Examples of Thriller films and the settings that they use to portray the specific genre.
Psycho: (1960) Horror, Mystery, Thriller.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock.
Marion Crane is a Phoenix, Arizona working girl fed up with having to sneak away during lunch breaks to meet her lover, Sam Loomis, who cannot get married because most of his money goes towards alimony. One Friday, Marion's employer asks her to take $40,000 in cash to a local bank for deposit. Desperate to make a change in her life, she impulsively leaves town with the money, determined to start a new life with Sam in California. As night falls and a torrential rain obscures the road ahead of her, Marion turns off the main highway. Exhausted from the long drive and the stress of her criminal act, she decides to spend the night at the desolate Bates Motel. The motel is run by Norman Bates, a peculiar young man dominated by his invalid mother.
The "Psycho House" became an iconic symbol of eerieness, and has appeared in countless films (including two Psycho sequels), television shows and advertisements. The set still stands on the Universal backlot fifty years later, although modified and twice relocated over the years. The original Bates Motel set no longer exists, but a reconstructed version of the motel has accompanied the home on the backlot and as a part of the studio tour for decades.
The Bates, the setting for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 classic, “Psycho,” is a dreary motel that doesn’t see a lot of customers, and those who do stop, like Marion Crane, sometimes never check out, at least in the drop-the-key-at-the-front-desk sense.
Seven: (1995) Crime, Drama, Mystery and Thriller.
Director: David Fincher.
A film about two homicide detectives' desperate hunt for a serial killer who justifies his crimes as absolution for the world's ignorance of the Seven Deadly Sins. The movie takes us from the tortured remains of one victim to the next as the sociopathic "John Doe" sermonizes to Detectives Somerset and Mills -- one sin at a time. The sin of Gluttony comes first and the murderer's terrible capacity is graphically demonstrated in the dark and subdued tones characteristic of film noir. The seasoned and cultured but jaded Somerset researches the Seven Deadly Sins in an effort to understand the killer's modus operandi while the bright but green and impulsive Detective Mills (Pitt) scoffs at his efforts to get inside the mind of a killer.
The location is purposely not revealed. It's a fictional city of constant rain and urban decay that mirrors the general tone of the film. Seven filming location: John Doe's place: The Alexandria Hotel, 218 West Fifth Street, downtown Los Angeles.
Se7en filming location: Somerset researches in the library: 650 South Spring Street, downtown Los Angeles.
Seven filming location: Se7en: Tracy reveals she's pregnant: Quality Coffee Shop, West Seventh Street, downtown Los Angeles.
Seven filming location: The ‘Sloth’ victim wastes away: Pan-Am Building, Third Street, downtown Los Angeles.
Seven filming location: "What's in the box?": powerlines on I Street, Lancaster, California
The ending is out in the desert way north of Los Angeles. The area of high-tension lines can be found on West Avenue I, just east of 110th Street, west of Lancaster. This is near-featureless desert – the ‘street’ numbers are purely imaginary, the land having been mapped out in a grid ready for the day developers overwhelm the desert with high-rise blocks.
The silence of the lambs: (1991) Crime, Drama, Thriller.
Director: Jonathan Demme.
Young FBI agent Clarice Starling is assigned to help find a missing woman to save her from a psychopathic serial killer who skins his victims. Clarice attempts to gain a better insight into the twisted mind of the killer by talking to another psychopath: Hannibal Lecter, who used to be a respected psychiatrist. FBI agent Jack Crawford believes that Lecter, who is also a very powerful and clever mind manipulator, has the answers to their questions and can help locate the killer. However, Clarice must first gain Lecter's confidence before the inmate will give away any information.
There are two key loctions in the popular thriller film. The film begins in 'Baltimore State Forensic Hospital' and the second key location is a house in a suburban area. Both of these locations are perfect settings for a thriller as the hospital adds a psychological twist that makes the audience question the well being of the characters. Also the house makes the film seem more realistic and adds a shocking/suspense factor to the film.
Shutter island: (2010) Mystery, Thriller.
Director: Martin Scorsese.
It's 1954, and up-and-coming U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels is assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Boston's Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital. He's been pushing for an assignment on the island for personal reasons, but before long he wonders whether he hasn't been brought there as part of a twisted plot by hospital doctors whose radical treatments range from unethical to illegal to downright sinister. Teddy's shrewd investigating skills soon provide a promising lead, but the hospital refuses him access to records he suspects would break the case wide open. As a hurricane cuts off communication with the mainland, more dangerous criminals "escape" in the confusion, and the puzzling, improbable clues multiply, Teddy begins to doubt everything - his memory, his partner, even his own sanity.
Shutter Island was mainly filmed in Massachusetts, with Taunton being the location for the World War II flashback scenes. Old industrial buildings in Taunton's Whittenton Mills Complex replicated the Dachau concentration camp. The old Medfield State Hospital in Medfield, Massachusetts was another key location.
Shutter Island film location: Teddy Daniels arrives at Shutter Island: East Head, Peddocks Island, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts.
The main building and the first two wards of ‘Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane’ are the disused Medfield State Hospital, 45 Hospital Road in Medfield, on the mainland about 20 miles southwest of Boston.
The sixth sense: (1999) Mystery, Drama, Thriller.
Director: M. Night Shyamalan.
Malcom Crowe is a child psychologist who receives an award on the same night that he is visited by a very unhappy ex-patient. After this encounter, Crowe takes on the task of curing a young boy with the same ills as the ex-patient. This boy "sees dead people". Crowe spends a lot of time with the boy much to the dismay of his wife. Cole's mom is at her wit's end with what to do about her son's increasing problems. Crowe is the boy's only hope.
The Sixth Sense film location: the home of Cole Sear: St Alban’s Place, Philadelphia.
The Sixth Sense film location: troubled Cole retreats to the church: St Augustine’s Roman Catholic Church, 4th Street, Philadelphia.
The Sixth Sense film location: Crowe joins his wife at the upmarket restaurant: Striped Bass, Walnut Street, Philadelphia.
M Night Shyamalan's tricksy supernatural thriller, which turned out to be one of the year's unexpected smash hits, was shot around Philadelphia, the director's home town.
Black Swan: (2010) Drama, Thriller.
Director: Darren Aronofsky.
Nina is a ballerina in a New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance. She lives with her obsessive former ballerina mother Erica who exerts a suffocating control over her. When artistic director Thomas Leroy decides to replace prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre for the opening production of their new season, Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice. But Nina has competition: a new dancer, Lily , who impresses Leroy as well. Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who represents guile and sensuality. Nina fits the White Swan role perfectly but Lily is the personification of the Black Swan. As the two young dancers expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship, Nina begins to get more in touch with her dark side - a recklessness that threatens to destroy her.
A psychological thriller set in the world of New York City ballet, BLACK SWAN stars Nina, a featured dancer who finds herself locked in a web of competitive intrigue with a new rival at the company.
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