Genre Research: Settings, Storylines and Themes

Typical Settings:

• Urban City to create the idea that the town is normal and nothing unusual happens and you wouldn't expect it. It usually links to a normal family or person living there when things start going wrong. Such as the film, House at the End of the Street. A family move to a small town and things start getting complicated when she befriends someone
• Rural City such as the countryside/desert. This insinuates that the family/person lives out of the way and gives a creepy vibe to the story. E.g The shining is set in a isolated hotel away from everything

Typical Storylines:

• There has to be suspension, tension and pace throughout the film. The protagonist must be proactive rather than reactive, he makes things happen rather than waiting for them
• The main character must have grown and changed his views and opinions by the end of the film. Usually helping them get through the hard part of the story
• A turning point that makes the main character go from their everyday lives to a journey where their solving an issue or finding out whats happening to them
• Ending must resolve all loose ends but a satisfactory twist by the end

For example, The Shining

A man and his family go away to an isolated hotel. On the way his son sees visions of the hotels past using his telepathic gift knows as 'the shining.' The man is underway a writing project and as a result of cabin fever he goes insane slowly. After a ghost convinced him, he goes completely insane and only the son can save them with 'the shining.'

Themes:

• Obsession - This emotion is driven by fear and has the potential to become extremely intense. Many times, this emotion is hidden to others, and the character dealing with the emotion feels as if no one else could understand their obsession. This obsession tends to lead to the ultimate downfall of the fall character
• Identity - It is one's sense of themselves. in many psychological thrillers, characters are either confused about their identity completely. This causes them to do whatever they can in order to regain their sense of identity
• Reality - A sense of what is real. Characters usually don't have an accurate sense of reality or have a hard time distinguishing between what is real and what is not
• Death - Throughout there will be a few deaths done in different ways. Usually this freaks the protagonist out and causes them to go insane

For example, 

Black Swan
The main character (Natalie Portman) is obsessed with perfection. She is a ballet dancer and has a lot of pressure to maintain her look and figure. She confuses reality with fascination

Psycho 
A theme that runs through Psycho is confused identity. The themes were revealed through motifs such as: birds, eyes, hands and mirrors.