Thriller Comparison

Comparing 3 thriller films

The Dark Night   

Recently the long anticipated Finale to Batman film was released in cinemas. The storyline was based around Batman’s return from his retirement in order to stop The Joker  (Heath Ledger) from taking over the city, accompanied by fellow villain Cat Woman (Anne Hathaway). There is great amount of suspense in this movie in many ways as both the audience and the other characters in the movie are to discover how the Joker is going to take over the city and there is no way of telling when he will strike next. The Joker, as well as the police, is off to kill Batman (Christian Bale) after having believed to have murdered a local hero, which only adds more tension to the storyline. This film defiantly leaves you on the edge of your seat from the unpredictable actions which will occur, capturing the viewers’ attention and interest.

The Black Swan

This movie is following the story a dedicated ballet dancer, Nina (Natalie Portman), who feels the threat of her understudy, Lily (Mila Kunis) taking over her role in her star performance of ‘Swan Lake’. This alongside the pressure of her pushy mother and obsessive dance instructor leading her to  hallucinating events which have not occurred, leading to further confusion and madness. Through the film we see Nina transition from the delicate white swan into the evil black swan as the show draws closer. Throughout the film, both Nina and the audience are left to unravel the truth behind what is real and what isn’t, and what mentally confused Nina will do next in order to secure her lead role in Swan Lake. There is a great amount of suspicion in this film, and leaves the audience questioning the reality to the story line in comparison to Nina’s imagination, which we see, the story though. However there is a lack of action and excitement to the film, but there are more intense and confusing moments as Nina’s hallucinations play mind games. There is no rivalry from the other characters point of view, but it certainly captures the reader’s attention as it makes them question the sanity of Nina and the consequences of her psychotic actions.

Shutter Island

Set in the 1950’s, Shutter Island is the story of a detective by the name of Edward- also referred to as Teddy (Leonardo DiCaprio), and his partner Chuck (Mark Ruffalo)  travel to a psychiatric hospital to investigate the absence of inmate Rachael Salando.  Also having dreams of his dead wife Chanal, Teddy is led to believe that Rachael is still on the island, as well as severe migraines. There is a great deal of confusion and mystery as he starts to believe that the whole investigation was just a game set up for him. But as the story slowly unravels Teddy starts having memories of him killing his wife, after she had drowned all their children- and he was in fact one of the patients at the hospital. There is a lack of action in this film however, but the hidden storyline alone grabs the audience attention as they are yet to discover the true meaning behind what Teddy had believed to be an investigation.

Comparison   

In conclusion, I believe that the Dark Night has catched the audience attention more by the unpredictable action within the story as appose to the mystery in The Black Swan and Shutter Island. There is more rivalry and tension within The Dark Night in comparison to the other films, but some tension within The Black Swan, in the mind of Nina, but does not appear to be that way externally, just like in Shutter Island as Teddy is suspicious of the other characters- however this does appear to be true, in comparison to Black Swan which there really isn’t. In conclusion my preferred thriller would be Shutter Island as there is more mystery for the audience to uncover, but I did also enjoy the action involved in The Dark Night. I didn’t enjoy Black Swan as much due to the great deal of confusion amongst the action throughout the film, which doesn’t seem to unravel the way the other films did.