Cinematography and Camera-work in Psychological Thrillers.

            Cinematography and Camera-work used in psychological thrillers.

The use of lighting is very important in psychological thrillers. In some scenes, very little light or low light is used, sometimes with only one source of light that may be used to illuminate a character's face. This is used to connote that this character is internally fighting with themselves or has a hidden side, or that something in the plot is being hinted to being 'kept in the darkness' to the audience. Low lighting also has a dramatic and tense effect, giving the sense that something unusual or concerning is going to occur.

One of the key shots used in psychological thrillers are close up or mid shots.They are used to capture the emotion and every reaction on a character's face, or capture every detail of a scene. 

Low angle shots are also used frequently, as they can show the dominance one character has over another, which often occurs in psychological thrillers.

      Over the shoulder shots are used to relate the audience with character. By positioning the camera right behind the character, the audience sees everything from their point of view, therefore if they sense something isn't quite right, we do too.

Black and white

 filters are also used often from the beginning to the end of a psychological thriller, to capture every shadow definition and give a mysterious, unsettling effect.