Essex Boys- Thriller film research

Essex Boys


Director
Terry Winsor
Release Date
14th July 2000 (UK)
Product Companies
Granada Film Productions
Filming Locations
Southend-on-sea, Essex, England, UK
Essex, England, UK
Gray Thurrock, Essex, England, UK


User comments/reviews and ratings


From looking at the user rating report on IMDB the information reflects that this film was most highly enjoyed by females aged 18-29 followed by 18-29 year olds.
IMDB user comment/review

"A good film on several levels. The unflattering comparisons that some critics have made between it and The Usual Suspects are completely misguided as directorial intent and effect in the two pictures are dissimilar. Winsor's film, it seems to me, brilliantly evokes both the drabness and cruelty of the criminal mindset."


External user review

"A gritty and atmospheric gangland drama, with some smart twists, "Essex Boys" purrs along nicely for the first 75 minutes and then suffers a dramatic loss of balance from which it only belatedly recovers."


How does Terry Winsor the generic conventions of the thriller genre in ' Essex boys'?

The setting is damp, gloomy, dark and full of cobwebs. Chiaroscuro lighting injects the mise-en-scene with a sense of illusion, mysterory and crime. Whilst the enclosed space of the garage suggests claustrophobia and vulnerability, intimidation. The cobwebs create a sense of fear, they add to the feeling of mysterory and the presentation of an uncomfortable space. This shot is an excellent example of the use of the rule of thirds; the car takes up roughly two thirds and the boy the remaining third. The car is dusty and filthy and audience assume that the fact it has been in storage for a long time and the fact that it is now only being used that it may be for some kind of criminal activity.

The setting is damp, gloomy, urban and unglamorous; this is heightened by the strong artificial lighting which could connote the characters exposure, vulnerability as they enter the criminal world. These are all generic settings for a thriller film. The shot of the tunnel is clever and powering, the tunnel is shot to look like as if it is a barrel; this references to crime, they are travelling down the barrel of a gun. They are in a white van (another thriller convention) and are trapped, in their fate, and their decision to cross into danger and the criminal world. The audience feels as if they are trapped also, in the tunnel, car with Jason. The tunnel is a claustrophobic space, yet another thriller convention. The vanishing point of the shot leads the audience’s eye, furthermore the point of view shot engages the audience, and the audience feels as if they are in tunnel and car.

The artifical light of the tunnel relects on the windscreen of the car, looking like bars, making Jason and Billy appear behind them, thus indicating there fate - they will end up in jail. The foreground is in focus and the background not, Billy being in the foreground the audiences attention is drawn to him. Jason can be seen with his hands behind his back, relaxed and cool. THe bars also suggest entrapment, Billy is now trapped in his dissision to get involved with Jason, crossing over to crime. The car is a clostrophobic space, Billy is trapped in the car with the powerful, crime guru that is Jason. Billy is in danger of becoming like Jason, and ending up behind bars.

The dull grey open empty Essex marshes, eerie and dangerous and the perfect place for crime. With nothing around for miles and the tide flooding in soon Jason leaves the double crosser for dead. The white van - a generic thriller convention can be seen small yet threatening against this solemn landscape, Jason is at home in the van and the marshes they are his world and reflect his life. The empty marshes suggest a lack of morality and remorse in Jason, like them he is too empty. The marshes featurelessness suggests the society Jason moves in, his world of crime, ruthless people and crime commited without due care or remorse.