Mental Illness Within Society
When framing our main protagonists ‘Billy’ it is immediately apparent that he is someone who suffers from mental illness when the framing is paired with the prop of the tablets skewed across the coffee table. This may highlight Billy’s over use of drugs and cosmetics that he feels will lift him from the state The isolation of the tablets within this shot creates a representation on how people who grieve from mental illness are seen as abnormal in comparison to regular society norms that everyone follows. Harmonising this shot with aspects of low-key lighting allows the audience to depict the character as weak and vulnerable in his state, making him unable to sight the fear and danger of the mysterious figure lurking within his home. At the same time, the essence of mental illness or ‘abnormality of mental health’ can be seen in the brothers driven ambition to receive revenge for past events. Using the costume specifically hiding the face of ‘Steven’ allows the mystery of the character to evolve over the time of the sequence. It allows the audience to believe that something may have happened to him in order to cause him to go on this psychotic path of revenge.
The representation of mental illness in thriller movies is typically a negative one, often being used to explain away the reasons behind the antagonist's killings by depicting them to be 'crazy' or 'deranged', in order to create a villain that acts in ways that are not typical human behaviours and therefore make the audience uneasy. Mental illness is often used to be a source of apprehension in thrillers, as characters who suffer from it are displayed as unpredictable and dangerous. One of the most iconic examples of this is the Joker in the Batman series as, though it is never explicitly said that he is mentally ill, it is clear from both his behaviour, costume and the reoccurring mention of his childhood trauma ("You wanna' know how I got these scars?") that he is not mentally stable. The Joker is a character which kills ruthlessly, and often laughs whilst doing it, presenting him to be a cold-blooded killer and, consequently, presenting mentally ill people to be the same.
However, the Joker is not the only character that is a representation of mental illness in thriller movies. There are also several other films which feature mentally ill characters in the role of the villain - such as 'John Doe' in Se7en, who goes on a mass murder spree that follows the seven deadly sins. This is another common type of mentally ill characters, as they are often presented to be obsessive, often over niche things or topics. For example, John Doe with the seven sins, or the Joker with his scars. These strange obsessions are used to cause the audience to feel uneasy, as they are often strange obsessions that many people do not have, and therefore contribute to the character's strange behaviour. Although having an obsession alone is not necessarily dangerous behaviours, thrillers often turn these obsessions into it -- an example being, once again, John Doe. In addition to these examples, another common issue with the presentation of mentally ill characters is that they are often very two-dimensional when it concerns their mental illness. It is rarely explained what they have, how it was caused, or anything that could be used to allow the audience to understand the character's motives. Whilst understanding the character's motives would not necessarily make them a sympathetic character, and they should not be one, this absence of explanation translates badly on the representation of mentally ill people, as it causes them to be seen in a similar two-dimensional light. They are often defined by their illness, and many people are uneasy around those with mental illness because of the violent mentally ill characters found in movies. However, one example that challenges this in some ways is Kevin Katchadourian from We Need To Talk About Kevin, which closely follows his childhood and relationship with his mother and therefore what caused his issues later in life. However, this challenging of conventions does not extend throughout the whole film as, at the end, he commits a mass murder at his school.
Finally, one last example of the representation of mental illness is Vincent Grey in The Sixth Sense, who is a past patient of Dr. Malcolm Crowe. Unlike the Joker, John Doe and Kevin Katchadourian, Vincent Grey is presented in a less stoic, cold-blooded way, instead being presented as both mentally and emotionally unstable. This therefore presents him in a more sympathetic light, due to the fact he is sobbing and apologising, but it does not change the stereotypical representation of him in the fact that he shoots Crowe. Much like the other characters, Grey is also a dangerous mentally ill person and, regardless of whether he is reluctantly dangerous or not, he still remains an antagonist of the movie. This therefore contributes to the on going theme in the presentation of mentally ill people, especially due to the fact that although he is not stoic or cold-blooded he still behaves in an unusual manner -- such as the fact he is not wearing clothes, and that he broke into Crowe's house.Working Class Male
Our opening sequence to the thriller film 'Forsaken' represents the young, working class male as having poor punctuality, being messy and disorganised. However, the character is not portrayed in a particularly bad light, and Billy's behaviour is relatable and typical of a young male his age.
Through the use of this shot, we start to construct the representation of a young, working class male as being somewhat uncontrollable and sporadic. This is because he is shown sleeping on the couch, even though by the appearance of the house, it would be expected for him to have a bed. He is also shown holding alcohol in this shot, suggesting that he passed out, possibly late at night, after drinking. This, along with the close-up of the pills, adds to the construction of Billy having various problems in his life. 
Another representation constructed of white, working class males is that they are lazy and procrastinate. This can be seen in this shot as there are many dirty dishes visible that Billy seems to have neglected and not taken any interest in washing up. This may show his distraction in his work and how his monotonous lifestyle has taken up any free time he may want when coming home. This way of life may have cause Billy to become depressed with himself and the amount of work and pressure on his shoulders that he always seems to put before his social life away from work.
Young working class men.
young working class men are typical represented in thrillers as following a usual routine which they stick to doing throughout the movie scenes. these types of people are usually social towards work colleagues or friends who are around them, they would be social with work colleagues at bars or clubs after work or during a work break. These people are seen to be busy and have not much time to themselves which in thriller genres will usually leave the character becoming distressed leading them into depression since thriller films have conventions which include a charter who is abnormal compared to other characters in the film to give the movie an edge to it.
An example of a young working class man in a thriller movie would be patrick Bateman in the film american psycho, the reason this film relates to the stereotypical young working class men is because the main character is a sophisticated man who has a well paid job in new york during the day but in the night he turns into a serial killer who murders random people that anger him either at work or during the day, this reflects the frustration that high end jobs create for people and as you are lead to believe that he is a normal man due to the suit and appearance of him however the film takes an alternative view which makes the thriller more shocking
