Synopsis Research - Thrillers

The Possession, 2008

Jess, a woman whose life turns surreal after an automobile accident leaves both her husband Ryan and her brother-in-law Roman in a coma. Things take an even darker turn when Roman wakees believing that he is Ryan. As Jess tries to deal with these increasingly disturbing events, she also struggles with the possibility that either the spirit of her husband has returned or that something very sinister is at work


Dark Feed
When a film crew moves into an abandoned psychiatric hospital with a shadowy past to shoot a low budget horror film, they get more than they bargained for. The late nights and lack of sleep begin to take a toll, and the longer the crew works, the more the leaky, wet building seems to be coming back to life, feeding off its new inhabitants. As the shoot wears on, member of the crew exhibit increasingly strange behaviour leaving those still sane realizing they need to get out of this place before they too succumb to the building's infectious hold, the only problem, the old hospital is not ready to let them go


Mine Games
Don't-go-in-there scares ensue when seven young friends head for a weekend at a remote forest lodge. Coming off the road after a near-miss with a mysterious figure, they make it to their destination on foot. Their driver (Joseph Cross) is shaken, but they all start getting twitchy when they discover an old mine close by... and make the mistake of going in. An unnerving horror mystery designed to keep everyone on edge


The Purge
In a future America unemployment is at an all time low and the people live a life of almost perfect harmony. However, the price of this peace is that for one night law and order is suspended and you can commit any crime you like. Blumhouse Productions, the team behind the paranormal Activity series, Sinister and Dark Skies, stick to their tried and tested formula with another budget conscious imperilled family shocker. A Twilight Zone idea is seasoned with extract of Straw Dogs and A Clockwork Orange

Codes and Conventions

• Overall, the films all seem to have the same running themes in which one small event leads to an ordeal which is terrifying to both the characters and the viewers
• They all have quite dark names that give a sense of the genre and what is to come in the film
• The synopsis gives the audience the feeling the films start off seemingly harmless and innocent, and then one event turns things sinister
• All the titles have a mystery/crime theme to them, suggesting that they work well together and that  crime is essential to the thriller genre
• From the film synopsis, 2/4 of the films mentioned above, both the Possession and Mine Games, includes a road accident which seems to result in some in some sort of event which takes up the body of the film
• 2/4 of the films, Mine Games and Possession, use quite dark words in the synopsis of the film to describe it, for example 'sinister' and 'unnerving horror mystery' which helps to suggest the nature of the film and the frightening events that will follow
• The synopsis indicates that the films contain a number of people, and in all cases there is more than 2-3 people characters involved
• All the films are American based and set
• There seem to be an intelligent perpetrator who is doing the underhanded activity and an equally intelligent individual who is trying to discover who they are and 'unmask' them
• They also seem to involve a house or type of 'dark' building somehow
• 2/4 also contain old abandoned settings, such as Dark Feed which is set in an old psychiatric hospital, and Mine Games set in an old mine
• They are often set in remote locations
• The synopsis also seem to share what the characters are feeling, for example 'twitchy' (Mine Games), which prepares the audience to feel this way at some point of the film
• These synopsis also suggest that there I something underlying to fear, such as a building, and more importantly, the fear of the unknown
• They contain the sense of being trapped