Thrillers themes

Hereditary  

3 key themes:

• Mystery
• Suspense
• Discovery

Mystery:

The denotation of the theme mystery in the trailer is when the funeral occurs. the audience would question how her mother died at 0:25-0:30, 

also when the girls mum mentions her mum at a focus group session and a lady recognises her from the session at 0:48-0:50 

 and the mother keeps saying she can feel her mums presence within the house as if she's actually there with her at 0:51-0:54 

and how her mum would feed her as a child at 0:38-0:41 

 she wouldn't let her own mother feed her child and the child's the grandmother's favourite out of the 2 kids. The connotations of the theme mystery would make the audience would question why does the grandma love her so much why doesn't she let her mum feed her as a baby it's like she's being possessive of her grandchild. It's like she was trying to hide something from the mum it's kind of like she had a weird obsession with her grandchild as she was the favourite. It makes the audience wonder why she was the favourite. I would use mystery in my thriller movie by having investigations for a missing person that hasn't been seen in a long time and everyone thinks that person is dead, but they are actually alive. 

Suspense:

The denotation of suspense in this trailer is when the mother goes to the focus group and speaks about her life and her mother who passed away recently, the reason why it is suspense is because she has mental health problems. The mothers kids also have issues for example the girl gets possessed at 1:50

  in a way by her grandmother and the daughter also asks strange questions such as whose going to look after her when her mum dies you can tell the mother is concerned that her daughter said that and slightly weirded out at 1:17-1:21

and the son has hallucinations at 1:28-1:50.    

The connotations of this thriller is the audience questioning what caused the mother's mental health to be this bad and also why was the grandmother going after her granddaughter so much when she was the favourite one out of her daughters kids. Who was haunting the boy in the trailer and what was he hallucination perhaps it was the tragic death of his sister after she died she may have haunted him like their grandmother haunted her. I would use the suspense theme in my thriller by building up an intense situation and moving from scene to scene to create that suspense for the audience for them to be intrigued and wonder what's going to happen next. 

Discovery: 

The denotation of discovery in this thriller is when we realize the grandmother wanted a grandson instead although she had one already it needed to be the girl who she wanted to be a boy instead which explains somewhat of her being the favourite grandchild and why she always fed her as a baby too as well as why they were always so close. It also semi explains why after the grandma died she haunts the house and comes for the girl and leads her to places and especially the tree house in their garden and in the end how she leads her to the treehouse and it looks like some kind of ritual. The connotation of this would be was the mothers daughter really the grandmas favourite or was she using her for her ritual business she had going on. Also what if the boys hallucination was a way of him grieving his sisters unforgettable death. I would explore the theme discovery in my thriller by having investigations taken place or have the characters find out by the news or letters/notes to make it mysterious and shocking.