Thriller Short Film Analysis 2

Guilt

Guilt is unlike Knowing Too Much because the subject matter makes this short film fall into a sub-genre of thriller categorised as a psychological thriller. These are where the narrative focuses on the changing psychology of a character to provide suspense, because the lack of predictability means that the audience cannot determine how a character will react. 

Guilt follows a protagonist who is haunted by a guilty conscience. He is driving along, a blood smear on his windscreen, and he pulls into an underground car park to hide the damage. We see empty bottles of beer on the passenger seat, implying that he has been drinking and accidentally killed a pedestrian. The protagonist is unstable, and as he climbs out of his car he starts to wipe off the blood in a panic. To further remove the evidence, he takes out the glass bottles and starts to walk away, but is frozen by the haunting hallucination of his victim. His guilt causes him to follow this ghostly vision, and he becomes apologetic, confessing his regret. The hallucination draws a pen knife and walks towards the protagonist, about to stab him, but then vanishes. We heard the smash of a glass bottle, and as the protagonist drops to the floor we realise that he has become suicidal, unable to cope with the responsibility of his actions. He has cuts his wrists, and the film ends with him lying on the floor, bleeding out. 

Dialogue

There is very little dialogue in this short film because there is only really one character for the majority of the action. When he encounters his victim's ghost the dialogue is apologetic and desperate, highlighting the fact that he is unable to live with his crime. The victim's dialogue understandably depicts himself as frustrated, tormented by the fact that he is gone forever. In the protagonist we see that he is blaming himself, and in the victim we see only anger and blame, which serves to emphasise the guilt that the protagonist, or antagonist, is facing.

Camera Shots/ Angles

• Tilt Shot: I think that the tilt down from the driver to the empty beer bottles in the passenger seat is a very revealing shot. It clarifies the scene and gives us a sense of implication to both what happened and why it happened, as well as what will happen. For example it suggests that the driver hit someone because he was drunk, and this drunk state could contribute to his hallucinations later on. 
• Canted Angle: In my opinion the canted angle that frames the character as he drives mimics his delusion, it reflects his uneasy mental state and intoxication, showing instability and almost a dazed, trance-like state. 
• Tracking Shot: The tracking shot follows the car as it drives in and parks. This shot is slow and lingering, capturing the caution and apprehension of the driver since he has just killed somebody. The slow camera and the slow speed of the car assist in establishing a sense of regret, a physical display of guilt through the driver's nervousness to drive quickly. 
• Low Angle Shot: I feel like the low angle shot serves a similar purpose to that of the canted angle shot. It gives the viewer a distorted view that replicates the confused emotional state of the protagonist. Alternatively it could be that the low angle shot encourages the viewer to focus on the beer bottles as they drop out of the car, to emphasise that there are more than we initially saw. This symbolically represents how he is struggling to outrun his guilt, even as he exits the car the bottles are falling out as a reminder of his recklessness. 
• Over the Shoulder: In normal situations an over the shoulder shot is used to establish continuity and intimacy within a character interaction. However in Guilt the over the shoulder shot is used as a sense of foreboding. The camera is positioned behind the shoulder of the deceased motorcyclist as he stands intensely still nearby the protagonist.  This shot is used to convey suspense and intimacy; the ghostly projection is very close to the protagonist in the frame and this makes it seem as though he is being haunted and pursued. 
• Long Shot: The long shots display an uneasy distance between the protagonist and his spectral vision as he is led away.  It creates suspense because we aren't sure how either character will react and whether the long distance is a sign of apprehension or restraint. In the case of the motorcyclist, his stillness is a display of restraint, whereas the protagonist is apprehensive about approaching. Therefore the long shot creates a spacial barrier between the two that reflects their conflict. 
• Zoom: As the camera slowly zooms inside the car's passenger seat and onto the beer bottles, we once again witness the recurring catalyst for the current disaster. At the end of the film, the camera zooms in on the traces of blood dropping on the floor as the protagonist collapses, a visual clarification that he has self-harmed. In both cases the zoom subtly draws our attention to the details of the narrative. 

Editing

Although it doesn't use fast-cutting to establish a fast pace and suspense, this short film opts for the reverse approach. The slow-cutting doesn't rush the sequence, instead suspense is equally created by the lingering shots which show the character coming to terms with his actions and consequences. The slow-cutting sustains the physicality of the protagonist as he saunters along, but also elicits a sense of foreboding through how the motorcyclist is not in a hurry either. The slow build up complements the sub genre of psychological thriller because it replaces the intense urgency in favour of exposing the stillness of the setting and the haunting memory of the accident. When the characters finally do engage with one another, the editor uses shot reverse shot to cut back and forth between them, rather than using over the shoulder shots. I think this is a practical choice: the characters are positioned too far away from each another to use over the shoulder shot reverse shot editing, because this would fail to capture the emotional expression in their faces. 

And finally, the transition between the vision and the reality at the end of the short film effectively distorts our view of what's happening. As the motorcyclist is about to stab the protagonist he becomes erased, deleted from the external world.  

Diegetic/ Non-Diegetic Sound

Diegetic noises like the bottles rolling and smashing contribute to the theme of alcoholism and the dangers associated with it. The sound of the heavy footsteps continues to show the drained energy of the protagonist, dragging himself along in a lumbering manner. These prolonged sounds of movement are replicated in the slow speed of the car; the wheels slowly rolling to demonstrate the creeping motion in which it is moving along.  A non-diegetic score looms over the film, adopting a slow but tense tone. This builds to a crescendo as the motorcyclist raises his knife and then returns to a more subtle, eerie theme as the protagonist drops to the floor. It mirrors the haunting aspect of the film, as if foreboding an impending threat. 

Mise-en-Scene

Firstly, let's talk about the most obvious and least interesting element of the mise-en-scene: the bottles. They serve to give context to the narrative and direct blame towards the protagonist rather than characterise him as someone who can be sympathised with. It asserts that the protagonist is responsible and even though it may have been an accident, it is something that is unforgivable considering that he wasn't sober. Another dominant feature of mise-en-scene is the blood. At first it appears on the windscreen and not only hints to the audience about what happened but also symbolically shows how the murder is stained into the driver's memory. The blood then stains his clothes as he tries to wash it off, embodying how he cannot escape the psychological trauma, a symbol reminiscent of Macbeth. It is also apparent on the victim's face; by showing the motorcyclist in his deformed, injured state rather than as a whole human being it adds to the idea that the harm he has caused is engraved into the protagonist's mind. Our final, most subtle display of blood shows the perpetrator self-harming, accepting his fate. 
The all black gear of the biker supports his spectral appearance. At first he is a haunting vision, shrouded in darkness before he removes his helmet. It helps to establish him as a dark memory and as something peculiar to the real setting. The setting itself is a dull and dirty area, dimly lit and with little visual appeal. This grimy atmosphere supports the ever present, bleak tone of the film and emphasises the dark psyche that is dominating both the protagonist and his projected vision. 

Review

As a psychological thriller, it definitely works. I think that the narrative is given away too quickly and could have worked better if it explored how a sober person would react in that situation, because that way the audience can relate better and be more sympathetic with the character. It successfully employs the setting as an eerie environment and the post-production contrast and brightness establishes the tonal darkness of the subject matter and the atmospheric intensity.