Phonebooth - Analysis/Inspiration

Another film we watched to draw inspiration from was 'Phonebooth'.
Phonebooth doesn't follow your typical thriller, as it is set in the same location throughout the duration of the film. This is a very clever idea because it gets you instantly associated with the characters and gradually builds the tension until the climax at the end of the film.

'Phonebooth' challenges the forms and conventions of typical thrillers, because not only is there only one location, but that location is a busy high street in New York and its set in broad daylight using high key lighting, so it doesn't use the cliche of darkness to set a scary atmosphere or a house in the middle of no where to create the idea of being solitary.
Also little visible violence is used, which is the same as 'no country for old men' and 'psycho', so this makes them similar.

A lot of diagetic sound such as cars passing by and horns is used throughout the whole film, which creates the busy New York street atmosphere. Usually thrillers use a soundtrack of intense and dramatic music to set an atmosphere.
However the sound of the snipers voice is used as a narrative into his killer mind all the way through, this gives the audience an insight into his motives to kill the man and it allows us to see what the mans life is like and why he deserves this, the audience is almost made to feel sympathetic towards him.

There is a point in the film, you think the sniper has been caught! But we are then shocked by the fact he wasn't and infact the real sniper had set somebody else up for the fall.
This is similar to Hitchcocks Psycho, as in this, the female, in which we think is the lead role, who we as an audience have connected with gets killed off very early on which throws the us an a audience and unsettles us. Hitchcock was the first director to have done something like this!
The fact we think the sniper has been caught early on, surprises us and makes us more unsettled about what is going to happen, and the fact we are revealed to the fact it was actually the sniper makes us even more nervous about what the sniper is actually capeable of.

Unlike most thrillers, the film ends with the sniper not being caught which leaves the audience on a cliff hanger and makes you analyse details of the film to see what you can draw from it to make your own mind up about the snipers fate. Most thrillers have a hero/heroin that solves the mystery and the 'evil' is caught.