Characters in Psychological Thrillers.

Psychological thriller characters.

Characters in psychological thrillers often have been through good or bad experiences that often influence the state of their erratic emotions or mental states. Usually, they come across something in there life that will psychologically haunt then, and the events of the film will be them dealing or coming to terms with this.

One type of character in a psychological thriller may be someone who influenced or is being manipulated by a situation or another character, causing them to act in certain way. This person is usually vulnerable, and the plot of them film involves them gradually becoming more distressed after becoming wrapped in the world of the character than has a hold on them.

EXAMPLES

                                                        Clarice Starling- Silence of the Lambs.

                                                       




Nina Sayers- The Black Swan.

     Daniel Gallagher- Fatal Attraction.  

A second character that may appear in a psychological thriller is the character that may manipulate the first character, or be the cause of their distress. This person may take the form of a serial killer or an extremely dangerous and ruthless individual that lacks empathy and enjoys over powering people.

                                            

EXAMPLES

                                                      Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs.

                                              Tyler Durden, Fight Club.

                                                                 

      

                            Martin Burney, Sleeping with the Enemy.

A final character that may appear in a psychological thriller is someone who has lost a hold of reality. Similar to (and sometimes will also take the form of) the first character, this person is incredibly vulnerable, even if they don’t realise it. The individual, usually due to trauma suffered previously, will usually be living the role of a completely different character in the figment of their twisted imagination, until there final identity is revealed to the audience and themselves near the end of the film in an exciting twist.

                                                           

EXAMPLES

                                                 Malcom Crowe, Sixth Sense.

                                                                       Tyler Durden, Fight Club

                                                                    Teddy Daniels, Shutter Island