Inter-textual References of Our Thriller

Di Caprio in Inception

For our film, we conducted loads of research on Psychological Thrillers and what has been successful, it was imperative for us as a production team to ensure that we drew inspiration for more successful films in this sub genre of film.

The first inter-textual reference of our film comes from the plot itself, as it based around the idea of questioning dream and reality, and with in that, having a reoccurring nightmare. The film Inception, directed by Christopher Nolan, was our inspiration for our narrative, and thus there are elements of that film present in our Thriller opening sequence. In the final scene of Inception, Leonardo Di Caprio is seen waking up and opening his eyes suddenly in this extreme close up, in our opening scene, we will replicate this shot to include an inter-textual reference early on, also, its helpful as it clearly distinguishes what is dream and what is reality and this is a successful piece of camerawork in a very successful film.

Another inter-textual reference in our film is the character of Xavier Martinelli. In the opening sequence, Martinelli is shown without a face, and sometimes he disappears altogether, which questions reality and dream and if it's different. His character is based on the 6ft3 Rabbit in 1950 film Harvey. The rabbit is only seen by the Elwood P. Dowd, the films main character, and the audience, which is qualities shared by Martinelli, because he is only seen by Josh Masterson and the audience, creating an illusion and an illusion between what is reality and what is in the dream being experience by the protagonist. We considered the message of the Rabbit as the protagonists best friend and how his characteristics can be channelled through an antagonist in a different genre of film, in terms of success, I think basing Martinelli on the Rabbit is a complex but clever idea from ourselves.

These inter-textual references allow us to show a knowledge of films through our film, but also can provide texture and understanding for our audience. As keen film lovers, our production team are allowed to add sections from successful films and that helps make the film more successful due to them being recognisable, particularly the reference from Inception.

Written by Connor Southwell