The butterfly effect analysis

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

WHAT IS THE FILM ABOUT?

• The Butterfly Effect is about a character named Evan Treborn who suffers from psychological traumas which causes him to blackout. These blackouts include significant events of his life. As he grows up, to remember all that has happened in his life, he writes down in his journal. Evan Treborn tries to tell his single mother, his brothers and his friends about the blackouts and what he sees but none believe him.

ANALYSIS • Our film opening is inspired by The Butterfly Effect because it emphasises psychological

thriller. How this film opening inspires the opening of my film is that it hints the themes of psychological thriller through psychological images which accompanies each title. These images include writings, butterflies, files, journals and x-rays of someone’s brain. In our opening sequence we also use a journal which shows an image of the serial killer’s friend, a checklist and her writing down her feelings. The similarities between this and our opening sequence is that we both hint that one of the themes for this particular sub genre is murder. This film shows a journal which reveals a child’s age (13) and experiences whereas our opening sequence shows a dead body of the teenage girl and an image on the serial killer’s journal. Both films reveal that a teenage death has happened.

ANALYSIS CONTINUED…• The way the titles appear in the opening sequence of our film can be inspired by how the titles

appear in The Butterfly Effect. Also how the titles appear in this film opening which is in a flashy way may symbolise an unstable mind of a character. How the titles appear along with the images that are shown reveal some facts about the main character. In The Butterfly Effect it shows one image of an x-ray of a skull and another image of a brain, both images flash which implies that the main character will face psychological trauma through flashbacks or blackouts. In our opening sequence we hint that the main character suffers from mental illnesses when she steps over the dead body after walking up the stairs, what the audience see in her diary and when she doesn’t acknowledge the blood on her hands and the extra character the she sees through the mirror. Both opening sequences link because they both have the main character as suffering from psychological problems.