What is it about?
Psychological thriller is a sub-genre of the broader thriller narrative which emphasizes the unstable or delusional psychological states of its characters.
It has similarities to Gothic and detective fiction in the sense of sometimes having a “dissolving sense of reality.”
It is often told through the viewpoint of psychologically stressed characters, revealing their distorted mental perceptions and focusing on the complex and often tortured relationships between obsessive and pathological characters.
Psychological thrillers often incorporate elements of mystery, drama, action, and paranoia.
A distinguishing characteristic of a psychological thriller is a marked emphasis on the mental states of its characters: their perceptions, thoughts, distortions, and general struggle to grasp reality.
Psychological thrillers are suspenseful by exploiting uncertainty over characters’ motives, honesty, and how they see the world. Films can also cause discomfort in audiences by privileging them with information that they wish to share with the characters; guilty characters may suffer similar distress by virtue of their knowledge.
Literary devices and techniques
Plot Twist
An unsuspected occurrence or turn of events in the story that completely changes the direction or outcome of the plot from the direction it was likely to go. Example: Gone Girl – Amy is missing and presumed dead, all clues suggest her husband did it. [SPOILER] It is later revealed that she is the mastermind behind it all.
Useful link: https://literaryterms.net/plot-twist/
Unreliable Narrator
A character who tells a story with a lack of credibility. This may be because the point of view character is insane, lying, deluded or for any number of other reasons. Example: “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe – The narrator justifies his actions after being driven to insanity by an old man’s eye, subsequently killing him.
Useful links: https://blog.reedsy.com/unreliable-narrator/
MacGuffin
First popularized by master filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, “MacGuffin” is the term used to describe a basic plot element that drives a film’s story forward. It often takes the form of an object, event, or character that’s being pursued — usually by opposing sets of characters — but it can also be more abstract, like a sense of love or power. A plot device that acts as a catalyst to drive some of the action in the story
Example: The money that Marion Crane steals in Psycho is important to her and motivates her actions, like choosing Bates Motel, which is isolated from highway traffic thus giving her a false sense of security.
Useful link: https://nofilmschool.com/2016/09/hitchcocks-macguffin-explained-what-it-how-do-you-use-one-your-film
Themes
Good ‘ol existential crisis-inducing questions are raised: What is real? Who am I? What is my life’s purpose?
Characters may be threatened with death, be forced to deal with the deaths of others, or fake their own deaths.
Narratives can be complex, with a second or third viewing/reading recommended to “decipher its secrets.”
Reality
The quality of being real. Characters often try to determine what is true and what is not within the narrative.
Perception
A person’s own interpretation of the world around them through their senses. Characters misperceive the world around them, or their perceptions are altered by outside factors within the narrative.
Mind
The human consciousness; the location for personality, thought, reason, memory, intelligence and emotion. The mind is often used as a location for narrative conflict, where characters battle their own minds to reach new levels of understanding or perception.
Elements
Suspense, tension, and raising of stakes for the protagonist are used. Typically, the pace of this tension is faster in a thriller against a mystery.
Action and psychological aspects both are used to add to the suspense.
Protagonist is proactive rather than reactive. They ought to make things happen, go into action, not sit around with events happening around them.
Character growth is what leads to the main character’s ability to get through their darkest hour, and win during the climactic ending. Protagonist learns something about themselves or the human condition.
The ending resolves all loose ends, but provides a satisfactory twist if possible.
The conflict is through the mind, skills, and wit of main characters, reversing the more normal thriller “plot over character” expectations.
Tips
In addition to the literary devices previously listed, here are more to help develop your story:
Stream of consciousness: An individual’s point of view is described by giving the written equivalent of the character’s thought processes. In psychological thrillers, the narrative tries to manifest the character’s psyche through word usage, descriptions, or visuals.
Back-story: The history of a character deepens the psychological aspect of the story since the reader is able to more fully understand the character; more specifically, what the character’s motivations are and how their past has shaped their current cognitive perceptions.
First person narrative: The story is narrated by one or more of the characters, who explicitly refers to him or herself in the first person. This direct involvement that the characters have with the story in turn makes the reader more involved with the characters themselves, and thus able to understand the mechanics of the characters’ minds. This technique is often paired with the concept of unreliable narrator.
Examples
[Spoiler free]
Novels
The Shining – Stephen King: Jack and his family decide to vacation at this isolated hotel, and as we learn more about the family’s history, we simultaneously learn more about the hotel’s history. Jack soon discovers the hotel’s dark secrets and begins to unravel into a homicidal maniac hell-bent on terrorizing his family.
The Girl on the Train – Paula Hawkins: An unreliable narrator notices strange affairs and events in a neighbourhood she passes by while on a train. She ultimately decides to get involved and uncovers secrets that link back to her.
Before I Sleep – S.J. Watson: Christine lives each day without being able to recall new memories – she wakes up to get reacquainted with her husband and jots down her experiences in a diary. But is her world truly what her husband has been telling her, or what she thinks it is?
Films
Shutter Island: Beautiful plot twist concerning the protagonist and his mental state while being on the island that houses an asylum.
Black Swan: Contrary to stormy nights and Gothic castles – this movie uses something as innocent as ballet and turns it into a terrifying whirlwind of a movie. The protagonist has devoted her life to ballet. It’s one thing to lose yourself in your art, another to completely lose your mind. Themes of good vs. evil are used, as well as the unreliable narrator device.
Prompts
The dead walk out of the sea.
A basement contains jars filled with unusual specimens.
A killer places an advertisement for a willing victim and finds one.
She wakes up in the middle of the night and runs out to a certain tree.
An author’s fictional villain stalks them.
The corridor was long and empty…
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