Analyzing a Thriller
Walter Thompson says “horror resides in the transformation of what we know best; in the intimate and comfortable details of our lives made suddenly threatening.” When everyday things become sinister the world seems to turn upside down. The normal everyday routine is disrupted, and as creatures of habit, that poses more threats than a poisonous snake. Imagine waking up everyday at 6 a.m., eating breakfast, getting dressed, going to work, and then coming home at 5 p.m. to an empty apartment to fix dinner and chill out. What if you came home and your door (which you always lock) is wide open and your normally empty, neat apartment is torn apart and filled with police. That apartment is no longer a safe haven, a place to relax and feel protected. Someone made sure that you’d never feel comfortable there again, that’s horror, and it makes for an amazingly thrilling story. Walter Thompson’s quote describes the terror in a sudden change of routine. People get into a sort of rut, they follow patterns, human brains thrive on them and when those patterns are disrupted the earth seems to fall off its axis and nothing is the same.