Shutter Island: Conventions

For this exercise we got put into groups and had to keep in mind all the mise-en-scene and any questions we had about the opening of the thriller film Shutter Island. 

The main thriller conventions that my group noticed was the characters were morally complex, a flashback, narrative retardation and enigma codes. 

The characters that were being morally complex were the prison guards as they were very tense and held their guns to attention when Teddy came near them which also shows and enigma code as the reason for their behaviour will probably become clear later on in the film, but as we are focusing on the opening we just see these characters as being tense and rigid.

The use of the flashback is very typically thriller films as they are used to confuse and give away hints of the story without having to let the characters talk about it which isn't as entertaining for the audience as watching the sequence take place.
There was use of narrative retardation as Teddy looked familiarised by the prison walls with the electric fences and also the prison gates which makes the audience think about where he might have seen them before and as the film is set in the 1950's, we assume he may have been involved in the holocaust and so been at a concentration camp as that is what you think the resemblance may be but really it's a red-herring as you find out at the end of the film. 

Also, there were many enigma codes such as: the relevance of the storm, his fear of water, his wife's death by fire and the cemetery stone. Obviously, from the short opening sequence we cant actually tell what will happen even though it's littered with these clues but part of the enigma code is to make you think about when you first saw that hint and the sudden realisation that follows will make sense of the whole film.