Psychological thriller - subgenre conventions

There are many conventions to the psychological sub genre. An example of a psychological genre is 'The butterfly Effect' 'Shutter Island' and 'Memento' etc. The common convention within this genre are the psychological challenges that the characters have to face, for example, in 'The Butterfly Effect' the character suffers from memory black-outs where he will suddenly find himself somewhere else, confused. In 'Inception' he deals with dreams within a dream, a complicated concept, and this is reflected in the narrative, and finally 'Memento' deals with a character who has short term amnesia, and this in term also reflects to the narrative structure. 

The conventions of a psychological thriller includes a back story which is the history behind 
the situation right at the start of the main story. This deepens the psychological aspect of the story since the reader is able to more fully understand the character; more specifically, what the characters motivations are and how his past has shaped his current cognitive perceptions, 'Memento' would be an example. 

Another convention of a psychological thriller includes the common male
protagonist, it shows a deep focus on the character and their states of mind. This is mainly used in 'The Butterfly effect' which allows the audience to know that he's the main character in the film and we are following his story, we are also able to understand his thoughts. 

A third convention example of a psychological thriller would be the use of enigmas , for example in the film 'Shutter Island' the tagline used is “Someones Missing”. This makes the audience think and create questions in their mind like who's missing? There is often a complex narrative. The music always relates to the emotion of the characters or gages a reaction from the viewer, for example a fast violin is used to represent suspense and creates tension in the atmosphere.