'Taking Lives' Analysis

How does ‘Taking Lives’ conform or subvert into the genre of a typical thriller

Taking Lives’ slips into the genre of thriller by creating masses of tension, suspense and confusion, however the important thing is to get the viewer to actually feel that the problems the protagonist encounters could actually happen to them and to be able to force a sense of fear, dread and worry into the audience.
Taking lives does this exactly, by making everything seem realistic, it is more believable to the audience and situations/scenarios are accepted more by the audience in there realism. Also by making the audience relate to the protagonist and question to what actions they would take if they were in any of these terrifying situations the protagonist was in, it makes it all the more frightening.
Angelina Jolie is the protagonist, the central character who finds her self in danger. You are made to feel and see everything she does; most of the shots that are shown are made to put you in her prospective, which creates huge amounts of tension and suspense. There are many points in the film where the music will drop, visually you can see little and you are put in the shoes of Angelina Jolie. Any time where there is a scene where danger is only round the corner, the audience will be put in the prospective of the character to receive any jumps or frights that are about to happen. The audience watching will have knowledge from watching any type of film, that when music drops or it goes quiet and there is a slow build up, that something is about to happen.
In ‘Taking Lives’ any time there is a crime scene to attend to or a dark room to check out, there will be little sound, any noise will be heavily enhanced, and also if any person or object is focused on the camera will tighten slowly causing immense build up. For example, the scene where Angelina Jolie and the Inspector attend to a hotel room that a suspect has been staying in, the music drops and the lighting is very dim, making it hard to pick out what you are seeing. Slow movements by the characters cause a build up of suspense and when Angelina Jolie goes to inspect the ceiling, a buzz or hum is introduced and then drops and at that point a body comes crashing down through the ceiling giving the audience a fright. It’s that long winding build of suspense and tension that are the key aspects to making a good thriller.
Making a thriller film, directors need to ensure that it’s fast paced throughout. Very often, the beginning of a thriller wastes no time in putting the audience in a dilemma from the off, gripping them into questioning why or how this happened. In ‘Taking Lives’, right at the beginning, a huge dilemma is thrown at you, where two young boys are fixing a tire and one of the boys pushes the other into an oncoming vehicle, causing a very brutal and horrific death. As soon as this happens the audience are asking questions and hoping for an answer, so by slow build ups and plots you keep the audience intrigued from beginning to end.
So this brings you to the final and most important aspect of a thriller. ‘Taking Lives’, tries to lure the audience in to a false sense of security. ‘Taking Lives’ is made from the point of view of taking the audience on a journey where they’re not sure where they are going. Scenes which build to a point where the audience thinks they know what to expect but then the scene dramatically switches to an unforeseen outcome, maintains the suspense and tension. As in this film the obvious big twist is the fact that the witness, that has so longingly been perceived as an innocent nobody that happened to be at the scene of the crime, is in fact the serial killer himself.
The ridiculous but classic twist leaves the audience in astonishment, but states that this film does belong in the genre of thriller.