Arlington Road Analysis

ARLINGTON ROAD

In media class we have been analysing thriller movies and last week we watched five different thriller clips which were; Arlington road, Dead Calm, Marathon Man, Seven and The shining. i have analysed Arlington Road wider to see how it uses conventions of a thriller film.

We watched a clip in class about how thriller films should be and they said that one of the most important is making sure that the audience doesn't know too much or too little about the film and also audience should think "i don't understand everything", this all helps the film to build up more tension and makes audience watch the film being more exited about what will happen next as they are not exactly sure. Arlington Road follows this rule as in the clip we watched in class we don't exactly understand everything as it does tell a detailed story but instead shows death, animals, children and negatives which all give a clue to the audience about the theme of the film.

By looking at the camera work from the clip we see the convention of a thriller film as it is held from a high angle to show the object or person as powerless and naive. Also i realised that its hand held camera which causes the image to shake which gives a effect of suspense. In the mise-en-scene we notice things that belong to children for example swings which are somehow made to feel creepy in thrillers as it creates a scene of death or children, also noticed dogs and babies which give a clue of the theme as it may be a story to do with kidnapping or children getting killed.

The sound in the clip is very creepy, we hear no dialogue except from whispers of children and breathing effects which is very suspenseful as it makes the audience think that the sounds are from near as if their in the film.

The editing is fast with negatives which we don't really see in films that often so it adds a texture to the theme of the film, fast editing makes the audience miss out some parts of the story so that the audience is confused so that they can pay more attention to understand.