THE STEPFATHER.

 After having watched 'The Stepfather' (thriller released in 2009), I have been inspired to more very thrilling ideas. Below I have listed three scenes, that I personally found contained the most thrilling elements.

Scene 1: The Shower scene = change of identity; introduction to murder.

The movie begins, with a very subtle day-to-day lifestyle routine. We are introduced to the main character very early on in the film. As in every thriller, within the first few minutes of the movie, we are aware of certain clues that indicate that there is something extremely false within this situation. We get hints of the main character trying to change his identity; dying his hair, cutting off his beard and having a 'clean-shave', as well as even changing his eye contact lenses to a different colour. The music used in the background is 'spooky', and introduces to the audience that even though this is a normal 'clean cut' situation, there is a history behind this figure.
The character goes on to the kitchen, and the atmosphere changes, it becomes a lot lighter in the room and the 'stepfather' puts on a cd that plays 'jolly Christmas music'. What seems to the audience, a normal routine of a cup of coffee and toast... Soon turns to bloody knives in the sink and a tilted deadly shot of the 'gloomy' living room, where his entire family lies brutally murdered. With the stepfathers extremely calm reaction to the view, we realise that there is something terribly wrong with this character. In my opinion this was an extarodinary use of 'False Plateau', the audience really would not have expected to see such cruel mentality or physical views of murdered bodies.

Scene 2: Stepfather entered the room and grabs game remote control off fiance's son.

In this perticular scene is the first time that we can see the stepfather being aggressive towards his 'new family'. When Susan (the mum) tells her son Sean to turn down the volume and Sean doesn't obey, the stepfather repeats Susans words but Sean still doesn't listen. Then we can see the Stepfathers anger as he walks towards Sean, with darkness behind him indicating that he is up to something evil. He grabs the remote control and places his hand firmly around Seans neck. This was a great shot of aggression that wasn't perticularly expected by the audience. I suppose because of the bomb theory, that the audience knows the truth behind this evil character where as the family don't know about it yet. The sound in that shot had become a silence except for very quiet computer game, and the deep breathing of the victim Sean. 
The editin gin that scene had also been briliant involving jump cuts for procise action.

Scene 3: Mrs. Cutter get's murdered.

A scene made up of tense music, loud heartbeat and audience's suspicion that something is going to happen. Mrs. Cutter who seems to have heard some gossip about David (the stepfather), however he could not risk anybody finding out, therefore before Mrs. Cutter let a lot of people who she supposedly 'fell down the stairs'. In the beginning of the scene whilst Mrs. Cutter is standing on her porch we as the audeince get a sense of normality, with an exception of when David drives by exchanging a look with the old lady. This is an automatic warning to the audience of what to expect. Later on as Mrs. Cutter enters her house we have yet again another 'jumpy' scene of False Plateau, as we are fooled as an audience by the jump of a cat.
As the audience relaxes and the tension settles down, of course this would be the scene where the real killer appears and suffocates Mrs. Cutter to create an ending to a horrific scene, there is some excellent camera shots in that scene, for instance we have a very clear point of view shot from Mrs. Cutter when David is suffocating her which allows the audience to understand the way that Mrs. Cutter is feeling.

The aspects of the film that have definetly influenced my own film...

• Suspense such as deep breathing, being able to hear the heart beat of a person in danger.
• The lighting of the film was extremely good; when the bad guy was being bad the lighting around him was dark and gloomy; indicating to the audience that he is feeling anger or frustration, where as the good trustworthy people are always surrounded by light to emphasize on the goodness of the character.
• There is a clear sense of reality and shots of what has happened - keeping the other characters 'in the dark'.
• This movie has also really inspired me to really think about my mise en scene, everything that has been captured in the shot, with a background story to why it's there and what the purpose of it is in my movie.