Identity - Mary Pegasiou

Identity is a film directed by James Mangold. He uses different ways of creating suspense and a sense of mystery; these are the ideal ingredients for a thriller. Firstly the location is set in a rundown motel in Nevada, where there is no sign of civilisation for miles. The beginning of the film sets up that there is a heavy rain storm and the characters cannot go to their original destinations; therefore are trapped at this motel for the evening. The director has cleverly set this up to show us there is no escape and they are isolated which adds to the suspense, a perfect beginning for a thriller. The film progresses and slowly each character is killed off in different unexplained ways. What makes it even more confusing is that after every death the body vanishes from the scene and there is no sign of a murder. One murder which stood out to me was when the pretentious character is walking out in the rain trying to get signal on her phone. We don’t witness her getting murdered but the director builds up the tension with eerie music and camera angles from behind gates and bushes which are handheld to create the affect that someone is watching her. The director uses techniques like this throughout to gradually build up to the unveiling of what really is going on. Later in the film we discover that this motel is nothing but a figment of a mental patients imagination. This massive twist adds to the genre ‘thriller’ due to the fact it was so unexpected. All and all Identity is a great example of a thriller; the director uses every technique possible (sound, camera angles, mise en scene, etc) to ensure we as the audience are on edge constantly. This could however be confused as a horror due to the vast amounts of gore but I personally would class it as a thriller as I did not find it scary. I found it enticing and jumpy which I think is exactly what a film needs to be a thriller. I definitely recommend this to film lovers.