it was based on several. The film is about a party-loving, popular high school student Megan and her closed-off, child-like best friend Amy (kind of creepy cause my best friend IRL is named Amy). Megan falls down a rabbit hole of drugs and addiction which leads her to meet a stranger named Josh on the internet, who never shows his face on camera because his "brother broke his webcam." Megan abruptly goes missing one day (shocker), and her best friend Amy sets an investigation in motion to figure out her whereabouts, for she doesn't believe she just "ran away", which is what the police concluded. She finds security footage of Megan being abducted along with sickening photos of her being mutilated that popped up on a dark web fetish website. Long story short, Amy gets abducted as well by, you guessed it, Josh, who had kidnapped Megan. Josh keeps Amy in a cell and when he tells her he is sorry and will let her go, he has told her to get inside a barrel he had so she wouldn't see where he lived. Upon opening the barrel, Megan's rotting corpse can be seen, and while Amy is screaming bloody murder, Josh shoves her into the barrel with Megan where he takes the barrel and buries Amy alive inside the barrel with her best friends rotting corpse. And that's the end :D.

Kind of gruesome, I know, and I'm not planning on showing any rotting corpses in my film opening, but I do want to use the theme of kidnapping as well as spread awareness of the dangers of trusting strangers online. Unfortunately, it's not like humanity will somehow shift and we all sing Kumbaya and eat cake; there's always going to be sickos who want to take advantage of people. So, I'm hoping that not only will my film opening be entertaining, but it will also spread awareness to not be dumb online. 

Hopefully, I'll be able to pull this off. 

Stay tuned to find out.