What Makes The Stepfather (2009) a thriller film?

The Movie The Step Father has many techniques used to make it a typical thriller film. First of all the film starts of with a normal guy shaving and starting his morning, an average day for work however then it shows the dead people around the place in a casual nammer to create a sence of akwardness something you would not see in a average persons house.


Anouther techniqe that is used is false plateau this is when the audience expects something to happen and are sure of it happening but in fact does not and goes the other way. For example the scene where Mrs Cutter after closes the door we are tricked into thinking nothing bad is going to happen but she then gets attacked.This is used to build up tension and its also a build up to a scene where something bad is soon going to happen.

In addition the use of non-diagetic sound creates suspense and tention making the audience anxious and very tence. One example of this is the scene where David starts chasing Susan. The combination of the violin, drums and cello make the scene very suspenseful as ot gradually builds up anxiety and tension.

Also their are some editing used to show that its a thriller movie when time is compressed, an example of this are when David meets Susan and time is forwarded to six months later.