Costume!

The costume of the characters in the thriller majorly depends on the genre of the thriller, for example in Sin City the characters tend to wear casual suits with the top button undone. The villain often wears clean cut and smart fitting suits to emphasise power and status. Female characters costumes dramatically changes depending on the type of thriller, in slasher-thrillers the women often wear very little clothing how in period-thrillers women have a tendency to wear long, covering clothing.

The colour of the clothing also implies a lot about the character, antagonists tend to black and dark colours to emphasise their sinister temperament whilst protagonists wear white or pale colours reinforcing their innocent and good nature. Sometimes one bright colour is used to shock and catch the audiences’ attention; more than often this colour is red.

Sin City is an excellent example of a thriller film which uses costumes to add to the atmosphere. Sin City opens with a woman wearing a Red dress; the film is in Black and White which means the coloured dress stands out and grabs the audience’s attention. The colour Red not only suggests that she may be dangerous but also that she is sexy. The low cut backed dress reinforces her attractiveness in a seductive manner rather than having her cleavage on display.

Rachel Fradgley :)